University of Oregon Top Questions

I think it depends on the size of the class (under 30, yes...otherwise only if you are that annoying bitch who asks the dumbest question of the day every day). Honestly, yes and quite a lot. Not really. Butterfly catching. I'm an undeclared junior (hells yeah). Once, awkward... They're tight by me. learning for learning's sake.

The faculty in my program is amazing and I feel grateful for all the awesome and student-focused professors I have had. It's difficult to pinpoint a favorite class because I always love the class that I most recently took. Class participation is very common, especially in my upper level classes which tend to be smaller. Student's are competitive, but we all help each other out as well. You won't find someone trying to sabotage another's grade by giving them the wrong notes or something. My chief complaint is my advising department. I feel like the amount of time that I have spent figuring out how to complete my major with the emphasis and the minors that I want has been totally in my hands, and I have received no useful help from my advising department. In fact, I've never even seen my department academic adviser before. Overall, this major is great and the classes and professors are top notch, but I would like to see improvement in the advising department.

3 out of my 5 professors this term know my name. I love my oceanography, we get to watch deep blue. My journalism class is really hard...you get an automatic F for any spelling commas, or fact errors on any assignment. I study about 2 hours a night. Class participation is common depending on the class... more class participation in a literature class.... very little in a huge lecture. Yea we have intellectual conversations outside of class. My roommate took a tree identification class.

One thing I would change is the class sizes. Lectures are huge, it's very intimidating to ask a question when the entire class groans at you. It's also very intimidating to go to office hours half way through the term with a question if the professor doesn't even recognize your face. When you do though, they are very happy to see you so that feeling disappears within a few seconds. If you're not very outgoing it can be difficult to make friends and do well in class. My favorite class and most unique class was the Philosophy of Love and Sex. The professor was very engaging and presented many arguments about topics I'd never even thought of.

Some of my professors know my name. I think once you get into upper division work you know your professors pretty well, but in huge introductory lecture classes you are pretty anonymous. My favorite class is Biblical Hebrew. My least favorite classes were anything to do with business.

If you can get into it, take the American Sign Language sequence for your two years of foreign language credit. It's an eye-opening, inspiring experience with a teacher who feels passion about her subject and genuine care for her students. I learned about a brand new culture I didn't even knew existed before I took the class and you get to learn about issues that are going on here and now. You may not be able to get into ASL101 your first fall term here, but wait around. It'll be worth it.

The academics are pretty rigorous. But I am sure they are at most colleges. No the professors don't know your name unless you make an effort to attend their office hours numerous times and talk to them on your own. The teaching assistants and the GTF's though, are encouraged to learn your names and it isn't hard to get one on one help with your classes. I think a lot of the classes I take seem unneccesary to complete my major, but I think that they want students to really have a variety.

There is quite a mix of students at UO in terms of their study habits. I know a lot of people from the Honors College who make academics their top priority, but there are also some Honors students who party a lot. The same mix exists for "normal" UO students, but people generally get their work done. Personally, I like to space out my work so I don't have to cram, so I'm not the type to pull all-nighters. I spend around six hours total on each of my English essays, though, so the hours still add up when there are exams and homework assignments breathing down your neck as well. People at UO get to take classes from a lot of departments to fulfill their general requirements, so everyone has the chance to explore different subjects and learn what they really like. As a double major, I still get to do a wide array of assignments for my classes, so it gets interesting. Just last week, I was taking notes on human resources recruiting practices one night and writing a paper about Shakespeare's critique of Petrarchism the very next. It's a lot of work, but it's fun because I'm never bored with my classes for long. I like the English major because I have a lot of freedom to choose classes I want to take. There are certain categories to fulfill based on the time period of the literature being studied. For example, I have to take one upper division class dealing with Pre-1500s literature, so I could take a class about Old English or study Chaucer extensively (among other options). The only classes I can't get out of are in the yearlong introductory sequence. They're lower division, but they're actually much harder than most of the upper division courses I've completed. I'm taking one of the classes right now, and I'm putting in a lot of hours at the library just to get Bs on my essays. I would enjoy the classes a lot more if I could just go to lecture and listen. The Business Administration major is a lot more organized in terms of the curriculum. UO has its own business school on campus, so not everyone can graduate with a Business or Accounting degree. There are five pre-Business classes to take: one introductory business course, two accounting courses, and two economics courses. When I got into the business school, the minimum GPA requirement for these five classes was a 2.75 (a little better than C+ average), and I know a few people who didn't get high enough grades and had to retake classes. Once you're in, most people pick a concentration like Marketing or Finance, but some people don't. I currently don't have a concentration, but I still have time to decide. Both the English and Business departments try to get students prepared for life after college, but sometimes I don't feel like it's enough. Some English classes include a part-time internship; I'm a Writing Associate for a lower division English class and get to help students with their papers. The business school has their own career center, which is very helpful, but people have to go in on their own time. I think it would be more beneficial if we had to do an internship as part of our graduation requirements, because some students get left behind.