The University of Oregon

Date: Oct 11 2009
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
After reading the comments written so far about UO I generally agree with most of them, the good and the bad ones. I believe that UO is a great place for some people and horrible place for others, unfortunately I feel into the latter category. Hopefully I can give a warning to some people who shouldn't go to UO:

1- people not from the west coast:

Unlike 99% of people who go to UO I am not from Oregon, California, and Washington, I'm from Maryland. At first I really loved it but after about a year I realized that east coast jokes and constantly hanging out with people who went to the same high school or district as everyone else can get really annoying and I was constantly the outsider. Oregonians are very friendly people but they also really love their state and are slow to accept people from other states (they also hate people from California so most of the people from there end up hanging out with only people from California). UO is also extremely expensive out of state and dose not offer much financial aid. If you are from the east coast don't go to oregon, go to washington or California, you'll be more welcomed and there will be more diversity (at UO everyone is everyone is white and from OR, WA, or CA, seriously)

2- people who like the sun

It rains all the time from like oct to march, if you like the rain you'll love oregon if you don't pick another school

3- people going to college mainly to get a good education

If you are not a journalism or business major then I would not recommend UO. In the history department the intro classes are laughably easy and even the upper division classes were way to easy. I managed to get straight A's one quarter and I only went to about five classes. You only need to go to the midterms and finals and study for like an hour to get a good grade in most classes in the history department. Which is great if you want to party all the time but if you actually want challenging classes pick another school. Most of the other departments, like political science and english are equally as easy. Although I have heard great thinks about the honors college I wasn't in it so I wouldn't comment on it.

Some other things to consider about UO:

The general education requirements are really easy. You can get a BS in almost any department (meaning taking one year of math) so that's something to consider if you suck at languages (a BA requires 2 years of a language)

the party scene is really big and if you are into joining a frat or sorority this might be the school for you because that scene is about the right size. Not really tiny but small enough that you'll know most of the greeks but big enough that there are 2-3 parties ever weekend. Even if you're not in a sorority and want to party its really easy to get into the parties and they're pretty good, especially if you're a girl and most of the people are super friendly

pot is everywhere so if you don't like the smell or are completely against it you will have problems

if your not into the greek life then the night scene before you turn 21 is horrible unless your lucky enough to make friends with people who have house parties, and its turn there's really nothing to do in eugene (although the $1.50 movie theater is amazing) I have heard the bar scene is nice though, there's an 80s night at one of the bars thats really big

if you're jewish, Oregon Hillel is okay, its supers small and pretty clich? though and right now is going though a bunch of budget cuts and staff turn over but they have a lot of good programs tons of freed food and there are a couple of cool people there and an entire jewish party scene mostly run by AEPi. FYI if you didn't know eugene is pretty anti-Semitic

the dorms suck. I lived in hamilton dorms and then worked for UO housing so I know that most of the dorms are really small or super far of campus, the food sucks, its almost impossible to get a room change if you hate your roommate, and a lot of the RAs don't care and alcoholics. However they're a great way to meet people so if you can put up with it for a year do it.

Eugene is a pretty dangerous town. Last year there was a rapist on campus so girls couldn't walk anywhere alone at night and the cemetery on campus always has creepy people hanging out there. All the cheep apartments are located in pretty sketchy areas and its not unusually to hear about rapes in the surrounding areas

no sales tax in oregon is great

there aren't that many part time jobs available to students

So basically if your from oregon/california/washington, want an easy education, are a business/journalism or to join a greek organization go to UO. If you're from the east coast, aren't into partying/pot, and care about challenging classes pick another school. Most important advice I would give though is to go visit UO more then once, stay over night, talk to people around campus, and visit some classes before deciding to go here because if I could go back and do that I probably would have ended up somewhere else and would be much happier right now.