My son has been accepted to the University of Oregon and Gonzaga University. Oregon is his dream school where he would study sports management in the business program. Oregon offered no financial aid and would require 60k in parent/students loans if he were to get out in four years. Gonzaga offered good scholarship and he could get out in four years with limited or no debt. His major at Gonzaga would be Business with marketing focus.
Well, he needs to focus on the reasons he choose to apply to each school. In terms of Student Life these two campuses are apples and oranges. If money is a concern, then your decision is much clearer.
The apple and orange analysis is very accurate, unfortunately, we are struggling with the cost of the apples. Hard to fathom paying $200,000 for an undergraduate education at a university not named Stanford or Harvard or Princeton, or Yale. Looks like we are going to be changing out our duck gear for zag gear.
We faced the same thing - our daughter really wanted to go to U of O, from out of state. She didn’t have any very clear reason for that interest. A friend’s mom was an alum, and took a group of friends to a football game and gave them a tour. DD didn’t know or care much about the academic offerings.
She was accepted, but not given any aid at Oregon. We told her when she applied that unless it was affordable there was no way she would be going to an out-of-state flagship, so she’s at Gonzaga - her second choice, where she got good merit aid - and is doing well as a sophomore.
If school spirit and sports are part of what attracted him to Oregon, GU certainly has that - minus the football.
Thanks for the feedback on Gonzaga. My son seems to have gotten over the disappointment of not going to Oregon and is focusing on Gonzaga. We are headed to the GEL weekend on April 17th and my hope is that he will be happy with the campus and all the other students he meets.
Strictly speaking, a Business major with a Marketing emphasis from Gonzaga, where he has a good chance at working for Athletics, is much more useful than a degree in Sports management if he actually wants to work in that field. (I’d add a minor in statistics though, at either school.) Working with athletics department >>> Sports management major.
Good advice MYOS1634, thanks for the information.
Folsom916, my son transferred from U of O to Gonzaga in Sept. 2014, after his freshman year. He started out at Oregon thinking he wanted to do sports management just like your son. He hated the Intro to Bus class (120 students, and something of a weed-out class), and quickly switched to being a computer science major at U of O second quarter. Then, he had to fight each quarter to get into the classes he needed. It was looking like by the beginning of sophomore year if he stayed at U of O, he would already be a quarter behind the sequence of comp sci required courses, yikes. Very poor advisors. And he was in the most awful of awful U of O freshman dorms, which didn’t help either. He hated the anonymity of the classes, and being known as a number at U of O, even though he was getting excellent grades.
He’s so much happier at Gonzaga now, as he enters the home stretch of his sophomore year. And, like your son, it was a much better deal financially, given the merit aid Gonzaga offered him. He still follows U of O football, but loves being a Zag basketball fan, especially right now.
And the difference between how accessible professors are is night and day between U of O, and Gonzaga. At Gonzaga, profs teach the sections and labs. At U of O, they were taught by TA’s and apart from a few exceptions, they were lousy. Office hours are extensive, and profs are very happy to meet with you at another convenient time. All the adjunct profs at U of O had very limited office hours, because they had other jobs!! The lower division (100 and 200 level) classes at Gonzaga are way smaller.
He’s definitely working harder at Gonzaga, but he recognizes that he’s actually learning the coursework, and the profs care that he is! And last but not least, my son found his people way more quickly at Gonzaga than at U of O.
Zag Nation was the right choice for my kid, but every kid is different.
Good luck to your son! I hope your April visit goes well. Message me if you have more questions.
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This is the reason why I can’t go to the U of O 
I was accepted for fall of 2015…but I can’t afford it XD
Now I’m considering a gap year to save up.
Attended Gonzaga reception today in the Bay Area with my son and was very impressed. My son had a chance to speak with the Dean of the Business School and received great input on the program. Very detailed and informative presentation, much better than the Oregon event we attended last week. To have Director of Admissions, the Dean of the Business School, and a financial representative there was hard not to appreciate.