<p>Missy @your post #20, you are so right.</p>
<p>Missy, my son did not get most of his merit awards until spring even his EA schools. We did not think he would get anything from those schools and were pleasantly surprised when the letters came. There were kids who applied to the same schools he did who did receive awards upon acceptance. My son was not in that category. I guess they had to look at the rest of the applicant pool before they were ready to offer him his package and what he go depended on what else was there. Kids who were clearly top students and NMFs were easy to identify and were immediately given packages. He was clearly on the brink and things could have gone either way with him. One package he did get was less than a friend's merit award from the same school, and that kid did not have stats as high as my son's. That young man did not get any money from another school to which they both applied, and S did. So it can vary among the schools.</p>
<p>missypie.
Your point is well made. I know your son may not want to consider Tulsa at this point but it would be instructive for them to hear from someone like you after they've botched things so badly.</p>
<p>Average_guy, I was really thinking of doing that when all is said and done, with only this particular school. When we finally met with the admissions officer - the very last person we met with on the campus tour - she was very impressive and was an absolute delight. We've been turned over to someone else now(I think the original lady mostly handles the NMF prospects) and really, other than having us meet with the original lady, the school has done nothing right. Everything they've done wrong has such an easy fix - they just need someone to think things through.</p>
<p>I am a freshman NMF on a full ride at TU, and I hate it. I will not be here next year. I chose to come here entirely because of the scholarship, and it was one of the worst decisions of my life. If you are looking for a degree for free, the scholarship is great: full tuition, room and board (a value of $33,000/year which will increase to $41,000/year next year) for four years as long as you keep a 3.5 GPA. If you're a NMF, the GPA will not be a problem, even if you decide to spend most of college drunk. Classes are EASY. People spend very little time studying, and for the most part it isn't necessary. Classes follow the familiar high school formula of memorize and regurgitate.</p>
<p>TU has a serious fixation with its ranking. Right now it's at #83, and the administration's number one goal is to get into the top 50. Hence the NMF scholarships and emphasis on nationally competitive scholarships (Fulbright, Rhodes, etc.) You can go to TU's website and read the President's State of the University Address if you want evidence of this fixation (The</a> University of Tulsa >> News/Events/Publications --see the section on strategic priorities).</p>
<p>As a city, Tulsa is dead. There is absolutely nothing to do, especially if you don't have a car. The skyline is beautiful to look at from campus, especially at night, but if you actually venture out into Tulsa, you will find nothing but the sad remains of a city that died when the oil boom ended. The campus itself is not in a good area. It's 10-15 minutes by bike from the center of downtown and it's surrounded by not-very-nice neighborhoods. There is no college town atmosphere. However, I will admit that there is some gorgeous architecture around Tulsa, especially in the nicer neighborhoods. Gilcrease and Philbrook are excellent art museums and worth a visit. Honestly, though, some good art and architecture aren't enough to make Tulsa a good place to go to college (and I'm an art major, so I appreciate things like that).</p>
<p>So what do students do in their free time? There are very few clubs and activities, and the ones that exist mostly consist of 5-10 people with a shared interest. We have extremely few cultural events or offerings, and the speakers that come to campus aren't well known and almost no one goes to see them. Sports are a big deal (TU emphasizes that it has the best of both worlds--small school feel w/ Div. I athletics) and I feel like that's where the majority of the money goes. They just built a huge new tennis complex, football stadium, and basketball arena, but the majority of students don't even have access to those facilities, except for games, which are sparsely attended. They also seem to build a lot of things and then tear them up because of poor planning (ex. new fountain that leaks EVERYWHERE--they must be wasting a fortune on water bills). I would say that the main source of entertainment is alcohol. TU definitely isn't a party school, although there is the occasional frat party. Instead, there's a lot of dorm/apartment drinking, which gets boring fast and is kind of sad--a bunch of 19-year-olds sitting around becoming alcoholics. Also, there are about 20 tattoo shops in a 10-mile radius, so if you're really bored, you go get another tattoo or piercing.</p>
<p>The dorms are mostly in pretty bad shape. The all-freshman dorm is like a prison, with cinder block walls, fluorescent lighting, and TINY rooms. It doesn't get actual hot water either--it's more like lukewarm, and periodically it's just cold for a week or so. The apartments are nice, though. The cafeteria is probably pretty typical, which means that it's good for the first month but after that the novelty wears off and it's bad.</p>
<p>This is just my take on things, and I know a lot of people who love it here and would be happy to tell you why TU is great. If you are genuinely interested in TU, come visit and see it for yourself. Just make sure that the money isn't your only reason for coming.</p>
<p>COfuzzled - My D came away from her visit to Tulsa with just a hint of the things you mention and decided it was not for her. Wishing you all the best as you transfer to a school more to your liking!</p>
<p>My son is a non-NMF freshman at Tulsa and he LOVES it. </p>
<p>I don't know what other campuses some of the other posters have visited, but the dorm rooms in the Mabee dorms (freshman) are huge compared to dorms at other universities we have visited. My son's room is 15' x 16' - it was built as a double, but due to overcrowding there were three assigned to the room for first semester. Even so, there was plenty of room for three desks and an extra wardrobe. There are only two in the room now and there is plenty of space. </p>
<p>My son has chosen to get involved in lots of activities, so he has never complained about a lack of things to do. He is in marching band, joined a fraternity, participates in intramurals, and has gotten involved in a club or two. Although he does have a car, he rarely drives it anywhere, as he is content to spend his time on campus.</p>
<p>The difficulty of the classes seems about right - he was top 4% of his college prep high school class and got a mix of A's, B's, and one C first semester. In terms of scholarships, $8000/year may be the top non-NMF scholarship, but they will allow you to have more than one scholarship. The band also gives scholarships, so he has the $8000 academic scholarship and $4000 more in band money. We are very pleased with the money - just hope he keeps the grades up so he can keep it going forward. </p>
<p>The small class sizes is most impressive. His freshman English class had 4 students - his Business Calculus class had 8. The only large class he had last semester (not counting band) was MIS at about 40. This semester most of his classes are in the 30 - 40 student range, but his German class (Junior level) has less than 12. The chance to get 1-on-1 attention from the professors is really worth something - our other son is at a large state university where classes typically number in the hundreds. </p>
<p>We would both highly recommend Tulsa to any bright, ambitious student, especially if they are willing to get involved in activities and make the most of their college years.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if Tulsa even has a separate mailing list for admitted students and those not yet admitted. Yesterday Son received another piece of mail from TU: "Thank you for your interest in University of Tulsa." If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought it was the first line of a rejection letter. But it was a set of financial aid applications. It gave a break down of the costs (totalling in the $36,000 a year range), then said something to the affect of "Although this is a modest cost, we know that there are some families that cannot afford this..." I guess it's modest compared to $50,000 a year, but I really don't know a soul who thinks $36,000 a year out of pocket is "modest."</p>
<p>We noticed, too, that Tulsa doesn't seem to do a very good job of keeping mailing lists. Our son received a number of mailings more suited to someone taking a first look at Tulsa after he had been admitted and deferred his admittance for a year to do a foreign exchange. We were a little concerned that they had forgotten that they had already admitted him for the following year, but were told that it was just a matter of two different departments not communicating well.</p>
<p>Costs must really be going up for next year. This year it was more like $30,000 for a year. For a private school. that isn't too bad. We pay the same OOS for our oldest son at a large public university. At Tulsa with the $12k in scholarships, we only had to pay $18k.</p>
<p>My Son is NMF and looked at Tulsa, Nebraska-Lincoln, Wash U-Stl, and Bradley. Our experience is that Wash U was the most stuck-up, unfriendly, ladder-climbing, politically correct of the schools. Tulsa and Bradley were the friendliest and most helpful. Nebraska tries, but it is big and the impersonal nature comes through. All the schools sent us multiple mailings that didn't apply like "consider our school" after he was accepted, that was a common interesting thread with all of them.</p>
<p>By far the schools that called and emailed and checked up on my son (and replied timely to our questions) were Tulsa and Bradley, in that order.</p>
<p>We actually applied BEFORE he knew he was even a Merit Seminfinalist and again Tulsa and Bradley were extremely responsive and friendly the whole way.</p>
<p>We visited all the schools and he just had his 2nd Tulsa visit and it clinched it for him. He stayed overnight in the dorms and had a great time. He has a friend who goes there and it is his freshman year and this friend goes on and on about how great this school is. He loves his classes and professors. He is a Physics major. He says his classes are challenging, but that since they are so small and the professors are so helpful that they are not as hard as if he was at a big school with 100 people being taught by a TA and struggling to find help. So that may clear up some of the differences of opinion on the board. Regarding social life my son's friend actually said he is VERY involved in lots of campus groups, very busy, making LOTS of friends and none of this involves drinking. So again, I guess you get out of any school what you put into it.</p>
<p>My son visited classes and had several meetings with the Chairman of Arts & Sciences as well as the Chairman of the English dept (what was supposed to be a 30 min meeting ended up being a 1.5 hr meeting) and my son talked literature and philosophy with them and the conversations were spirited with a lot a back and forth, not just dull, "tell me about yourself". He was floored and as we left he said, "That's what I am looking for".</p>
<p>So, he has finally decided to go to Tulsa in computer science and minor in English. He ha applied to their Honors Program. Does the money play a part? Sure. He will be getting the equivalent of $140K and a good education. However, he told me that apart from the money he would rather go to Tulsa than the other schools, including Wash U (ranked # 12, he just really didn't like Wash U). His second choice would be Bradley.</p>
<p>We have researched Tulsa extensively, visited twice, know someone who goes there and feel, that while it definitely has areas of improvement, that overall it is what it claims to be and that fits what my son is looking for.</p>
<p>Graceandpeace, do you think that your son was shown more "love" because he's a NMF? I was mostly serious about Son being on their "we don't care if you go here or not" list. One thing Son said at the very begining of the process was "I want to go to a school that really wants me."</p>
<p>Tulsa didn't know my son was a NM until mid-way through the process. During our first visit that wasn't known by any of us yet, a we visited very early in Sept. In those processes and at that visit we found them very friendly and helpful.</p>
<p>I would say that there has been a 50/50, give and take on contact. Sometimes they would contact us about something and sometimes we would contact them. By phone or email they were responsive. To give credit to Bradley, so were they. We definitely didn't get a hint of interest from Wash U. </p>
<p>As far as any of these schools acting like they REALLY wanted my son, none did. Like I said it has been a good, two-way street with Tulsa and Bradley.</p>
<p>We didn't notice an increase in interest once he was NM. They just told us about the scholarship opportunities and that there was another person that would be in the loop now that focused on NM (mostly helping us navigate that aspect of things).</p>
<p>My wife and son just visited again last weekend/Monday and it was a published school visit weekend, a big deal, lots of students and parents and not just for NM and my wife was VERY impressed with everything and how well all the students and parents were treated. There was one meeting at the very end for NM people. Besides that it was a visit for anyone.</p>
<p>When I visited last fall before we knew about NM we scheduled a visit and it was not a big weekend thing and when we got there I'd say it looked like about 7 families were also visiting and everything was very organized (we had emailed back and forth before we went about what we wanted to look into) they had setup a class for my son to visit and the visits with the department chairmen (again before he was a NM). </p>
<p>Tulsa is definitely going through some growing pains as they are trying to raise their profile and rankings and recruiting NM students are a long term strategy to do that and I think it is paying off for them. However, many of the students we spoke to were not NM and we could not find one student who didn't rave about the school. (I am sure they exist though).</p>
<p>Every school has its culture and its feel and they are subjective things you have to weigh with the more objective things. For my son, the objective things and the subjective all align for him. Actually, we'd rather him stay around here and go to Bradley (which is offering him free tuition), and he is a "homebody" but he really caught the bug to go to Tulsa as it really seem to fit him.</p>
<p>I hope all of this helps. Best of luck in your search.</p>
<p>Somehow double posted - sorry!</p>
<p>Printin/Missypie and anyone else who has a student considering the University of Tulsa - </p>
<p>The only way your student can decide if Tulsa is for them is to visit and make that visit detailed, as one should do with ANY school they are seriously considering attending.
Our D talked EXTENSIVELY with the admissions people and the Jenny (lady who handled the NMFs at the time). She was interested in playing in the orchestra of the school she attended so she had a meeting with Tulsa's orchestra director. D is artistic and would love to take some art classes at the college level so she met with the head of the art department. She wanted to double major in science and a language so she met with a chemistry professor and toured the labs. She also attended an upper level language class.
In the end, Tulsa did not have the things she was looking for in HER college experience. On my previous post I tried to outline what my D saw as pros and cons for her. Your child might see things differently.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Our experience is that Wash U was the most stuck-up, unfriendly, ladder-climbing, politically correct of the schools.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Although this thread is not about WashU, it is the school my D attends and love it! Hasn't experience anything like Graceandpeace's observation. She is surrounded by professors and students alike who astounded her on a daily basis with their intelligence and out of the box thinking. She can double major, double minor and take the premed prereqs. WashU was the school for my D, might not be for someone else.</p>
<p>Jenny Lin. She's the one person at Tulsa with whom we were very impressed.</p>
<p>Our son is not NMF and received great treatment on his visits to Tulsa. His first visit, as a sophomore, we went on a scheduled visit day (seems like it was President's Day - I know it was very cold). He went again about a year later to audition for band. Students, staff, and professors were all friendly and helpful on both visits. This fall we attended Family Weekend and ran into son's German professor along the sidewalks. He talked to us for probably ten minutes about our son's progress in the class and future study abroad opportunities. </p>
<p>We all just love Tulsa. Like any school, it isn't for everyone, but it has some very strong programs and ranks high on the student happiness polls.</p>
<p>I don’t go to TU, but I volunteer in the neighborhood west of the school and have lived in Tulsa my whole life (I’m 20). I live about 15 minutes from the campus. I’ve worked with probably 20 people doing work study, and I’ll say the students generally seem satisfied with TU. They’re pretty happy people, but also tend to give off religious, conservative vibes. It could just be luck of the draw, though. The neighborhood itself strikes me as not the safest place to be, especially at night. I haven’t heard any horror stories, and during the day it’s probably safe, but gangs are definitely around. Since I don’t go over there at night, I don’t actually see groups of people, but I hear stories from the elementary kids, whose siblings and parents are in gangs, and have seen fences and bathrooms tagged. That said, I do think the neighborhood is improving.</p>
<p>I’m not the most social person, but I’ve never met anyone under 21 who didn’t think Tulsa was boring. It’s also a conservative city, and as a bisexual, liberal atheist, I definitely do not belong here. (There is a gay club 2-3 miles from campus, Club Majestic, that’s supposed to be good, but I haven’t gone, and it’s the only one that I know of.)</p>
<p>Regarding non-Presidential scholarships: you can get more than one. Our son, now a senior at TU, got both an academic scholarship and a band scholarship. Total package $12,000/year.</p>