Whew, the last month with two graduating high school seniors has had me step away from CC…so I’m just catching up on this! Thanks for the tags and sorry I replied so late!
One of my twins is a NMS now 
, starting Tulsa NEXT MONTH! It was a weird journey compounded by the fact that our HS gives almost no support to the college search/app process, so we got zero help with the process, and anything we ended up knowing about NMF scholarships was because my kid and I spend too much time on the internet. 
When NMSF news came through, he applied to UMaine, Tulsa, Alabama in addition to all the other schools we had visited. My kid is VERY chill and not picky, so he liked literally every school we had already visited (schools in CO, WI, MI, and a couple of schools here in MN). 
He ultimately chose not to even visit Alabama, which was fine with me - I don’t see him at a large school, even at one with so many wonderful opportunities as Alabama.
So last winter we visited Maine and Tulsa over the course of two weeks. Maine - liked it a lot. CS prof we talked to was nice and the campus is lovely. They have the world’s largest 3D printer, and a very lovely new Engineering building. Very outdoorsy and has a big barn with a climbing wall (my kid is an Eagle Scout and has been a year round competitive climber for 10 years, so these were big pluses). People were nice enough, but the tour was a huge group so it was hard to get a vibe from it. Luckily we met up with a kid we knew from home who attends and she showed us a few more things, so that helped. It has a party reputation, but like all schools, it can be avoided if you want. I liked Orono a lot, and Bangor is just a hop skip and a jump from campus, too, so we hit a bunch of Stephen King-related sites on our trip, too. Weather was a lot like home.
Then we visited Tulsa. Going from Maine, a small flagship but definitely a public school vibe, to a small, pristine private school campus that was mostly green IN FEBRUARY didn’t help Maine’s case any. Campus is gorgeous - a lot of older stately-looking buildings that match (it very much reminded me of UST in St. Paul where all the buildings use the same light-colored stone). Our tour guide was great - casual, had lots of great answers to questions, etc., and he was a good match for my son and helped him see himself there, I think. Vibe seemed kind of homey - lots of people buzzing about, but not as many as usual because it was “so cold” (we weren’t wearing jackets because it was 50 degrees! Felt like a heat wave to us!). Dorms seemed quite a bit nicer than any we had seen (not all tours showed them) so that was a plus. I think my kid was thinking, “sure, I like this school like all the others” but then…admissions set us up with a meeting with a professor in the CS department and truly we came out of that meeting dumbfounded. What they do there, in CompSci in general and CyberSecurity in specific, is on another level. And that’s after talking to folks on visits at CO Mines, MI Tech, Milwaukee SO Engineering, U MN TC, Maine etc. That sealed the deal for my kid. They have no climbing wall on campus, but I told him he should use some of his stipend money on a membership to the local Tulsa climbing gym and some Ubers. 
Other things to know about Tulsa is that they are big on sportsball so there are a lot of athletes (or something like that? 
I don’t know anything about sports, and my kid does not follow sports that aren’t climbing), there is Greek life but it is fairly small and doesn’t dominate campus. I asked about political climate (I always do). The tour guide laughed and said, “It’s always the northerners who ask about that, we have a good mix of people here, and Tulsa is liberal…for Oklahoma!” We shall see. My kid will roll with whoever he ends up interacting with. I generally got the feeling that there is genuine variation of kids on this campus and that people seem to find their place. I also am a fan of their president, who appears to not only be an impressive guy with a super interesting background, but one who also seems to be an engaged leader (shoutout to @PresCarsonTulsa!).
I loved Tulsa. Campus isn’t in a particularly nice part of town or anything, but it felt safe enough, and within a couple of miles are lots of fun restaurants. People were friendly wherever we went. I won’t have a problem visiting such a fun town!
Oh, and my son leaves this week for an optional freshman trip to Panama with UTulsa. I feel so lucky he has these opportunities!
I’ll update when I know more as an actual Tulsa parent! 