My son will hopefully be a National Merit Scholar and may look at Oklahoma for 2016. It sounds like a great school but I have a concern that it may be a heavily jock and frat school which is not his niche. He’s not into sports really or drinking and partying. He would hopefully be able to get into Honors housing so that might make a difference.
Any thoughts on fit for him?
Apologies in advance for the harried style of writing. Don’t take this as a reflection of what OU professors expect from their students.
Only about 30% of OU students go Greek, and that percentage includes those in professional, service, and honors fraternities/ sororities. In many ways, OU is not a big drinking school, the reasons and history behind this are too long to list right now although if you really want to know, I can post about it later.
Sports are a big thing on at Oklahoma. The reality is, campus effectively shuts down on home game days. However, there are usually only about seven such days in the entire year. The rest of the time, students do things other than endlessly discuss football and various sports stats. I entered OU initially opposed to going to any games. I don’t understand the first thing about football and never cared to learn. However, I ended up going to the first game with two people in the dorm and found it was a completely different environment than what I had originally thought. I still can’t stand watching games on TV, but going to one with friends after hitting up several tailgates, and sitting in the student section is an entirely different experience.
The main thing to remember about OU is that it’s a large school with many types of people and activities. There will always be things to do even if your son doesn’t want to party. For instance, today I’m going to an open house for an honors college activity called “reading groups”, then attending religious services, and later going with my friend to one of her club’s nightime events.
My D is a freshman at OU and my impression concurs with WhenHen. D is not in to Greek life, sports, or drinking, but she found her niche quickly. There are many campus organizations and D found more organizations she was interested in than she had time to participate in. She knew some students before starting at OU and has made new friends through classes and organizations. I’m sure there are plenty of party kids, but there are plenty who are not. If I recall correctly, 311 freshmen NMS enrolled fall 2014 and I doubt they are a very hard partying group. I’m not aware of students having problems with getting their choice in housing, but I suspect it is more likely to happen to students who procrastinate in sending in their housing application. Good luck with your son’s college search. It is a big decision. For what it is worth, we are happy so far with D’s OU decision and the scholarship.
Thanks whenhen and ohmmom- that’s what I was hoping to hear. Sounds like a great school!
I would add a little to the info above. My son is a 1st year NMS living on the NM floor of Walker. He sounds similar to your son. He was irritated when looking at school since the ones giving the most money tended to be big sports schools. Academics and academically centered activities tend to be his thing. The great thing about the NM Floor is that there is a lot higher concentration there of like-minded students. They still do some ‘athletic’ things. They had an intramural football team (as you might expect, they lost a lot, but had fun). They also do a lot of ‘geek’ things. Chess matches, intellectual banter and such that is likely much less common in the university as a whole. Many of them have already made some fairly strong friendships and are making arrangements for off-campus housing in the coming year.
We could not be happier for how OU has treated our son from the outset. He has the right balance of intellectual stimuli and major college ‘fun’ to make it a great fit.
Good Luck with your decision-making.
Thanks for your input @Torveaux , particularly the part about living on the NM floors. I think that is exactly what my son would be looking for if he decides on OU.
My son is in his second year at OU as NMS. He couldn’t care less about sports or fraternities, but he has found plenty to do and plenty of people who share his interests. He chose to live in the Honors Dorm his first year, and it was a great experience. It has more of a “tight-knit” feel than the towers. He loved it and ended up moving to campus apartments this year with friends he met in the Honors Lounge. There truly is something at OU for almost everyone.