Just wanted to give an update on how our son made out first year at O.U. and his summer plans.
School culture–he loved and has awesome roomates for next year. One from Zambia and one from Columbus.
Teachers–incredibly responsive, would give you the shirt off their back to ensure that you learn the material and understand concepts. Remarkable actually
Campus and Ping Athletic Center–beautiful, calming nature, like Camelot
Food–Excellent, he went from 6’3" and 180 pounds to 6"5 and 205 lbs in the first three months.
Partying–he handled well. He drinks (illegally of course), but it isn’t out of control. He’s pretty focused though and has always had early morning classes. He said the frats are where the insane drinking happens. But there are many activities to do that are “dry” but fun.
Athletics–excellent way to meet people through intramurals. Doesn’t matter if you’re terrible, it’s no-cut, so everyone is welcome.
Girls–Pretty
Career Center–he should have used it more. It would have been helpful. If you are in the business school and undecided, they don’t give you a career coach–ask for one. He didn’t declare his major until March, at which point he was assigned a career counselor. He should have gotten that earlier.
Mental health support–it just seemed to be a very good environment, at one point when he was kind of down, he told me "I think it will be fine, but if I’m still feeling crappy, I’ll go to mental health at the on-campus primary care/walk-in place. I got breast cancer at the end of the summer and literally had to drop him off the day before orientation officially began and race back to Philly to get surgery and begin treatment. He was clearly feeling happy and supported at school, which I was worried about in light of the diagnosis and him being far from home at the time.
Cost of O.U.–LOVING IT!! After finishing cancer treatment, had the leftover money we would have spent on going to Miami or OSU and took daughters to Disney, then son to Cleveland Indians Spring Training in Arizona. I LOVE not being flipped out about how we will continue to afford a school which was a reach for us financially.
Internship–he just scored an internship in Philadelphia with a major multinational in his major. His skills and persona were what sold the job, not the name of O.U. I.e. don’t worry so terribly much about USNWR rankings.
Hope you and your sons and daughters are well and happy!! Any news you’d care to post?
Cheers!
Jessica
It sounds like it’s been a wonderful year. Congratulations to your son on his internship. Our D has had a great year academically. She started off the year on a rock climbing trip to the Red River Gorge area in Kentucky where she met some people she stayed in touch with during the year. She has a couple of different friend groups, some from her dance major and others from friends of friends. She doesn’t drink though she knows plenty of people who do as well as other types of partying. She’ll be rooming with another dance major next year in the Honors dorm. She was originally a dual degree student having a second major in Exercise Physiology. Her goal is to become a Physical Therapist. She dropped her Exercise Physiology major and now plans to finish in 3 years. So long as she does well in the courses necessary to apply to DPT programs it doesn’t matter what her final major is. Dancing gives a substantial scholarship. She will take a physics class this summer and is working to secure a job in a health facility. If that doesn’t work out she will work somewhere. We live a bit over two hours away and she has been home to see us once each semester (twice first semester if you include Thanksgiving). She really does enjoy it there. Mom and I have been there a couple of times each semester to see her perform. I like visiting the campus.
Good luck in your recovery. I had a radical prostatectomy this summer so it seems cancer was busy this past year. We’re looking forward to picking her up Friday.
@lvvcsf I’m glad to hear you’re on the mend! I often use your daughter as an example of how smart girls are in planning their life goals and achieving the milestones necessary to get there. Great for her that’s she’s full steam ahead in chasing her dreams! Take care, and enjoy her return!
So glad to hear things turned out so well doe your son. It must have been a few harrowing months for your family so the fact he was happy and thriving must have been a balm.
I don’t check in on this site very much anymore, but I’m glad I did today. One of my favorite things about CC is the follow-up on students. I love it. Thanks so much for sharing.
Great idea to start this thread! And I’m thrilled to see how well both your son and @lvvcsf 's daughter did this year.
(On an unrelated note I am very happy to hear that you are doing well after what had to be a terrifying start to the school year. Here’s hoping next year is not nearly so eventful for you!).
We went down to Athens to get our son last Thursday, returning to MA on Saturday (through some major thunderstorms). He actually could have come home the Thursday before (4/21) as all his work after that was submitted online. However I thought it was still beneficial for him to remain on campus through both submissions since he would still be in the student mindset and have access to teachers, the library, etc, should he need it.
He had an amazingly successful 2nd semester. His grades were stellar. He declared a major. He solidified his minor. And he picked out his study year abroad for junior year.
He loves the Scripps College of Communication, and in particular his advisor. She has been a great source of information for him both in terms of classes and professors (to take and to avoid). He pretty much runs everything by her, which I love, since it really keeps the decisionmaking and ownership in his hands.
He adores OU and Athens. In fact, he was waffling on junior year abroad (something he’s been talking about for years) because he doesn’t want to “miss” a year at OU/Athens. I calmly reminded him that with 3 other years there, he should get his fill. But he has taken to the school and area like a duck to water. He has a wonderful group of friends and is rooming with all the guys (3 others) in a quad next year. The girls split into two doubles, but will be on the same green as the guys–which helps since they all spend quite a bit of time together outside of class. They are all planning to live together in a house off campus for their senior year (since at least 3 of them are abroad next year).
DS is working at two internships this summer (he started yesterday); both of which he got on his own, but definitely due to his OU classes/experience. (He took an advanced sports production class both semesters in which he helped to film and produce OU sporting events for ESPN 3. This was a huge bonus to my son all year and for his resume). The internships are with a profession men’s lacrosse team and a professional women’s soccer team in Boston. DS is going to be working very hard–but truly loving every minute of it. Sadly we don’t expect to see much of him this summer. Though I think we should start getting used to that!
Congrats to all the families on this board! It sounds like its been a great year for us all.
It must have been a few harrowing months for your family so the fact he was happy and thriving must have been a balm.