We went for a visit over the Saturday of President’s Day to Oregon State and my daughter loves the architecture and everyone we met was friendly, but being honest it was like a ghosttown. Do kids go home on most weekends? Is it mostly Oregon students? Anyone go there and have more info on it? It seems like it would be a fabulous college town and it looks like my daughter is well above average for getting in so a good fit for her. She did wonder where everyone shops, we didn’t see a Target/Walmart so figure maybe just the grocery store? We spent most of our time on campus and just one meal off campus so maybe we missed the shopping areas.
About two-thirds of the undergraduate students are state residents.
Portland, Oregon has a very strong economy.
Sorry, but I cannot answer your questions more directly.
Would you say that during a normal week it is busy and then a bunch of people go home on the weekends?
I was on the Oregon State campus about two-and-a-half years ago. It was on a weekday during the summer, and crowd-wise, it was pretty much what I’d expect during a summer weekday. Nice campus and I liked Corvallis. College campuses typically are less crowded on weekends since there are few classes.
I did notice that there wasn’t much in the way of shopping or restaurants immediately adjacent to campus. From Google Maps, it looks like there’s a Fred Meyer (a Pacific Northwest version of Target or Walmart, and much nicer) about half-a-mile north of campus. The downtown area with all the cafes and coffee shops that you see in so many college towns was several blocks east of campus. I remember thinking that you’d probably want a car if you went to school there.
Thanks! I didn’t know about Fred Meyer. Figured there had to be something.
Fred Meyer and Fry’s are both part of Kroger. Loyalty cards work in all three.
We are from OOS and my husband and daughter are touring both Oregon and OSU (the one she is interested in) over spring break. I’m interested to see what they think about about Corvallis and the area around the campus.
They are staying in AirBnBs in Portland and Corvallis, hopefully that will give them a feel of the surrounding area, more than staying in a hotel off the highway.
My daughter is a freshman at OSU, and we are from California. There are several food stores in town, and I think the only place to buy clothes is like TJMax. There is a Target in Albany which is about 20 minutes away. There is. a small mall and some other shopping areas in Eugene. The majority of the students do live in Oregon. Since the school is on a quarter system, the students don’t get many holidays off. My daughter actually flew home that weekend. My daughter does have a car on campus. She joined a sorority so that keeps her busy. She is also a science major and seems to have a lot of homework. If your daughter decides to go to OSU, I would suggest that she finds a roommate who is not from Oregon. This is what my daughter did and that seemed to work out well.
My son is Class of '23. We are from California and yes, the weekends were quiet on campus, but my son loved that part! He felt like he could get his laundry done in the dorms with little competition, and he enjoyed the quiet to study. He will have a roommate from CA come this fall (fingers crossed) I wonder if he will miss his quiet time.
Re: shopping… He did not have a car and got an Amazon Student account to fill his needs. We did visit once and the only thing he asked us to pick up for him was laundry detergent. (Do you see a theme here?)
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