<p>My daughter will (most likely) be attending OU as a NMS in Fall 2015. She is considering the Honors Dorm and the NMS floor in Walker Tower. What are some things current students and parents on this board wish they'd known at this point in the process? This board has been so helpful as I research. Thank you all for your input.</p>
<ol>
<li>Don’t stress. It will be easier than you expect.</li>
<li>Take advantage of all of the OU perks for NMS such as early advising.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li> Like most college scholarships, the number includes the $5500 or so in student loans</li>
<li> The college will loft beds for the students…make sure you request it before move-in.</li>
</ol>
<p>@Torveaux can you tell me more about lofting your bed? Does the university provide the loft? Is there an extra fee?</p>
<p>That was a surprise. It is something they do. The university lofts the beds with university equipment. If I recall correctly, there is no fee. The default is for the beds to be ‘down’, but they can be requested to put ‘up’. They basically have tall frames on the beds. </p>
<p>Compared to the lofted beds in my experience from many years ago, they are much lower using the OU equipment. It really helps with floor space (using the Towers as my frame of reference).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>@Torveaux Just to clarify, you aren’t talking about this $5500 per year are you? </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This definitely looks like a scholarship not a loan but it is confusing because the yearly amount is $5500.</p>
<p>I just did the Net Price calculator on OU’s website. Strictly speaking, the “scholarship” does not include the $5500 loan and they very clearly give you a “Net Price Before Loans”. Then they deduct the $5500 loan and give a second net price AFTER the loan. </p>
<p>However, it is possible that a financial aid package sent by the school includes loans so that may be what @Torveaux was referring to. </p>
<p>I am utterly confused. Where is the language about a loan? I haven’t seen it on any of our scholarship lists.</p>
<p>I don’t recall seeing anything about loans. The $5500 is definitely scholarship money that is paid out each semester ($2750) for four years (not five like the tuition). There is also another cash stipend; if I remember correctly they add up to $8,000 a year. Some of the scholarship money is applied to the Bursar account, but D has had to pick up a couple of checks at the NM office. I can’t remember which right now … probably the technology money and the check from NM corporation for $2500. It is important that your student actually go pick them up. It is also important to factor in the fees which the NM scholarship does not cover. The fees are in the same ballpark as tuition, but vary with what classes your student is taking. OU will let you know what the fees are shortly after the semester starts. D is a freshman and with the scholarship for first year dorm, the scholarship package covers all costs of attendance. That is not going to be the case after freshman year when housing costs are not covered. D wants to rent an apartment with a friend(s) next year and from my calculations at this point, apartment rent and food will be substantially cheaper than dorm and meal plan. It is a very generous scholarship and we are grateful for it. </p>
<p>Thanks, @ohmmom Are you in-state or out-of-state?</p>
<p>Helimon, we are in-state. As I recall, there are differences in the stipends for in- and out-of-state students. I did not pay that much attention to the out-of-state package.</p>
<p>Thanks. We’re in-state, too. When we met with the NM rep at OU, he explained the out-of-pocket cost to us per semester (in the absence of any outside scholarships or OU departmental scholarships) would be $3,000 freshman year, and about $4,200 for sophomore-senior. Those costs are associated with room/board. Are fees not covered in the tuition waiver?</p>
<p>@HeliMom74 Fees are not covered in the tuition waiver and they are among the highest I have seen. They will take a large chunk of the Oklahoma Academic Scholars Program part of the award.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to OU. I thought I would join HeliMom to ask current students/parents about OU. My son won’t be in Honors so I am more interested in general classes.</p>
<p>What is a typical class size ?</p>
<p>What has been your/your student’s largest class and how many students were in it?</p>
<p>Are classes taught by professors or professors and TAs?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>@sunnydayfun
For freshmen, fairly large other than the intro English course. For instance, let’s say your kid is a prospective psych major and thus must take psychology, Calc I for bio, and life science majors, intro to zoology, freshman composition, and a university college class his freshman year. Well according to OU’s [Class</a> Nav](<a href=“http://classnav.ou.edu/#semester/201420]Class”>http://classnav.ou.edu/#semester/201420), his psychology class will likely have 110-295 students in the lecture with about 13 students in discussion. His Calculus course will have about 100-245 students with the discussions having about 25. Freshman composition courses are capped at 19 students, and UCol classes are maxed out at around 15.</p>
<p>Once the student completes the supplementary courses in the major, class sizes drop considerably. He can also choose to satisfy some of the gen ed requirements by taking upper division courses (usually you’re supposed to be a junior or above in standing, but almost every professor will allow a student to take the class if he or she just reaches out to them ahead of time). For instance, instead of having to deal with a huge class for my non Western civilization, I just enrolled in an upper division Native American studies course which was done discussion style since we only had 17 students in the course. </p>
<p>
Physics I for Science and Engineering majors. 250 students. I just sat in the front, ocassionally asked questions after class, and the professor knew my name by the second week. It’s also worth noting that this semester my only large class is an intro programming course. Other than that, none of my classes have more than 30 students in them. </p>
<p>
Professors generally lead lectures, TA generally lead discussion sections/ labs. I’ve had only one course where a grad student taught a class, and then it was an intro chemistry course during the summer. Frankly, she was a much better teacher than the full time professor who taught summer Chem II. </p>
<p>When the student advances to upper division courses, having TAs at all becomes rare unless he or she is in a lab based course. Other than that, it’s usually just a professor at front. </p>
<p>@whenhen Thanks so much for the helpful reply! </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I assume ‘13 or the 25 students in discussion’ is led by TA to help with assignment/homework?</p>
<p>Have you had any professors/TAs with thick accents so it maybe difficult to understand their lectures?</p>
<p>Since the lower division classes are rather big, do you feel like in general you are getting a lot of support/advising academically?</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>@sunnydayfun
Not really. The discussion sections are often used to clarify concepts or expand on ones the professor didn’t have the opportunity to do during lecture. The concept clarifications are sometimes more lecturing (quite common in physics) or worksheets that the student does during class and then the TA reviews it. Sometimes, and this is more true in math classes, the TA clarifies any homework problems the student may be having. </p>
<p>
I had one Chinese TA who had a super hard to understand accent, but that was it. All of my professors and other TAs have been easy to understand. I also grew up in an immigrant heavy area so I’m used to listening to accents from all over the world. A kid from rural Oklahoma might have more difficulty than I do, simply because of the lack of familiarity with non native speakers. </p>
<p>
I transferred as an upperclassman and thus was immediately assigned to an adviser within my college. I’m not very familiar with freshman academic advising, or even how advising works for students in larger colleges such as the College of Arts and Sciences or Price Business. Students have to seek out academic help. The professors have office hours, as do the TAs. OU has a free tutoring center covering most of the major intro and 2000 level courses. There’s a writing center, a math help lab, an engineering tutoring center, and a geology one. There may be others that I’m not aware of. However, the professors will not send an email to a student with a D, urging the student to meet with him so he can discuss how to pass the class. The various academic resource centers would love to help, but don’t reach out if a student is struggling. </p>
<p>D’s first semester fees were similar to tuition; nevertheless, scholarships covered all expenses. However, first year NM scholarship covers housing plus the technology fee which are only for the first year. D is looking at an apartment for next year which will be less expensive than the dorm plus her food budget will be less expensive than the meal plan for dorm-residing students. She did not use all of her meal plan this first semester. </p>
<p>D took 6 classes this semester. It was her first semester but she was starting as a sophomore which I think is pretty common for NMS. One class had about 500 students enrolled but she said that only about 200 would show up for most classes. Another class had 100+ students. The large classes had smaller weekly discussion sessions. The remainder of her classes had 20-30 students. Although D strongly prefers small classes, she found her classes manageable and she had a 4.0 semester. </p>
<p>@whenhen Thanks for that link! I had been browsing through the class schedule for information on what classes were offered when and class sizes but this is the perfect summary.</p>
<p>@ohmmom Did your D take any honors classes? If so, what was her opinion of those and the honors college in general? And that’s a hefty load for a first semester freshman. Congrats to you D on a great job!</p>
<p>Although this question wasn’t adressed to me, I’ll answer @STEMFamily The honors college is great. I really enjoy it. I am involved with one of the projects sponsored by the honors college and couldn’t be happier. The honors college is just another resource like NM events that try and make more academically inclined students comfortable if they don’t like some of the more traditional college events. I’m involved with something called The Honors Undergraduate Research Journal and my friends run the chess club, sponsored by the honors college that has 30-40 kids come per week. I think it does a great job and Dean Ray is truly an asset.</p>
<p>I’ve taken honors classes and they are nice. They are generally more challenging than non-honors courses, but they’re also enjoyable because they’re much smaller and the teachers are much more engaging. I’ve enjoyed every honors course I’ve taken.</p>