<p>Anyone out there have an NMF experience to share? Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m not an NMF but around half of my closer friends are. What specifically do you want to know about the NMF experience? Keep in mind that the NMF experience can be quite variable depending on the person.</p>
<p>Thanks whenhen, We’re interested in anything from the initial recruiting experience…first year experience w/classes, honors, keeping up gpa’s, dorms…Alabama’s site is so active that’s it’s hard not to lean toward them. DS is setting up a visit…he’s interested in Engineering leading toward genetics work…</p>
<p>My son is in his first year at OU on a NM scholarship. His entire experience thus far has been fantastic. The recruiters were great when he was looking and were always available to answer any questions and do anything we needed. We visited twice. Both visits were highly personalized. He had appointments with department heads, sat in on classes, etc. For the first visit, they will pay for your lodging. They have current NM scholars take you around so you can ask questions about their experience. I’m glad you’re planning a visit. I think you’ll be impressed. </p>
<p>OU has specialized advising for NMS, and that’s been a great thing. They get to enroll before anyone else on campus, so getting the classes and class times my son wants is a given. </p>
<p>My son chose to live in the honors dorm and loves that small community. It’s a traditional dorm with community bathrooms. OU also has a National Merit floor in the towers for students who want that. The towers are suite style rooms with two rooms connected by a shared bath. </p>
<p>The honors college is impressive. Classes there are small and taught by full professors. They have faculty mentoring available freshman year, which is a great way for the kids to form a bond with a professor. </p>
<p>The food is great, as you will see when you visit. The main cafeteria is set up like a food court and has many options including all you can eat Chick Fil A, pizza, grill, Mexican, pasta, Asian, BBQ and more. </p>
<p>My son has had no problem keeping his GPA up. He finished with a 4.0 first semester. He tells me there is a great, free tutoring service available if kids need it. Professors actually schedule time to be at the tutoring center every week. He liked all of his classes first semester and thought his professors were very good. </p>
<p>OU’s package this year is fantastic. It’s worth $10,000 more than the one my son got. I’m a tad jealous. 
</p>
<p>My son is very happy with his decision to attend OU. </p>
<p>Hope that helps. Let me know if you have other questions.</p>
<p>Thank you very much Soonermom!</p>
<p>No idea if you’re still interested, but I spoke to a few current sophomore and junior NMF engineering students regarding their experiences. While two of them thought that the honors perspectives courses were a bit useless in that they did not give a comprehensive overview of a subject, but rather hyper focused on a (somewhat) useless field, they do regard them as challenging and generally extremely interesting. All three did develop close friends from the honors dorm although all three were ready to get their own apartments by sophomore year, something that is not at all atypical at either OU or Alabama. </p>
<p>All three have high GPAs. From what one of my friends has told me, the actual STEM coursework at OU does not challenge students nearly as much as a school like MIT does (familial experience) although that could be said for almost every engineering school in the country. However, as my friend said, the coursework is ABET accredited, so even if it doesn’t train people to think like a scientist, it does teach them to think like an engineer, and one who is well positioned to get jobs. </p>
<p>If your child does go to OU, there are a number of research opportunities open to first semester freshmen. In this regard, Oklahoma is likely superior to Alabama since the research budget on the Norman campus is almost four times higher, meaning more opportunities for different types of projects. In my department, getting research positions and presenting at conferences is both easy and common place. I believe it’s the same for engineering, and certainly true for biology (one of my NMF friends will go to a top 3 grad school in her field next year largely thanks to the well developed UROP).</p>
<p>My main problem with the food at Oklahoma is that it’s somewhat hard to eat healthy if students do not have time to go to the cafeteria although the university seems to be making some improvements in this regard. However, the food is very good in the area by the dorms and directly off campus. I’m typing this from a place called Cate Main which sells everything from tacos, to gyro sandwiches, to sushi.</p>
<p>I actually looked at both Alabama and Oklahoma when I was deciding on transfer schools so I might be able to help with any decisions.</p>
<p>Hi there,</p>
<p>Current NMF freshman at OU. I decided between OU and Alabama as my final two schools (I wrote a post comparing the two a while back, let me know if you want me to dig it up).</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m enjoying all the opportunities that the school has provided me. As far as research goes, there are several programs available; FYRE (a very competitive first-year program), UROP, and others. Specifically, HRAP is one you can look at more closely. Go to this link [url=<a href=“http://www.ou.edu/honors/hrap/hrap-listings.htm]HRAP-Listing[/url”>http://www.ou.edu/honors/hrap/hrap-listings.htm]HRAP-Listing[/url</a>] and you can see a number of current projects accepting applicants. About four-five of my NMF friends are involved in research so far.</p>
<p>As far as engineering goes, I’d second whenhen. It isn’t terribly difficult. In fact, a lot of it is rather tedious. However, it is ABET accredited, which is plenty if she does significant research.</p>
<p>Dorms are pretty nice. Not nearly as good as Alabama’s, but I don’t think anything comes close to that. If your son wants to stay in the dorms on the NM floor for a night when you visit, let me know and he’s welcome to stay with me (we can organize it with LeeAnn, the director of the NM office).</p>
<p>That brings me to the NM office, which is INCREDIBLY helpful. They’re honestly just there to help your student out whenever they need it, on a variety of subjects. I needed packages held over break and they were happy to help out.</p>
<p>If your son was one who worked diligently in high school, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to get a high GPA here.</p>
<p>Whenhen is right about the food. Cate is really nice and they serve breakfast all day. I’ve actually learned to like eggs here.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any questions!</p>
<p>Can someone tell me if they know of very many NMF from California that are attending OU?</p>
<p>To my knowledge, relatively few Californians attend OU, although the NMFs are more nationally representative than the rest of the student body. I’m from CA and besides not being able to find someone who understands that yes, 55 degrees is cold, haven’t had any issues.</p>
<p>TchrWmn - our experience has been really the opposite vis-a-vis OU versus Alabama. S1 is a presumptive NMF - we did not get a notice that he is ‘out’ - OU has easily been the more active in recruiting and really bent over backward to make him feel welcome. He prefers options like MIT and Cal-Tech but even if he gets in they would be out of his financial reach. Like many, we are too poor to pay for it and too ‘rich’ to get much in the way of need based aid. We are only 3 hours away from Norman, but that was never a factor for him. UT and A&M are still in the running though all dependent upon what they can offer financially. He wants ChemE and all of the other schools he is considering at this point have much higher rated programs than OU. As parents, we see the support structures at OU as something he will need. Like many ‘smart’ kids, he tends to get focused on some things and all but ignores the mundane things…like deadlines. I know it is a sales pitch, but OU does really sound committed to helping this type of student get the most of their programs.</p>
<p>Whenhen - 55 is only cold in San Fran. Nice brisk 18 this morning here in North Texas. At least it does not get below zero as it did when I was at UMinn :)</p>
<p>How are the philosophy and psychology departments? So many people seem interested in engineering…</p>
<p>Don’t know much about psychology. I know an NMF who’s studying psych and claims she appreciates the focused research opportunities. Given how cheap many psychological studies are, and how easily accessible research is at most halfway decent schools, I don’t consider that a ringing endorsement of the program, although I haven’t spoken with her enough to gauge her broad opinions of the level of rigor/ professor quality in the program. </p>
<p>OU has an interesting program called “Presidential Dream Courses” in which a variety of speakers come to discuss an issue which students are studying. I’ve been to two philosophy lectures, and they were extremely engaging. However, I am concerned by the relatively large class sizes of most of the upper division courses. Perhaps it was because I was spoiled by a LAC, which capped all classes at 33 students, but to me 28 students in a modern philosophy class seems like a lot. I wonder what the writing expectations as well as the level of professor-student interaction for a such a relatively large class. On the plus side, OU has a variety of philosophy faculty, far more than most schools, which could allow for a broader education.</p>
<p>If anyone is curious about semester course offerings, click here <a href=“http://classnav.ou.edu/#semester/201320/subject_code/all”>http://classnav.ou.edu/#semester/201320/subject_code/all</a>
Select the subject you’re interested in, check for a particular semester, and uncheck the box entitled “Seats Still Available”.</p>
<p>I’m also going to disagree with WoolScarves that “As far as engineering goes … It isn’t terribly difficult. In fact, a lot of it is rather tedious. However, it is ABET accredited, which is plenty if she does significant research.”</p>
<p>At the lower division, engineering probably isn’t that hard, but upper division course work does present significant challenges to even the brightest students (just look at Rock Properties, Thermodynamics, or any number of EE classes). Some of the coursework is tedious, albeit necessary. The only way to learn say, phase diagrams, is by doing a god awful number of them (this is an example from the sciences), just as the only way to learn math is by doing hundreds of problems with only slight variations. My comment stemmed from a friend’s obervation that much of the lower division coursework did not challenge students to move beyond textbook cases and explore the fundamental theories that form the foundation for engineering in the same way that MIT does. </p>
<p>Listen to whenhen. She’s older and wiser than I am.</p>