Ohio University

Parents Forum
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<p>digmedia--I'm glad your son enjoys HTC. That's a good sign for me, since I'm going there next year! Just for curiosity's sake, what are the things he likes/doesn't like about it? When I went to the interview weekend, I heard lots of praise for it, and all the students I talked to were really friendly and informative, but of course I'm always curious for more information. Maybe more specifically: What dorm does he live in and does he like it? Does he party/drink, and how easy is it to avoid that culture? (yeah, I know, it's OU...but still..) How are the tutorials and the professors? How's the food? What are some negatives about HTC and/or OU in general (those are hard to get out of tour guides and admissions officers)? When did they mail out precollege invitations?</p>

<p>Yeah, a lot of questions...sorry :P I'm sure I can come up with more, any time you feel like answering them....</p>

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<p>Can you clarify about the tutorials? When you say one to one classes, do you mean that for the entire class it's just the student and the professor?</p>

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<p>bluejay:</p>

<p>From the <a href="http://ouhtc.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ouhtc.org&lt;/a> website:

[quote]
The Honors Tutorial College offers 26 challenging programs of study that provide a unique undergraduate educational experience to a select number of qualified students.</p>

<p>Students admitted to the College undertake a substantial portion of the core curriculum in their respective disciplines through a series of tutorials. A tutorial consists of a full-time faculty member meeting with students either singly or in small seminars. In pursuing this method of instruction the College draws upon the rich educational traditions of British universities such as Cambridge and Oxford. Although other colleges and universities have adopted some aspects of the tutorial model, Ohio University remains the only institution in the United States with a degree-granting college incorporating all the essential features of a tutorial-based education. The success of the College's approach to undergraduate education is evident in its distinguished 30-year history and the impressive achievements of its alumni.</p>

<p>Through flexibility, mentoring, and abundant academic resources, the Honors Tutorial College aims to give high-ability students every opportunity to further their intellectual development. College requirements are kept to a minimum in order to allow students to explore a range of disciplines, engage in substantial creative and/or research work, acquire a high degree of proficiency in a particular subject matter, and participate in meaningful extracurricular activities. Tutorials allow individuals to work closely with accomplished scholars who take particular pride in helping Honors Tutorial College students fulfill their current and future ambitions. This special combination of freedom and guidance, which is one of the hallmarks of the College, is enhanced by the number of exclusive academic resources made available to its students. These include priority registration, special residence hall availability, enhanced library privileges, research support, eligibility to undertake graduate work, unique education abroad opportunities, and scholarship availability.</p>

<p>A tutorial-based curriculum requires highly developed academic abilities, but it also necessitates motivation, maturity, focus, energy, and a combination of self-confidence and humility. To succeed in the Honors Tutorial College, a student must recognize that she or he bears the responsibility for understanding each week's tutorial material. All tutorials are dialogues - exchanges of thoughts, questions, and possibilities - not lectures. There are no back row seats in a tutorial. At every tutorial, students are called upon to participate in an intellectual exchange in which quality is measured by thoughtful mastery of the subject under consideration.</p>

<p>In addition to being comfortable with the expectations of the tutorial mode of instruction, students must also consider other characteristics of the College. These include participation of all Honors Tutorial College freshmen in a seminar held in fall quarter and an expectation that membership in the College brings with it community service obligations. The seminar and community service work play a critical role in establishing camaraderie between students and maintaining a vibrant, active community of young scholars.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>luckycharms:</p>

<p>Congrats at getting into HTC. My son loves it there. He has an air-conditioned single in Hoover in one of the mod set-ups. There are 12 girls and 4 guys in that mod right now, so He's probably not complaining. Seems like a good dorm. He's not complaining about the food yet, and really takes advantage of his 14-meal per week plan. For most of those questions (especially the partying one), you'd probably have to ask him. If you PM me, I'll send you his email. What major will you have? BIG PLUS: Friendliness of OU students. BIG PLUS: Talent pool of HTC people. SOME NEGATIVES: OU is near nothing (Columbus is about 75 miles away) and it could use a little more diversity.</p>

<p>weenie - I'll have to ask him, but most of his friends are HTC students.</p>

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<p>OU is notorious for having happy, friendly students - HTC included. With HTC it almost seems like you get a highly selective rigorous environment without the uber-competitiveness of say an Ivy or something of the like. </p>

<p>That said, the academic programs in general at Ohio Univ. are strong (especially Journalism, Communications, Business, Engineering and Humanities). </p>

<p>For BlueJay - biggest complaint of alums I have heard is parking on campus. The parking services are apparently really strict and will tow your car in a heart-beat. The hills around campus can be a pain to walk up and down but I suppose are good for the soul. :D Sure, there are parties in college but there are clearly alternatives and it appears as if the students are really active with on-campus programs and planning in case you don't feel like painting the town. The best thing is that you have access to a great social life if you so choose. A lot of college don't offer that surprisingly. </p>

<p>Pre-college/Orientation information in the past has been mailed in mid/late May.</p>

<p>There is an OU Message board where students/admissions answer your questions which I found from the main page. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/messageboard.cfm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ohio.edu/admissions/messageboard.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Maybe you can ask some of your questions there and get some REAL students to answer your questions.</p>

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<p>WealthofInfo:
Once upon a time, I asked, if you had a son or daughter interesed in OU. You answered: "No connection in fact. Just a college admissions & university guru." Are you hired by OU for public relations purposes? Not to be critical, but I've noticed you overwhelmingly post PR type information about OU and no other school, and periodically keep it alive on this message board. I've only noticed, because we were once interested in OU, and therefore it keeps coming to my attention. For fairness and full disclosure to CC posters, why so interested in OU?</p>

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<p>I have friends who had their children attend and really enjoyed it being an ohio native now out west - they called it a hidden gem. Through their anecdotes, I learned a lot. I post a lot on other threads too but more in the 'alphabetic list of colleges' page or search and selection. :D</p>

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<p>digmedia: Thanks for the information from the school's website. I still think I'm missing something so I'll just be blunt. Doesn't it get boring to have dialogue with one person? I thought one of the pluses of honors classes and colleges with high achieving students, was the interaction amongstt students who had similar interests and strengths? Help me out here.</p>

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<p>bluejay-- I'm obviously not digmedia, but I think I have a partial answer to your question. Not all tutorials are one-on-one; I don't know the percentage but supposedly many are two- or three- or even four-on-one. In these instances, at least, you do have that interaction. And I'm pretty sure that each student in a major takes the same, or similar, tutorials, and that these topics get discussed just for the heck of it outside of class, if it's anything like high school where Heart of Darkness or censorship of the entertainment industry are valid lunchtime conversation topics.</p>

<p>digmedia--I WILL PM you, eventually...I promise :)</p>