<p>Snappybarton, congrats to your son! Any particular majors he has in mind?</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I posted once before about my son currently attending his first year at OU, majoring in petroleum engineering. So far, he loves it there. The reason I post this again is to share 2 programs which had a huge impact on my son’s experience at OU. This is for anyone who is interested in applying at OU, especially in any of the engineering majors.</p>
<p>We were lucky to be invited to the Destination OU program in February (about 50 kids and their parents at a 2 day/1 night event hosted by OU) where we learned many unique things about the school especially the dept. for PE. As a bonus, the kids majoring in PE who attended the event (there were about 5-7 kids if I remember correctly) were encouraged to apply for a major-specific scholarship while we were on the tour of the dept. He did apply afterward and received additional $ we didn’t know about :-)</p>
<p>A second program he attended I thought others should know about was the AT&T Summer Bridge Engineering Program; approx. 1 month long, for engineering students. They lived in the dorm and did a lot of things together as a group. The daily schedule was jam-packed with classes, activities, recreation, study hours, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if you have to be invited to attend these programs (I remembered receiving an email to apply if we were interested) but they weighed heavily in our decision on choosing OU instead of the other schools he also got in.</p>
<p>I hope this information helps prospective students and their parents when considering OU. We didn’t receive lots of support from friends and families (Californians, what can I say) when he and us decided on OU but we don’t care; if he’s happy, we’re happy 
</p>
<p>Tiffany</p>
<p>Snappybarton, congrats to your son. My son is in his first year at OU on a NM scholarship. He is loving it. Be sure to work through the National Merit office when you plan your visit. They will put you up in a hotel for a night and customize a visit schedule for your son. They have current NM students take prospective students around so your son can ask them questions about their experience. I can’t say enough good things about OU. After visiting, my son did not feel like he was “settling” by taking their amazing offer vs. going to a more selective “elite” school. I really feel like he will get a great education there. Let me know if you have any questions.</p>
<p>tiff183…Those are great tips. I would add that my son is participating in a wonderful faculty mentoring program this year. I believe this is a program offered to all Honors College students, not just National Merit Scholars. They matched him with a professor who mentors him and 6 other students. The professor has planned many great activities for the year. It’s a great opportunity for the kids to build a close relationship with a professor and other students. It really personalizes the experience of going to such a large university.</p>
<p>@SM95 and @tff those are the kind of things I sure do like to hear! My app is finished and just waiting to hear. I’ve heard from 2 other colleges in the past week—one rated about the same level and one in the top 20 in engineering, so I am not sure how I am going to make my decisions.</p>
<p>I’m NMsemi-finalist for now and all the emails with the NM office have been helpful and great.</p>
<p>Tiff, agree about the Californians! I usually just smile and nod but it does get a bit irritating. You might ask your son if he’s interested in the Pick and Hammer society since he’s a Pet E major. It offers backpacking trips, day hikes, mineral collecting opportunities, and means of socializing with others in both Mewbourne Colleges. </p>
<p>TiberiusShift, I’d ask yourself what measurable benefits that top 20 school has over the University of Oklahoma. If you can name enough that the only attractive aspect of OU is the money, then perhaps you should seriously consider going to that school (assuming it’s affordable and you can picture yourself there). Most NMFs I know are extremely pleased with their OU education although the same is true of the people I know at schools like GA Tech and UC Berkeley. Make sure to tour the facilities at both institutions and if possible talk to a professor in your intended major. Ask about UG research opportunities, on campus recruiting, success of the career department at connecting students with internships, etc. There are some well ranked schools that get companies from all over the nation to compete for its students while other institutions, even ones considered strong in the field, have terrible on campus recruiting.</p>
<p>Also Tiberius Shift, you shouldn’t have any issues getting your classes. The only people that are allowed to register for classes before NMFs are athletes and they typically don’t take the same courses as an NMF. In response to your other question about the dorms, well they’re fairly standard dorms. You share a room and if you live in the honors college, a bathroom with three other people. </p>
<p>However, after your first year students have the option of living off campus or in the university owned apartments known as Traditions. Both options provide students with comfortable (my parents would argue luxury) living accommodations and many of the off campus apartments are ridiculously cheap (as in $420/ month for a room with all utilities included).</p>
<p>Thanks whenhen I like a lot of things from OU—just trying to figure out for sure where I’ll be happiest.</p>
<p>Thank you whenhen for info on the Pick and Hammer Society. I’ll let him know if he’s not in it already. Any tips you have about OU in general, classes, or the Pet E major itself are always appreciated. </p>
<p>Tiberius, I understand your dilemma My son got in all the schools (10) he applied for so deciding to go to OU was not an easy choice especially when our families and friends tried hard to convince him to stay in California. They meant well; I miss him too.</p>
<p>My daughter is a high school senior this year and we’re going through this again. I wish she picks OU then we can visit both kids at the same time. Yeah right, not gonna happen :-)</p>
<p>Hi. We are from Oklahoma and daughter is a NMSF graduating May 2014. She is applying to OU, WashU and maybe another couple of schools. We’re increasingly thinking that all things considered (financial, major and other practical factors) that OU is most likely her best match. We have had a one day visit to OU and daughter is planning an overnight in October. I’m pleased to hear about the good experiences of others at OU Honors college. I would love to hear more about 2013-2014 freshmen experiences, especially Honors college and NM, and any recommendations. Daughter will most likely major in International Studies.</p>
<p>ohmom,
Current NM freshman at OU who is doubling in Chemistry and International Studies (switched from Chemical Engineering, in case people remember my old posts).</p>
<p>I wrote a post earlier comparing OU and WashU since I was accepted to both and live in St. Louis, so I knew the school very well. If you want me to try and dig it up, I will.</p>
<p>So far, here’s what I have to say:
- I really like the activities for NM/honors kids. Going on the football field was cooler than I thought it would be and the Honors College has a lot of fun picnics/events. I think this is fairly typical at most schools, but I’m just confirming that there’s fun stuff to do specifically for NM/honors kids if they’re not into the whole football/party scene.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The NM floor is the best. It seems to bond really well and I’m loving the guys on the floor. Of course you’re going to get some of the weird ones on a floor like this, but almost everyone gets along very well. It took some courage to walk over to the girls’ side the first time, but since then there’s been a lot of interaction between and the social opportunities are definitely there.</p></li>
<li><p>Meal plan: think long and hard about how your kid eats. If they don’t do left overs or anything very often, you’re probably best off getting the 12 meals/week plan. I don’t have much food in my room, so I run through my 10/week pretty fast.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>-People who have kids going into engineering: there’s a freshman engineering class that is terrible. There’s no way to get out of it and pretty much everyone hates it. It’s not hard, but there’s three hours of classes for one credit hour and it’s boring. So, just know that going in.</p>
<p>If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask. If you have questions specifically for a girl (like sororities or whatever), I even know a couple of those, so I can find out the answer for you. So far, I can say I’m very happy with my choice of school.</p>
<p>Woolscarves…just curious why you changed from ChemE to Chemistry. Do you mind sharing? My older son (not at OU) is a second year ChemE major and recently mentioned possibly changing to Chemistry. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him at length about why.</p>
<p>The reason I changed from ChemE to Chem is because of time constraints. While I’ve been on my floor, I’ve seen people really pursuing their passions (some people are coding apps for phones, some are learning an extra language on their own, etc.) and my real love is foreign policy, so I decided to study that. Adding that to ChemE is essentially impossible, so I just moved to Chem, which has much more overlap with International Relations.</p>
<p>I want to continue with Chem because I’m doing pre-med, so keeping that around lets me satisfy the pre-med reqs.</p>
<p>If the schedule hadn’t been so killer, I would’ve continued doing ChemE along with IR, but no dice. Moving to normal Chem did let me drop out of that stupid freshman engineering course though ;)</p>