As I enter my senior year, I find myself with a frightening case of pre-mature nostalgia. My time at OU has been just about everything I could have hoped. I’m writing this guide primarily for incoming freshman and to address some topics that I haven’t talked about very much on this forum. I encourage you all to ask any follow-up questions or bring up any other topics you want me to cover. I’ll be writing as honestly as possible about my experiences, but you should also bear in mind that I bring my own perspective to bare on them.
Very quickly I’ll get into my background before I start by talking about specific topics. I’m entering my senior year at OU. I’m from St. Louis, MO. I’m a NMF and ended up choosing OU over Alabama, Northeastern, and some more prestigious but substantially pricier schools. I entered school as a Chemical Engineering-Pre Med with 56 hours of AP credit. Fairly quickly I switched to a Chemistry Education major because that’s where I believe I’ll lead my most fulfilling career. My family is reasonably well off, so money hasn’t been a major concern for me at school.
School:
I’m a huge proponent of taking an easy course load during the first semester (and even year) of school. When I came to register for classes, I was eligible to start with organic chemistry. I chose instead to retake Gen Chem I and II. I loved this decision, because it gave me many hours of easy credit for GPA as well as allowing me time to spend on other things (see Work and Organization sections below). I think erring on the side of “better safe than sorry” definitely applies to academic workload. You’ll be astonished how quickly most students will learn their academic habits and thresholds at college. By the end of freshman year, most students should have a firm grasp on the kind of course-load then can handle.
Night classes are the worst. They might not seem like an awful idea at first, but they definitely are.
Who the professors are is more important than what the class is. Take the best professor possible, regardless of time.
Wait to buy textbooks until the semester has started. Professors will say on the first day of class or on the syllabus how important a textbook is and you can then make the decision on whether you actually need on. This has saved me a lot of money over the years. If you really want to order textbooks early, you can always e-mail the professor and ask.
Look at study abroad early. There are somewhat limited offerings in the kinds of classes available for study abroad. In my situation, there would have been no way for me to study abroad and take credits that contributed towards my degree past my sophomore year. This meant that if I wanted to study abroad, I had to do it during the summer after freshman year.
Work:
As I said, I come from a family where I’m fortunate to not need to worry about money. That being said, I wanted to get a job to save money so that I could study abroad and save money for after I graduated.
I want to say this with as much emphasis as I can muster: DO NOT WORK A BAD JOB WHILE AT OU. There are too many amazing ones to waste time with awful ones. Campus and the surrounding areas are teeming with jobs for college students and I want students to know that there are options. There are jobs working for professors, at cool restaurants, in interesting offices on campus (tour guide, graduation office, for administrators), the athletic department (where I work), etc. The sheer variety of jobs available might surprise you. I’ve had my job ever since freshman year and it has been one of the highlights of my time here. I love it and going into work is usually one of the best parts of my day.
Whether you need a job or not, I highly recommend looking for one that suits you anyway. The experience is excellent and can expose you to people that you otherwise wouldn’t encounter at school.
Organizations:
Greek life is a thing. Pretty big at OU but not dominating. If you want to party, especially as a freshman, it can be difficult to do that without belonging to a fraternity or sorority. I’m not a part of Greek life and haven’t ever really regretted that decision.
Keep in mind there’s a wide range of Greek organizations, from the larger “typical” fraternities and sororities to social and professional organizations.
My last note on Greek life is that sororities and fraternities have definite stereotypes on campus. However, there are excellent and terrible individuals in all of the large ones. So, just be aware of that going in. If anyone is OOS and is interested in rushing, I am willing to let them know in private my thoughts on the individual organizations.
Organizations are the best part of OU. There are so, so many out there and you absolutely have to join at least one during freshman year. Get heavily involved in one or two organizations early and it will pay huge dividends in two ways: helping you find friends and in helping you to get into other organizations, jobs, and internships which may become more important to you as you go through college. Some of the organizations I’ve found most rewarding are somewhat selective to get into. If you do nothing for your first year or two, you may find it hard to get involved in some of these other organizations.
Organizations should be a singularly positive part of the college experience. I’ve seen too many students stick around in organizations that they are not happy in (particularly Greek organizations). If something is eating up your time and energy (and in some cases money) while making you unhappy, leave. I’m not advocating abandoning commitments, but there are shades of gray and there are so many good organizations that one can be a part of, that I hate to see people waste time in one that isn’t a good fit.
As always, if someone is looking for specifics on any organizations or a list of organizations that might fit a set of interests, I’m happy to help.
@WoolScarves Thank you so much for taking time and helping future Sooners. It is very nice of you and very useful.
Agree, it is important to know the teacher than the subject. But how do you get to know that (especially for 1st semester). May be once they are in school, thru grapevine students will get to know.
It appears you seem to be very happy with your decision and experience at OU and that is very good to know.
@GoldenRock Knowing what profs are good is mostly a matter of learning through the grape vine, like you said. Asking fellow students during class scheduling time is extremely common place. There are websites (like RateMyProfessor and MyEdu) that have some ratings on professors as well. These can be helpful for 1st semester and beyond, but I always trust the recommendations of my friends over what the sites say if they conflict. If you have questions on any particular professor(s), I can give feedback or ask someone else who’s had them.
And you’d be right. I’m very happy with my decision. There were times during my freshman year where I wasn’t sure whether I did, but as I continued to immerse myself in the environment, I became thrilled with my time here and am extremely satisfied with my decision.
@WoolScarves You said night class are worst. Can you please provide the reasons? So happened my D has a night class in the 1st semester. It is Physics Lab 7 to 9.20 pm. I was surprised why lab is in the night. It is understandable, if it is theory, because some schools cater to the needs of part time students (who are working full time) to attend some theory classes. As long as it is safe, it is ok.
I get why we have night classes at OU, but as someone who last semester took classes from 8AM - 8:30PM, it’s just hard to stay motivated for so long during the day. Additionally, most clubs meet in the evenings, so having a later class often prevents people from participating in various on campus activities.
@whenhen Thanks for that clarification and it makes sense. Good lab is only 1 day in a week and in that day her 1st class starts only at 1.30 pm and hopefully she will manage.
@whenhen is always welcome to chime in, since she’s right as per usual. The lack of motivation and conflicts with other activities are the reasons. It’s not like it’s the end of the world if you have a night class, I just do everything in my power to avoid them.
@3scoutsmom I don’t receive financial aid, so I’m the wrong person to ask about the scholarship. Have you tried calling OU financial aid at (405) 325-4521 or emailing them at financialaid@ou.edu?
@3scoutsmom Hope you may be already aware of it. You can check if any pending payment in the ‘Money tab’ of OZone. Also you can go to OU-FAN and ensure you have formally accepted various line items of the scholarship. Just went and found out for 2 items it was waiting for acceptance and I accepted.
@texoma17 No. It just depends on what “your place” is. For some people, that may involve the kinds of activities that surround Greek Life. In that case, you should join Greek Life. For other people, your place may be in various clubs or organizations that anyone can join. If you’re looking for a more intellectual group focused on politics, then your place might involve getting involved with the political clubs or the political discussion groups and finding friends there.
If you’re looking for “typical” large parties, the larger philanthropies at OU, and the kinds of personalities that are drawn to Greek Life, then you’re best suited to join a Greek organization.
My D’s friend is going to OU this fall as a National Merit Scholar and from what I can gather, they are not that excited about it. It was the scholarship that brought them in but they are from a very liberal background and identifiy with the LBGTQ community. Originally they applied to some very liberal colleges on the east and west coast but could not make them work financially. It sounds like OU was a last ditch effort to get in somewhere affordable by the family. Is there somewhere they can start hanging out that would be liberal friendly? I had read that OU shot down a LBGTQ resource center and they were accommodating students with a lounge. It’s not that we think OU would be outwardly hostile but having a group or organization to be yourself would be welcoming to them.
@texoma17 agree with WoolScarves. I was in Greek life and found that it immensely helped with socializing, forming bonds, finding out about parties, and generally integrating with OU. However, there are plenty of other venues to do this. Intramural sports, clubs, etc all can help with bonding. The dorms are also great for a number of students.
@goingnutsmom The LGBTQ lounge is probably a good place to start to find a community as are some of the clubs devoted to that. I believe OU just introduced an LGBT minor, so taking classes in queer studies might prove beneficial in finding her crowd. Informed citizen’s discussion groups are another excellent place to find politically engaged liberals (as well as conservatives, anarchists, etc). OU Students for Social Justice is another group which attracts some of the more far left students.
I will say that while OU is a center right leaning campus, there are plenty of liberals who attend. In the state of Oklahoma, OU is known for being much more accepting of non hyper conservative viewpoints than every other public college. As a result, it tends to attract a number of students who were outcasts because of their sexual orientations, lifestyles, religious beliefs, etc. I am a liberal atheist Jewish student and feel quite comfortable on campus.
That’s sad the student is going to a school they are not excited about, there are several other schools that have National Merit Scholarships some like UCF which is a FULL RIDE unlike OU which is only full tuition +. I wonder why the student is going to OU if they don’t want to instead of some of the other NM schools?