Questions about Oregon State Honors and Engineering

Colleges & Universities Oregon State University
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My D24 is interested in Oregon State. Living in Tennessee, we don’t hear much about the school, and we don’t see much about it on here either. Can anyone with experience/knowledge tell me a bit about it, particularly the engineering school (environmental and ecological engineering) and the Honors College? What questions should I be asking about Oregon State, as our experience is primarily with southeastern schools.

For background, my D24 is gay, a master SCUBA diver, rock climber, and full-IB student. She does not want to remain in our home state and wants an outdoorsy university.

All I know about Corvallis is from S.M. Stirling novels.

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I’m sorry I don’t have firsthand knowledge but D22’s BFF will be attending this fall and is pretty excited about it. She chose it over Cal Poly, UC Santa Cruz, SDSU among others. It’s a popular choice for liberal Bay Area kids because of the WUE discount, which unfortunately would not apply to a kid from Tennessee. But from your short description of your daughter, it sounds like a good fit otherwise. No knowledge of either engineering or honors, unfortunately!

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We had a full day visit at Oregon State. One of the Honors students we spoke to was an ecological engineering major who started out in environmental engineering, but switched because he “didn’t want to focus so much on water treatment.” He said that he really liked the ecological engineering major because it is broad and interdisciplinary, opening many more career doors. Ecological engineering isn’t a major we have seen at many schools, and my son thought it was intriguing. Your D could look at the requirements for both majors and see what she thinks.

We really enjoyed our tour, and my son was ready to sign up at the end of the day. He liked the students and professors that we met, the friendly and collaborative vibe, first year hands-on engineering design courses, lovely campus, honors college. He was impressed by the lab facilities that he visited and the research forest. It’s technically his safety school, but in the end, I can see him choosing it over others on his list.

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Also, if your D wants to see the sort of work students do for an Honors thesis at Oregon State, there is an archive online. My son was able to find a lot of examples of students’ work related to his interests. https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/collections/47429g339?locale=en

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My son attends Oregon State (OSU). He’s a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in computer science. I believe your daughter would fit in well with the school population.

OSU has its own research ship based at the Hatfield Marine Science center and partnerships with federal agencies, so they are doing serious environmental research. A student taking classes in marine science might need a car to drive to Newport for the Marine Science Center. You’d have to ask, maybe they have some housing/classrooms out there. I’m speculating they have a scuba club. It’s about a 45-minute drive to the beach on a modestly curvy, but wide/safe road.

The rec center has a massive rock-climbing facility.

The largest concentration of students comes from Oregon, and folks from Portland are very left politically.

I don’t know about the env/eco program, but about 1/3 of the school is enrolled in engineering programs. They had 2,000 freshmen enrolled in the college of engineering in Fall 2022. The size of the engineering programs provides a critical mass for the engineering-related clubs to be robust.

I’ve only read about the Honors college on the Parent page on Facebook. On paper, I think the honors college looks great. There are mixed reviews on the value. They have dorms dedicated to honors college students, but the OSU housing office does not give any guarantees, so parents have reported having to complain and beg for their freshman’s placement in those dorms. They wait till the month before school starts to give students their room assignments. I’m speculating that parents who post complaints are the ones asking for help and advice. But I would ask directly. The dorm situation there is not ideal, but most students live off campus in Sophomore year. Almost all the dorms are old. They expand capacity with adding furniture and making doubles into triples. There are a lot of apartment complexes surrounding the campus. Our son was placed in an economy triple freshman year, and that was grim. He survived, had nice roommates, and for sophomore year was given priority for a better dorm.

Academics. Even in his larger lecture classes (200), he was taught by the professors, including the Chair of Mechanical Engineering. With some classes they also have mandatory small classes led by TAs and/or study tables. OSU offers free tutoring in multiple places. Our son attended study tables for the more rigorous classes. Our impression was the academics were very solid.

OSU has career fairs at least 2x/year and there seems to be a long line of companies recruiting from the school. It is a truly stunning campus, walkable, and walking distance to a quaint downtown along a river. It’s a mix of modern and older buildings.

The weather in Corvallis is gloomy from late fall through spring. No big storms or frigid cold, just constant clouds and drizzle. Very little snow if any. Students seem oblivious to weather. They play soccer outside in the rain. They walk around in shorts and a jacket when its 40 degrees. They have many athletic students and programs.

We are also from OOS. They give merit $ for high GPAs and SAT/ACT scores. Like many state schools, they throw $ at OOS students to increase their tuition/student. To lower costs/unit, OOS students can take classes at the local community college for in-state rates at a fraction of $ per unit and get OSU credit, it’s called the Dual Partnership Program. No CC on transcript, just OSU credits. But OSU is not cheap. Housing and dining are the most disappointing thing to us, but our son doesn’t care about it.

In the end, one of the things I really like about OSU is the flexibility. Our son had a programming class last year and really loved it. He didn’t want to major in computer science (CS) like most of his HS classmates in his HS robotics club. But because of this class, he’s minoring in CS. It wasn’t a problem like it is at so many schools, especially the top 100 where the majors are impacted/capacity constrained. Hewlitt Packard is headquartered in Corvallis. It’s not a rink-dink school. It has a high acceptance rate because of the state it serves (low population)

OSU Ship at Hatfield Marine Center June 2021 cropped
OSU Ship at Hatfield Marine Center June 2021 cropped1920×1309 272 KB

and (from my perspective) it’s location. I believe students get out what they put in. OSU has everything.

Good luck.

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Thanks. That’s great information.

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Time has passed but hoping those of you with direct knowledge of OSU and engineering can weigh in…my son has been accepted to OSU with WUE and Honors College for Ecological Engineering. We’re in CA (San Francisco) and will obviously be awaiting UC results + some CSUs, but would love to know more about:

  • Differences between an OSU engineering education and UC/CSU (in terms of instruction, peer commitment, rigor, pace, research, culture)
  • Honors college: valuable or a mirage?
  • Do you really save money overall? CA housing (and everything else) is very expensive. Does WUE + that cost differential come up less than paying in-state for a UC?
  • Culture/diversity/viewpoint & discipline diversity: is it weird that such a huge percentage of students are in engineering? Having attended UCs myself with an older kid a senior at Cal, I wonder if that creates a monoculture?

Thanks for the input! My son is very outdoorsy and - being a San Franciscan and cold-weather hiker/swimmer/surfer - unafraid of Corvallis weather.

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When our S23 was weighing this choice, Oregon State with WUE came out to be slightly more expensive than an in state UC, but still within our budget.

Note that Oregon State also charges per credit unit, and the cost per unit varies depending on your student’s degree program. So it can take a bit more calculation to estimate actual costs.

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My older kid is a second year mechanical engineering major at OSU. We live in Northern CA (but not the bay area). I’ll see what I can do with your questions, but please feel free to reach out if you want more information from either my son, or myself.

  1. OSU pre-engineering classes are large so there is of course a mix of student. Compared to the UCs, OSU has a very high acceptance rate into the engineering program. Once there, classes tend to be rigorous. Vector Calculus, Differential Equations, and the Physics for Engineering series are known weeder classes and many students struggle through them, or change majors. I imagine that the same classes at a UC are also rigorous, but more of the weeding happens through college admissions. My son finds his peers to be bright and motivated, classes move quickly on the quarter system, but the atmosphere is supportive and does not seem to pit students against one another in competition. There are lots of student support resources, and the first year living/learning communities and engineering dorms are designed to help students to form study groups and make friends with other students taking equally rigorous coursework. I can’t speak to research opportunities, but MECOP is the engineering co-op program which gives students the opportunity to intern (and get paid!) with companies in the Pacific Northwest positioning them for future employment opportunities.
  2. The honors college seems great, but maybe not necessary for an engineering student?? My son opted out. Both engineering students and honors college students pay differential tuition adding to the price per unit. These adds stack on one another if you choose to do both. The primary benefits seem to be the honors college dorms (my kid wanted to live within the engineering community) and priority registration (which would have been nice, but he has managed to get all of the classes he needs using waitlists). The idea of writing an honors thesis on top of advanced coursework was not his thing. That said, my D25 was also just accepted to OSU with WUE and into the honors college. As a Biology major, she wouldn’t have a living-learning community option and will probably opt into the honors program if she chooses OSU.
  3. The cost of living in Corvallis is lower than some CA cities. WUE (intentionally to attract CA students?!?) lowers the cost of attendance to right around UC tuition prices. Off campus housing varies. My kid lives in a 3 bd/ 3 bth, furnished student apartment right off campus with two other students and pays about $1,200/ mo. You can find housing at about half that price, but he really appreciates having his own space, and living steps from the library is nice after late study session.
  4. There is no denying that OSU has much less ethnic diversity than any of the UCs (reflecting Oregon’s less diverse population), that said, it is a large college campus and my liberal kid has found is classmates to be open-minded, inclusive, and fairly political. He enjoys the extensive engineering community. Having classes with an engineering cohort helps the community to feel a little more right sized. All of the Bacc Core (gen ed) classes are taken with students from across departments and many of the math and science classes with students in other STEM disciplines, I’ve never heard any complaints about anything resembling a monoculture.
  5. My kid also loves the weather. Corvallis has so many great outdoor options and the kids get out in the rain and play. I do however recommend a vitamin D supplement for everyone. This time of the year, the days are so short and the light quality is just different than CA with many days where it remains kind of dusky all day long. Over the course of an academic quarter (especially winter term) this can take a toll of mental health.
    I hope some of this was helpful.
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Such a detailed and insightful response. Thank you! This will really help my son weigh OSU against Reno and Bozeman and also CSUs and UCs should he have those options. And winnow down spring break visits. (FYI my eldest who is a senior at Cal pays 1,100 to share a room in an older - but charming- apartment close to campus!) I like the theme/dept housing concept (if there are other ways to meet people outdoor major, I mean.) Seems like a good way to form study groups and find support.

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S24 also got accepted to OSU with WUE and Honors. He ended up chose UCD because no Aerospace Eng major, only minor offered in OSU. WUE is 1.5 times in state Oregon tuition, a few thousands over UC in state tuition.

Campus is nice there, almost same vibe as UCD with the small downtown but without the biking culture.

Honors College include the nice newer dorm, priority registering and the small size GE classes only available to honors College.

Good Luck.

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My student is in her third year at OSU. She just dropped the Honors College. She decided to pursue dual BS degrees, one STEM degree and one not, plus a minor. She decided she did not have time to do an Honors thesis, too, so she switched into the Dean’s Academy in the College of Business. That gives her access to smaller classes without the thesis requirement.

My impression is that the thesis requirement provides the most opportunity to future medical students or liberal arts/arts majors. It is less advantageous to business and engineering students because their colleges have more robust internship programs and because it is harder to squeeze in the Honors credits and satisfy the major requirements. That said, I am glad my student started out in the Honors College because it offered a registration advantage in those hard-to-get introductory courses and a dorm placement advantage.

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College Navigator says that a recent class at Oregon State graduated 900 engineering majors out of 5,829 bachelor’s degree graduates, or about 15% engineering, which does seem to be that “huge”. For comparison, about 12% of a recent class of UCB bachelor’s degree graduates were engineering majors. UC Merced has a significantly larger percentage of engineering majors at nearly 25%.

Oregon State does have less ethnic diversity (63% of the largest ethnic group, 13% of the next largest, probably a reflection of the state population of college age people) and a smaller percentage of Pell grant recipients (19%) than any UC with undergraduates.

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