Western Oregon University Top Questions

I wish I had known how expensive college really was. There's the tutition cost, but before you come to college you have to know that you will be spending more money than just what you spend on the standard fees. There's the costs of room and board, all the supplies you will need and textbooks. Most colleges will give you an estimate to what this will cost but in my experience I ended up losing a lot more money than I thought I would. It put extra pressure on me and my family, I wish I'd known.

I wish I had known more about the communities to live in as a freshman on campus.

I would have loved to have more knowlegde as to what I was really suppose to do when i transfered over from a community college to a university. There was very little knowledge of how to officially start a degree plan. The coaches didn't really tell the tranfers how to do all that. There was a lot of paper work that needed to be filed.

I wish I had known how awesome the dance program is because I would have started it way earlier.

I wish that I had been more prepared for the amount of research that is needed in order to do the work. I did not do a lot of reasearch in high school, so having to look things up and study was a fairly new thing for me.

One of the things I wish I knew before coming to Western Oregon University (WOU) is knowing that I could of gotten paid for showing my dorn to the people that get a campus tour at our school. Another thing I wish I knew was knowing that we have many helpful resources to support us academically. For example, the learning center. The Learning Center is where WOU students get two hours of free tutoring for each class we have.

Before attending WOU, I wish I would've known more about the nursing department and how loans really worked beforehand. It's very intimidating as a freshman trying to pay for college by his or herself to understand everything about each loan and choosing which one is the right one for you. Also, the lack of student jobs available was very disappointing,

Ill be beginning school at Western in the fall but have completed my AAOT at Chemeketa. I wish I would have known (before going to Chemeketa) that college is like an awesome version of high school. You get to choose your classes, which there are many more options of, and you get to pick your hours. The only thing that you don’t factor in when preparing for college is that adult life kicks in and you have to be responsible for yourself, bills and work. By managing time and budget well, you can lead a happy, successful college life.

That you need to be in charge of your own pacing to graduate on time. Many advisors don't know about specialty programs and deadlines.

I wish I had known that a lot of people party. I'm not a party person so it would have been nice to know.