University of Oregon Top Questions

Professors can honestly make you like or hate the subject. I recommend asking others who have taken the class what they liked and didn't like about the professor's teaching style and possibly read some reviews online about them. There are a lot of general education requirements. Definitely try to get classes that overlap multiple requirements (likes "arts and letters" and "multicultural" are both satisfied for the same class). This way, you have more space in your schedule to take the classes you want, and a better chance to graduate on-time, although an increasing number of students stay for a fifth year, and that's ok to do too.

In WGS and Spanish and the Honors College most of my profs know my name, but regular UO classes that have upwards of 100 kids wouldn't if I didn't go to office hours and harrass them into knowing me :).

Classes are good. Registering is frustrating, you really have to lobby for your education and not give up if they tell you "you don't have the right prereqs, the class is full..etc etc." Urban Farm is probably the best fun class you can take.

Most of my profs dont know my name. Favorite class: wilderness survival, awesome. I dont feel prepared to go get a job after this.least favorite: Humanities 103. Students are not competitive. The Bio department is awesome. They have a strong core of profs and good GTFs and BPTs. The academic requirements seem reasonable.

Once you are in the upper division classes, teachers actually get to know you as long as you make an effort. Almost all of them are extremely approachable and easy to have a real conversation with.

If it wasn't for the honors college, I would have been frustrated with my academic experience here. My advice would be to choose a major that the school is strong in, and not just something that interests you, because there are definite differences in program strength here. My honors classes made up all of my undergraduate requirements and never have more than 25 people in them, are discussion based, and can sometimes result in an end-of-term dinner at the professor's house. Students are largely non-competitive which is WONDERFUL (I wanted to go to an East Coast school and can't tell you now how glad I am that I didn't) and everyone takes their academics pretty seriously. The most unique class I've taken was 19th Century German Poetry and Song: it was taught by two professors, and had 7 kids in the class. I learned so much random stuff but was exposed to a whole new kind of learning experience. I won't ever forget that class. In addition to twice a week meetings, we had to attend a concert, and then had a dinner party at one professor's house where we talked about our final papers. We actually didn't talk about our papers at all and just enjoyed our professor's culinary skills and each other's company.

Academics? Oh that's right, the OTHER reason I'm at UO! I came here to run track and escape the death grip of my parents, I didn't look much into academics. However, I did apply for the Architecture school and got in as an incoming frosh. The program was a HUGE dissapointment to me. My professor SUCKED! And mandatory studio was a nightmare. The main problem is that I was looking for Landscape Arch, and all students must take General architucture the first year, before going into specific categories. This was my downfall, as I could care less about building offices. So, I transitioned to business, and so far it has been phenominal. The UO school of Business is amazing, really top notch professors... a great place to earn a business degree, or even minor. Requirements are very fair, tons of class variation for different requirements. Online classes are also set up very well, and run smoothly. I LOVE the quarter system, if you have a crappy class, you only have to deal with it for 10 weeks!

Being from the business school, yes students are competitive, trying to keep ahead of the class average is definitely part of the fun. All of our classes encourage communication within the class, but I think my personal favorite class would be Management 335- Launching New Ventures with Sam Holloway. This class, is awesome, great atmosphere and you are guaranteed to learn a ton!

Like any larger university, lower division classes are usually larger because students need to take general education classes. But once you begin your major upper division classes the sizes are great. My classes are largest at 40 students, but mostly less. Even the most popular majors have classes smaller then 60 students in the upper division courses. Professors are great most of the time!

I have actually been engaged by my classes. The feeling of excitement to learn is new to me. My classes have actually turned me onto much more than I ever expected.