Southern Oregon U??? How to weigh factors?

CHS2011Mom
Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:06:16 +0000

My bright, underachieving (3.1, 650/610 CR/M) DS chose SOU over OSU and he’ll start as a freshman in the fall. We just got back from orientation/registration and I liked what I saw and heard. The campus is very nice (I posted pictures in the “Campus Vibe” section of CC) and there’s a definite LAC feel to it even though it’s part of the Oregon university system. The small size was a plus for my S, who I think would have felt a little bit lost among OSU’s 18,000, even though quite a few kids from his HS go there. I have quite a few friends among the Beaver Nation so I have to admit I was looking forward to joining them in black and orange, and OSU’s comp sci program is certainly much bigger than SOU’s, but after our visit I’m confident that he picked the right place.

According to one of the parent sessions I attended last week, classes are taught by professors (or in some cases by adjunct instructors, especially where visiting artists are involved) and not by TAs or grad assistants. Class sizes are small and one of the things that DH and DS heard from their tour guides when they visited last winter was that professors are very accessible.

DS came away from the two-day orientation/registration with class schedule in hand, and decided to enroll in two honors courses (university seminar and comp sci). Each attendee at registration met individually with his or her advisor to discuss class selection and then actually registered for the class sections they wanted.

It’s an NAIA school for sports, so there’s not quite the focus on athletics that you find at the bigger NCAA schools (the football facility is perfectly nice but looks less like Autzen or Reser and more like a high school stadium), but there’s definitely evidence of Raider pride around campus. I understand that their cross-country program is very good.

There are lots of bikes; we were told that most students don’t bother with having a car, as you can bike or even walk just about anywhere. The admissions guy DS met with in December told him that Ashland is full of great restaurants, which was right up DS’s alley (he loves food). Ashland’s got a quirky, funky vibe that was appealing to DS and it’s located in a really gorgeous part of the country. Lots of outdoor activity close by, and the arts abound as well.

So my insight is limited to mostly post-admission, pre-matriculation stuff, but I can tell you that I came away from orientation/registration feeling pretty good about his choice (even though it means I won’t see him marching at halftime at Reser Stadium in Corvallis).