<p>My daughter and I just visited O.U. and attended a national scholars presentation.
I will say this, they really rolled out the red carpet – impressive from start to finish.
Though I can’t comment on the program from a current O.U. student’s perspective, I can attest to the presentation. The presenters included students from the national scholars program, and we were escorted to and from each portion of the program by these students. The staff of the national scholars office gave each student in attendance at least an hour of their time explaining the program, the scholarship package, the NMF process, etc. They also put NO pressure on us (nice surprise). They fed (for free) entire families at their main dining facility – not just the potential attendee. We spoke to faculty advisers and the director of recruitment for the honors college. The students we met were pleased with the program, and one of our escorts was just admitted to med school. My daughter is currently interested in pre-medical studies, and the adviser overseeing this area said they had 80% of their students get accepted into med school this year. Considering how difficult it is to get into medical programs, (45-50% nat’l avg.) we thought this sounded pretty good. They have an honors residence hall, but it’s relatively small. The main residence halls have floor-based communities however, made up of just honors college participants or National Merit students, so if you don’t get into the honors dorm, you can still live with other HC students. They have an honors college building, but it’s not anywhere near the size and scale of the honors college at, say, Arizona State Univ. You will need to have around a 30 ACT/1330 SAT, 3.75 gpa or top 10% of class, and must provide an essay. Hopefully some current O.U. honors college student will see this post and give you a realistic take on the program. As a parent of another student interested in this particular college, I know that we will be watching!</p>