<p>My son is a Junior in HS and plans on studying Mechanical Engineering. We are visiting Tulsa during our spring break and was wondering if anyone here has any insight on what we should do, ask and see while we are in the area (We arrive on a Saturday and leave Monday evening). Any insight on the ME program as well?</p>
<p>The [Philbrook</a> Museum of Art](<a href=“http://philbrook.org%5DPhilbrook”>http://philbrook.org) is wonderful. The gardens should be beautiful in March. </p>
<p>The [Gilcrease</a> Museum](<a href=“http://gilcrease.utulsa.edu%5DGilcrease”>http://gilcrease.utulsa.edu) is great, too. It is actually now a partnership between TU and the City of Tulsa, so TU might be able to help with tickets. </p>
<p>Thanks to the BOK Center and the new (beautiful) Drillers stadium, the downtown area is undergoing a revitalization. You can find great local restaurants in the Blue Dome District, as well as the Brady District. I can give you specific recommendations if you need them. [Brookside[/url</a>] is a nice area with great restaurants, shops, etc. </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.guthriegreen.com%5DGuthrie”>http://www.guthriegreen.com]Guthrie</a> Green](<a href=“http://brooksidetheplacetobe.com%5DBrookside%5B/url”>http://brooksidetheplacetobe.com) is a beautiful new garden and performance space in the Brady District. I doubt they will have events going in March, as it might be a little early, but it’s worth walking around there, for sure. </p>
<p>Tulsa has some fantastic examples of Art Deco buildings. You can find directions for a walking tour of them here: [Art</a> Deco Landmarks Walking Tour | TravelOK.com](<a href=“http://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.296]Art”>Art Deco Landmarks Walking Tour | TravelOK.com - Oklahoma's Official Travel & Tourism Site) </p>
<p>If you have the time to head north, [Woolaroc[/url</a>] is a wonderful museum and wildlife preserve that was created by Frank Phillips (Phillips Petroleum). Frank was brother to Waite, who donated his home to the city of Tulsa and is now the Philbrook museum I mentioned earlier. </p>
<p>Bartlesville (near Woolarcoc) has the [url=<a href=“http://pricetower.org%5DPrice”>http://pricetower.org]Price</a> Tower Arts Center](<a href=“http://www.woolaroc.org%5DWoolaroc%5B/url”>http://www.woolaroc.org)…Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper. They offer tours. </p>
<p>[Utica</a> Square](<a href=“http://www.uticasquare.com%5DUtica”>http://www.uticasquare.com) is a lovely outdoor shopping area. Even if you and your son don’t want to shop, it’s a nice place to walk around on a pretty day. </p>
<p>Where are you coming from? </p>
<p>We have lived in the Tulsa area for 14 years. My son is studying Chemical Engineering at TU now. He is in his second semester and is very happy there. The Engineering school is very strong, and it is my understanding that they work aggressively with the students to find summer internships as well as jobs after college. They award great merit scholarships, as well. </p>
<p>Let me know if you have other questions.</p>
<p>Soonermom95</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the reply and great information. I’ve been off the board for a few days so I apologize for not responding sooner. (no pun intended!)</p>
<p>I’m glad to hear that you son is pleased with the ChemE program. As a second semester stduent (freshman?) could you give me an idea as to what a typical class size is? What has been his largest class and how many students were in it? </p>
<p>I’m going to share your post with my family and see if anyone else has any questions.<br>
Thanks again for your response!</p>
<p>Try the aquarium (it really is fun!).
The riverwalk area (near the aquarium) is lovely, especially during the evenings.
The Utica square area is nice, good shopping, a lovely place.</p>
<p>DPMdad…I just texted my son and he said he has had one class each semester that has had 60-70. The smallest classes have had 13-15 and the average class size he has had is 20-22…smaller than his average high school class. He has really enjoyed his classes so far. His profs have been very accessible outside of class. </p>
<p>Rachelm57’s recommendation about the aquarium is a good one. I completely forgot about that. <a href=“http://www.okaquarium.org/[/url]”>http://www.okaquarium.org/</a> The area around the riverwalk is nice, but sadly, there is very little activity there other than a couple of restaurants. Most of the shops have closed. </p>
<p>BTW, TU gives good merit aid and will work with you if the initial package isn’t enough. </p>
<p>Let me know if you have other questions.</p>
<p>DPMdad… 60-70 for the largest class sounds about right. They don’t have any bigger lecture hall in the Keplinger building. Getting to Calc III the class is already down to 20-30 kids and it keeps getting smaller and smaller from there. It’s just a small college.</p>
<p>I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice. We spent 2.5 days in Tulsa and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Too bad it got a little cold and wet while we were in town, though. We visited the Aquarium and saw Of Mice and Men a the PAC on Saturday night. We enjoyed Pizza and Pasta at Andolinis and burgers at McNellies.
TU was great. We were hard pressed to find fault with anything. We also visited Missouri S&T and Rose-Hulman institute of technology during our spring break college tour and were very impressed with the track record of those universities in securing internships and employment for their students prior to graduation. They had a lot of literature and stats showing the wheres, how many, how much and with whoms that students gained employment. We did not come across that level of detail at TU. I am hoping to obtain more information and clarity in that area from TU in the weeks and months ahead. </p>
<p>Otherwise, we fell in love with TU - a great first impression!</p>
<p>It’s been pretty quiet around here. I wanted to post a followup question regarding anyone with current or past experience with attendance at TU - particularly the engineering programs.</p>
<p>As I mentioned in my last post, my family, and perhaps most importantly, my son loved the University of Tulsa when we visited it this past March. Since then we have visited a couple more schools, (Colorado School of Mines and Clemson University) and TU is still moy son’s favorite.</p>
<p>The only thing lacking in our comparison of TU with some of the other schools my son has ranked highly is a relative lack of detailed statistics with regards to career fair and internship and employment placement. Other (particularly the engineering focused schools like Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Missouri S&T, & Colorado School of Mines) had very detailed data on employment placement rates, starting salaries and internship placement and pay - all either readily viewed on their websites and or in handouts given during campus visits.</p>
<p>We are left with the impression that with the exception of some Oil and Gas Companies from Houston that look to recruit the PE majors, most of the jobs and internship opportunities are local to Tulsa. Now, we happened to enjoy Tulsa so that’s not the worst problem, but we are wondering if my son chooses to attend TU, will he need to be prepared to market himself more if he chooses to purse employment or internships outside of Tulsa? Again, he will be studying mechanical engineering…</p>
<p>Any opinions or wisdom to share anyone?</p>
<p>I was hoping to see more communication on this site but I guess it went to sleep. My DD is in high school and considering TU, OU and several CHYMPS schools. I live in Tulsa and found the reputation for TU’s engineering program to be stellar, especially when it comes to the PE program. They are also very generous with Merit scholarships. No matter what school your DS attends, they have to deliver on the internships or co-opportunities because that is more important than the school he attends for future employment.</p>
<p>Just popping back in here. My son has quite a few friends who are doing internships this summer. I know several are in Tulsa and Houston, but I remember him telling me some are in other places. I do think the bulk of them are in those two cities, though. Also, Oil and Gas companies hire quite a few mechanical and chemical engineers out of TU. I used to work in HR for a petroleum company and we heavily recruited PE, ChemE and MechE from TU. My son is at Bonnaroo at the moment, but I’ll ask him when he gets back and see if he can shed some light on the internships and job placement after graduation.</p>
<p>I’ve been away from these boards for a while. It’s good to hear from you Soonermom95. Thanks for the info. TU is still my son’s favorite school. Any additional insight your son can provide would be most appreciated.</p>
<p>DPMdad…I’m glad to hear that TU is still your son’s favorite school. He has visited some pretty impressive colleges. My son should be home tonight and I’ll ask if he knows any more about internships and job placement. He attended a career fair in the fall and was very impressed with both the number and diversity of companies represented there. It’s tough for freshmen to get internships, so he not working one this summer, but is hopeful that he will get one next summer. </p>
<p>He loved his first year at TU. It is a perfect fit for him. Though we live within 30 minutes of campus, we rarely saw him. He never spent the night at home except over holiday breaks. He was always busy doing something at school and got very involved quickly. </p>
<p>I’ll let you know when I know more. If you have any other questions, let me know and I’ll see what I can find out.</p>
<p>TU is a great school and pretty high on DS14’s list, just wondering if the financial part can be worked out. </p>
<p>TU is one of the more popular private schools at DS’ high school since we’re only about 2 hours away. We have a friend whose son graduated from TU this year and did exceptionally well during his time there - two study abroads, several awards and is going to Cambridge to study this coming semester. I believe he was finance or economics major. He turned down Harvard for TU, and while he may have had the same opportunities at Harvard, he was able to really shine at TU.</p>
<p>My DS is interested in mechanical engineering and we liked the tour when we went in January.</p>