Does anyone with a student attending the University of Oklahoma through the National Scholars program have a rough breakdown of costs to share? I’m trying to get a sense of what is and is not covered by the scholarship. What we’ll be out of pocket. Fees are not covered. Any surprising class-connected fees to worry about? Regular expenses that don’t show up in the tally until you’re in the program? The school offers some information, but I’m looking for the perspective from the parent/student side of the checkbook.
Any information about the out-of-pocket costs and even opinions on the program itself would be greatly appreciated.
My son is an OOS freshman in the OU National Scholars program. (Out-of-pocket will be somewhat less if you are in-state).
DS is an engineering major so there and there are some fees specific to engineering. He was also in marching band with a significant fee. He has a corporate NM scholarship but the numbers I give below have taken out the fees for marching band and I have adjusted for what we would have paid without the corporate scholarship.
First semester was $901 NOT including books which he rented from Amazon for the most part. Keep in mind that this first semester includes the one-semester only technology scholarship of $2000. This $901 represents the leftover charges for the dorm ($2737/semester and his 12-meal per week meal plan at $2134/semester)
Second semester should be about $2901 (without books) assuming the fees are similar.
There are both program fees and tech fees for the engineering college, the Arts and Sciences College, (for those gen ed classes), and for fine arts (music in his case). Then there are general “undergraduate semesterly” and “undergraduate hourly” fees plus a $1080 fee for “Academic Excellence 2015”. Then there are also course fees for music and engineering.
Confused yet? It is extremely complicated so I looked at the bottom line and those are the numbers I quoted above. Basically, the $2750/semester OK Achievement Scholarship ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE covers fees so certainly don’t count on that for anything like books, room, or board even though they say that.
Next year he will probably live in Traditions which is slightly more per month than the dorm (Walker) but he has no interest in continuing on a meal plan so I think his food will be quite a bit cheaper.
So far the National Scholars Program office and OU in general have been very good for our son. They do a great job of advising the freshman students and early registration is a real stress-reliever. Due to marching band he didn’t participate in any Honors or Program office social activities, but he has gotten immersed in an engineering college activity. He also is doing very well and enjoying the Honors math classes.
Thanks, @STEMFamily. That’s all very helpful. We are out of state, too. So what you really end up looking at is room & board + books and other expenses.
How has your son found the marching band (another possible interest for our son)? Does is clash with class commitments often?
My son didn’t really click with the marching band but he may be unusual in that. He was very serious about band competition in high school and has done World Class Drum Corps. He just couldn’t seem to adjust to the idea that the purpose of college marching band is really for fun and football fan entertainment (he is not at all into sports). And by midway through the semester he also had the engineering college activity that he would really have rather been doing.
Band was 4:30 - 6:30 4 days a week plus most of the day on Saturday. It didn’t clash with class commitments. They played at all the home games but also took the full band to the UT, Baylor, and Oklahoma state games so really 9 of the 12 games. One thing to be aware of is that they promised several times during recruitment that there would never be any extra rehearsals but in fact there were other extra time requirements like soccer games, volleyball games, alumni events, concerts, etc. They usually only took a fraction of the band to each event but it was probably 4-5 extra engagements.
They got early move-in to the dorms but even then OU had all the same process in place as regular move-ins so it was super easy. The marching band fee was $428, mainly for shoes and some pretty nice Pride swag. But they also usually had a free meal on game days and all travel expenses including meals were paid.
One last thing to keep in mind, is that there most likely will be a bowl commitment over Christmas break. I don’t know if it is always the case, but they flew kids more than 400 miles from Norman back to Norman from home at the program’s expense.
@nw2this He liked a few things in the beginning, but he got tired of it all pretty quickly. Says the salad bar is pretty good but never has liked the food at Chick-Fil-A.
@STEMFamily…great information. My S is looking at OU if he gets the NMF for Class of 2017. We have family that lives about an hour away. We are in Texas so he would be out of State student. Question…do they stack scholarships with the National Merit scholarship? My S is 1st in his class and has a weighted GPA of 5.543. He is on the UIL math team and they are hoping to do very well this year. Plus there should be several local scholarships from the community. How does all that work? We are supposed to visit OU in the summer to see if he thinks it will be a good fit. He is thinking a Math and Engineering Degree.
I don’t believe so…If you haven’t yet been in touch with the National Scholars office at OU- I would call them. They have been a great help in many aspects of the process.
How it worked in reality: My freshman took 4 credits in in the engineering college, 4 credits in fine arts and 7 credits in arts/sciences last fall. $496.80 in program/tech fees, plus an $80 course fee for the music (honors) class to meet the artistic forms gen ed, plus $428 Pride fees. This spring, he has 4 engineering credits and 10 arts/sciences credits - $404 program/tech fees, plus a $20 lab fee.
Also, the 2nd semester academic excellence and hourly fees were higher on the 2nd semester bill than what is listed on the website. Fee changes are going to be the largely uncontrollable costs for the remaining years - the $2750 OK Academic Excellence does take a big bite out of it, but as noted above doesn’t quite cover it all. The Nat’l Merit Stipend can help with the gap if you apply it to the bursar bill (1st semester we did, 2nd semester I let him keep it for books and any other charges that might come up).
FWIW, my 900-miles-OOS state CS major is having a good year. Got his feet under him, also had to adjust to the difference between competitive marching and the Pride but enjoyed the season, found his “tribe” in CS classes & on the Couch Nat’l Merit floor. His favorite part of the caf is the numerous varieties of cheesecake. He is applying to study abroad next year, so living arrangements, food costs, decisions on continuing Pride, and all that are a bit up in the air until he has that settled.
@cmb1828…great news that he is having a good year. We are about 350 miles away. National Merit OU people are great. It is just nice to hear from someone that has had the experience already. What is the OK Academic Excellence? Is that a scholarship within the school? Did your son have any scholarships from outside the National Merit? I am hoping we get some outside scholarships to help with the difference. What dorm did you son stay in? Is there an honors dorm?
@Tgirlfriend - OK Academic Excellence is part of the total National Merit package, $2750x8 semesters - you’ve probably seen this, but it’s listed in the flyer as “Academic Schoars” (“Academic Excellence” is how it’s listed on the billing statement - sorry for anyconfusion, that’s what I was looking at when I posted earlier): http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/recruitment/scholarships/NMpackage_2016_NonRes.pdf.
My son had a small scholarship from an outside source that stacked on top of the package this year, and he will apply every year for department and OU scholarships which would also stack. He’s in one of the “towers” on a National Merit floor - at least half the kids are Nat Merit scholars. There is an honors dorm, but we didn’t tour it, so I can’t offer any solid info there.
@Tgirlfriend Boren Hall is not only home to the Honors College but is also the Honors Residence Hall with community-style bathrooms. I hear it is a pretty tight community. There is a National Merit floor in Walker Tower although not all students on that floor are National Merit. My S had a roommate for a couple days at the beginning of the year but the roommate then moved to Boren so my S was alone for almost all of first semester. He now has a non National Merit roommate but and it’s fine. My son usually works in his room in the evenings and has never complained about noise disrupting either studying or getting a decent sleep.
Question. My S is taking dual credit classes and the local Junior College. Will those transfer to OU? How do I find this out? He will have 30 hours when he graduates HS and I don’t want him to loose those hours.
Here’s a link to OU transfer data base: https://enroll.ou.edu/thebook/ted
OU is very generous with transfer credit, my d has a few classes that did not show up in the data base and was told she could submit to a specific department for evaluation or just take general credits for those.
After finally looking at all the fees on the Oklahoma website, this deal while pretty good, is not near as good as I originally presumed. The list of fees is mind boggling.
Here is my best shot at breaking down the net cost for 4 years at Oklahoma for an OOS. While I think I fully understand the pricing structure, I’m sure there could be errors.
Tuition 70,728 ($17,682 per year)
Hourly Fees 13,944 ($3,486 per year)
Semester Fees 1,532 ($383 per year)
Admit Fees 2,025 (Only charged Freshman year)
Program Fees 5,568 (Used the Business Undergrad, $1,392 per year)
Room & Board 38,968 ($9,742 per year)
Less Scholarships
Tuition Waiver 70,728
OK Academic 22,000
Cash Stipend 5,000
Housing Scholarship 4,200
Tech Allowance 2,000
Net Cost over 4 years $28,837
Again, not a bad deal, but certainly not as impressive as I assumed it would be when Oklahoma throws out the litany of scholarship dollars.
@STEMFamily Our son will likely be attending OU as a NMS in the Fall. We are anxiously waiting for other scholarship notifications though lol! Do you know if any departmental engineering scholarships are given out to out of state freshman and if so, when are they notified?