OU/OSU

[SicEmBaylor]

So, my cousin is a senior in HS and she's leaning heavily toward attending OSU which is where nearly everyone else in my family went.

I've given up trying to talk her into Baylor, so now I'm trying to convince her to go to OU over OSU. I know OU is ranked well above OSU in undergrad rankings and OU has more National Merit Scholars than any university in the nation, but what else could I say to convince her to go to OU?


I'm looking for everything from academics to athletics (she's very very fast and has a chance to possibly get a scholarship somewhere which would make this entire discussion pointless) to the different social scenes.

Thanks!

[Vaevictis]

What's she planning on majoring in? Make sure to check their accreditation. For example, their CS department is not accredited.

Non-accredited degrees usually make it harder to get professional licensing if it's required in your field; sometimes, it makes it impossible.

[Vaevictis]

Also, she does realize she'll have to live in Stillwater, right? ;)

And the National Merit Scholarship is something like, "More NMS's per capita than any other public university"... so it's a pretty well contrived statistic ;)

[Flagstaffsooner]

If she eats her boogers and has hairy arm pits send her to stool.

[SicEmBaylor]

She's a big "undecided."

I can't even imagine what she'd be good at. She's one of those girls whose very intelligent, makes great grades, but otherwise has no real direction. There's nothing you can really point at with her and say, "you should study that in college!"

I figure OU would point her in a better direction than OSU.

[Vaevictis]

shrug, just make sure that when she does pick a major, she doesn't pick one at OSU that's not accredited ;p

[SicEmBaylor]

shrug, just make sure that when she does pick a major, she doesn't pick one at OSU that's not accredited ;p

That's a good point. I figured if it's a state accredited university then all of their programs would be accredited as well...apparently not!

[Vaevictis]

Nope, programs can be formed and up and running still waiting for their accreditation, or they can lose it after failing to meet certain standards -- OU's accounting program apparently lost its accreditation for awhile in the '70s.

You need to investigate each program individually, and make sure that the program is accredited by the appropriate accreditation board.

[Vaevictis]

FWIW, OU's accreditation summary:

http://catalog.ou.edu/current/General_Info_About_OU.htm

[Vaevictis]

OU also has some nifty student tools; I don't know about OSU, but OU has this degree navigator thing which is slick:

https://webapps.ou.edu/dag/

It's currently down for maintenance, but it essentially draws out a graph for you of the classes you need to take, the pre-requisite tree, etc. Which is pretty nice, because let's face it -- nobody in any University really knows a goddamn thing about this sort of thing.

[Vaevictis]

Another advantage of OU is the fact that you have nearby community colleges that transfer classes in very easily. This gives you many, many more scheduling options in your freshman and sophomore years, if you're willing to drive to OKCCC or Rose State.

Community colleges are also usually cheaper per hour, if money is an issue.

[Vaevictis]

OU is also hardcore pushing accelerated joint undergrad/grad programs that can be accomplished in 5 years. There are tons of them.

BSEE/MSEE
BSCompE/MSEE
BSCompE/MSCS
BSCS/MSCS
BSIE/MSIE
BSIE/MBA
BSME/MSME
BSAccounting/MSAccounting
MBA/JD (4 years for this one)

Those are only the ones I know off of the top of my head (because I am engineering/business centric). There are probably others in other colleges I am less familiar with.

[PhxSooner]

Tell her she'll never get the smell of manure out of her hair if she goes to Stillwater...:D

I used to give campus tours to prospective students/parents. Back in the day, I could figure out pretty fast who was coming to OU, and who was going to OSU. Get her on both campuses and she'll make a decision. My gut reaction to OSU was "oh, no, no, no!", but for some strange reason, I saw the same reaction to OU from some kids. Checking out majors is important, but there are pretty good odds she'll change majors once or twice. We told all the kids who swore that they wanted to be vets to go to OU for undergrad, and then be an aggie. My roommate was gonna do that; she ended up with a letters degree and became a teacher. But thank goodness she never ended up in Stillwater.

[crawfish]

She's a big "undecided."

I can't even imagine what she'd be good at. She's one of those girls whose very intelligent, makes great grades, but otherwise has no real direction. There's nothing you can really point at with her and say, "you should study that in college!"

I figure OU would point her in a better direction than OSU.

She's looking for a "Mrs" degree? Tell her OU grads make more than OSU grads, on average. :D

[StoopTroup]

FWIW, OU's accreditation summary:

http://catalog.ou.edu/current/General_Info_About_OU.htm
This won't set well with some of OUr posters....:D


UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

The university uses the liberal-professional model of education


:pop:

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

So, my cousin is a senior in HS and she's leaning heavily toward attending OSU which is where nearly everyone else in my family went.

I've given up trying to talk her into Baylor, so now I'm trying to convince her to go to OU over OSU. I know OU is ranked well above OSU in undergrad rankings and OU has more National Merit Scholars than any university in the nation, but what else could I say to convince her to go to OU?


I'm looking for everything from academics to athletics (she's very very fast and has a chance to possibly get a scholarship somewhere which would make this entire discussion pointless) to the different social scenes.

Thanks!

4 words should get her to Norman "The Legend of Dolemite!"

[dolemitesooner]

Is she hawt?

[SicEmBaylor]

Is she hawt?
If I had an opinion on that then I would be at OSU.

[dolemitesooner]

If I had an opinion on that then I would be at OSU.
If she is hawt she needs to come to Ou if not send her *** to OSU. and since she is related to you I wouls hip here *** to osu anyways:D

[Boarder]

Tell her if she goes to osu there's this:

No matter what she does in life, no matter what she acheives, no matter what she makes of herself...she'll always have that stigma: I'm an aggy.

[Bakasooner]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

How about USAO? Or UCO?

[proud gonzo]

Also, she does realize she'll have to live in Stillwater, right? ;)

And the National Merit Scholarship is something like, "More NMS's per capita than any other public university"... so it's a pretty well contrived statistic ;) not really--National Merit is a big deal here. Most places offered me about half tuition or offered to waive out of state or something. OU offered a $55,000 scholarship (over 5 years). It's a pretty sweet deal, especially in comparison to what most universities offered me. The only other one that was somewhat tempting (when I was considering astrophysics) was Houston. They offer a full ride for National Merit, plus NASA is there. But then i decided I hate physics.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

How about USAO? Or UCO?Does that mean you're aggy?

[Vaevictis]

Oh, trust me, I know that National Merit is a pretty big deal here. They seriously bribe the **** out of NMS's :)

But it's still a contrived statistic. Whenever you have someone whipping up a ratio and restricting it to a sub-set, they're definitely massaging the numbers at least a little bit. :)

[Cam]

But it's still a contrived statistic. Whenever you have someone whipping up a ratio and restricting it to a sub-set, they're definitely massaging the numbers at least a little bit. :)
Without such activity, there'd be no such thing as statisticians. Who else is going to show us how 1+1 does not equal 2?

[Vaevictis]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

And yeah, I got my undergraduate degree from OU, and am currently working on my master's.

You'll notice my "slamming" is pretty factual. Accreditation is a big deal if you're planning on entering a licensed profession. Having nearby community colleges is, in fact, an advantage because some people do better in a chemistry or physics class that has 30 students instead of 300, and because it gives additional scheduling options. Sometimes it's cheaper, too.

Software that takes degree programs and generates a visual display of what you need to take, and what order you need to take things in is a big advantage because it's pretty common to get bad advice from an advisor -- I can't tell you how many people I've known who have gotten such bad advice and gotten stuck for an additional semester or two because of prerequisites.

And yes, accelerated five year joint undergrad/grad programs are an advantage too. Every year you stay in college, you're leaving about $40k-$80k on the table, depending on your profession, between having to pay for tuition, room, board and not working on your career. If you decide you want a graduate degree, saving a year is worth big bucks.

[Oldnslo]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

How about USAO? Or UCO?
Nice first post, ag.

Yes, I went to OU for undergrad work.

When I attended OU, because of my grades, I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. PBK recognizes OU's College of Arts and Sciences as being in the top 10% of all such colleges in the country.

OSU is not recognized by PBK. Oh, from time to time, they'll resubmit their application, but State continues not to pass muster. Since my graduation, the University of Tulsa has been recognized by PBK, so it's not as if PBK is adverse to adding or changing the schools they recognize as being elite.

There are reasons to go to OSU, but if you're not looking to be a vet or to marry a farmer, the only reason is that it's the only place that accepted you.

Does that help?

[Vaevictis]

Without such activity, there'd be no such thing as statisticians. Who else is going to show us how 1+1 does not equal 2?

Heh, not entirely true. Use of statistics in engineering (outside of sales) has no reason to manipulate the numbers like that; if you do, you usually end up with stuff that fails in production. (Obviously, that's bad)

[Cam]

Heh, not entirely true. Use of statistics in engineering (outside of sales) has no reason to manipulate the numbers like that; if you do, you usually end up with stuff that fails in production. (Obviously, that's bad)
Cough cough

[Vaevictis]

Yep, yep, that's why I said "outside of sales." Not all use of statistics is done in support of sales, you know ;)

[proud gonzo]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

How about USAO? Or UCO?did you mean for that to sound as jackass-ish as it did?

saying OSU is sucky compared to OU is not ridiculous.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

How about USAO? Or UCO?

Thank goodness you registered to tell us that!!

[Cam]

Yep, yep, that's why I said "outside of sales." Not all use of statistics is done in support of sales, you know ;)
Math matters? :eek:

[SoonerInKCMO]

She's looking for a "Mrs" degree? Tell her OU grads make more than OSU grads, on average. :D

And as an added bonus, the OU guy won't cheat on her with a farm animal. :)

[Vaevictis]

Math matters? :eek:

Goodness, I hope so. :)

[Mixer!]

Math matters? :eek:

*Insert A&M 12th Man joke here*

[GottaHavePride]

saying OSU is sucky compared to OU is not ridiculous.
In fact, NOT saying it might just be ridonculous.

[SoonerInKCMO]

You know, I've given this a little thought and I've changed my stance somewhat. If this person would even consider Halloween U, we don't want 'em. Let her be aggy. Shun her at family functions. Write her out of everyone's wills. Forget her.

;)

[BajaOklahoma]

Question....did any of you guys posting actually attend college at the OU/OSU level?

Both are fine schools, and slamming either one is ridiculous. She'll do fine if she chooses one of the two.

How about USAO? Or UCO?


The first rule for n00bs is to read more before posting. You'll often be able to answer your own questions. And you will have figured out how to make your point without making people made at you.
I am an OU grad, married to an OU grad. Sister of an OU grad. Mother of a future OU grad (whose program just expanded from a 5 year to a 6 year, with a doctorate in the works).

Sic'Em, does your cousin look good in orange? Remind her that she will be wearing a lot of it, and forever, if she goes there.

[GottaHavePride]

I've already got two degrees from OU.

[Mixer!]

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4369/photo111206001wt1.jpg

Tell her that the above is required formalwear for all aggy activities (as well as every t-shirt they print up after a victory). Tell her they also frown upon the use of definite articles. ;)