Student Profile
Jessica
- Class: Senior
- Major: Other
- Gender: F
- High School: Tualatin High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
The best thing about UO is the willingness of people to get involved in the world around them. The other best thing, is Autzen stadium when we're having a good football year: standing there screaming with 60,000 other people in the loudest stadium in the county on an Oregon Autumn day is enough to make me glad I didn't go anywhere else for college. The campus is beautiful in Fall and Spring; there are a lot of outdoor adventure opportunities nearby; skiing, the beach, and a big city are all an hour-and-a-half away; the Greek community is great because it is so laid back and different from other state school Greek communities; the school of Journalism is great and nationally recognized. The one thing I would change, and the most frequent student complaint: the freshman housing is horrendous. Though it is a great bonding experience over how much they suck, I think we need to be more competitive with other schools. They have made strides to improve it recently with the new addition of the Living Learning Center, but- the disparity between that building and Bean- our oldest, most awful dormitory- is huge. The off-campus housing situation is a little frustrating in that they keep turning houses into apartments and its way more fun to live in a house than an apartment. One thing I'll always remember about UO is that ANY time the sun comes out, the main Memorial Quad on campus fills up with people and their guitars, and frisbees, and dogs and friends and the porches at local bars (Rennie's Landing and Taylor's) get packed.
Academic Life
If it wasn't for the honors college, I would have been frustrated with my academic experience here. My advice would be to choose a major that the school is strong in, and not just something that interests you, because there are definite differences in program strength here. My honors classes made up all of my undergraduate requirements and never have more than 25 people in them, are discussion based, and can sometimes result in an end-of-term dinner at the professor's house. Students are largely non-competitive which is WONDERFUL (I wanted to go to an East Coast school and can't tell you now how glad I am that I didn't) and everyone takes their academics pretty seriously. The most unique class I've taken was 19th Century German Poetry and Song: it was taught by two professors, and had 7 kids in the class. I learned so much random stuff but was exposed to a whole new kind of learning experience. I won't ever forget that class. In addition to twice a week meetings, we had to attend a concert, and then had a dinner party at one professor's house where we talked about our final papers. We actually didn't talk about our papers at all and just enjoyed our professor's culinary skills and each other's company.
Student Body
You will have experiences with anti-racial, religious and anti-religious, LGBT, socio-economically aware people here. It seems like everyone has got something to say, and they say it here at UO. A student who would feel out of place at UO is an apathetic, close minded-conservative who hates the rain and learning from other people. No one dresses up for class- unless they're in the Business School- and you feel comfortable all over campus. People are friendly, a lot of kids want to go into the Peace Corps, and we like beer. The kids who are career driven and into networking socially and dressing less casually tend to be Greek students.
The Best Things
The vibe when the sun comes out, athletics, the Honors College, opportunities for involvement
The Worst Things
Student housing (the buildings, not the experience); Winter weather (rain); not quite enough stuff to do on E 13th avenue (the main drag right by campus)
