Last week, I had my tour at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. I got an absolutely perfect day to come onto campus and take my look at it, only problem was, so did 900 other people. While I did enjoy my time on campus in Eugene, my only advice to anyone in the college search process is this: Do Not, I Repeat, Not Go To Anything Like Duck Days. This event had, as I said earlier, 900 people there. When I walked into the info session at the beginning of the day, the amount of people was absolutely insane. I can't imagine being in a class of that size. I guess it helps that the Ducks were in the BCS National Championship in January and that their sports are basically being privately funded by Nike. Those two, especially the latter, will drive up the number of applications hugely. Everywhere I went during the day, I found there to just be to many people there. When we went to check out a residence hall, instead of having some groups check out some halls, and other groups check out other halls, they just had all of the groups check out one residence hall. That was the worst part of the tour in my book. I expected better from Oregon. The other part that i did not like was that when I went to the academic session, it was not telling me about the program and what they have done, what they are focusing on in the future, and basically what separates Oregon from other schools, like Mizzou or Northwestern (the two classic journalism powers). They (and this is probably because there were seniors and transfer students in the session too) focused on what to do when a student gets to college. They went through what classes a student signs up for and what to do to ensure success when a student begins college. This was easily the worst academic session I have gone to in my search so far. Oh, and the people giving the presentation in the academic session weren't even teachers in the journalism department. They were counselors (or academic advisors, whichever term is preferred). I coudn't believe that UofO couldn't even get one freaking teacher to come and talk to prospective students! This is something that they screwed up hugely. I guarantee that if I (or anyone else, for that matter) would have gone on a day other than Duck Days, I would have gotten a much better feel for the campus than I did with the HUGE group that was there.
Now, don't get me wrong folks. I still loved Oregon. The feeling around Eugene is one that I could get used to very quickly. I loved how basically everything in town runs around the UofO. (Fort Collins would be like that if CSU was good at something other than volleyball) I could see logos everywhere I went, and that was freaking awesome. I feel that Eugene is the quintessential college town. Also, when I took a trip down to Autzen, I couldn't believe how awesome it was in person. I would freaking LOVE to see a game in there. As I said in my last post, I found PK Park back there near Autzen and it was amazing! PK was definitely on of the best college baseball stadiums I have seen. I can tell just from my drive around and day at Oregon, that UofO is a great school that the students love to go to. I was there on Earth day, and there was a ton of activities going on around the EMU to celebrate it. It was the largest Earth Day demonstration I have seen. It was great to see how much the students cared. Even though I went to UofO on perhaps the worst possible day (not weather wise, but tour wise, just read above where the big numbers are) I am still highly interested in going to the UofO and becoming a Duck. It would definitely be an amazing place to spend four years. I don't think that it can top TCU or Mizzou right now, but I'll keep the people that read this posted on what happens in my college search as it gets closer to me applying and choosing my college.
But for now I'll close this post on this off-topic note. Please, Please, Please, Please listen to my radio show, KLIKSports with Jeff live on Wednesdays at 6 PM Mountain Time (5 PM Pacific, 7PM Central, 8 PM Eastern). It is my show that I have on a high school student run internet radio station based out of my hometown here in Fort Collins, Colorado. I really need some more listeners, so PLEASE tune in. (by the way, to tune in one must go tohttp://www.klikradio.org and hit the tune in button. The radio station works with iTunes, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer.) Please tune in! And if you want to, you can call in live to my show and give your opinion on what I am talking about or have talked about by calling 1-888-212-KLIK (5545). Please, I need listeners!
Oregon Ratings:
Info Session: 9.5/10.0
Tour: 8.0/10.0
Staff Meeting: 6.5/10.0
Total: 8.0/10
But for now I'll close this post on this off-topic note. Please, Please, Please, Please listen to my radio show, KLIKSports with Jeff live on Wednesdays at 6 PM Mountain Time (5 PM Pacific, 7PM Central, 8 PM Eastern). It is my show that I have on a high school student run internet radio station based out of my hometown here in Fort Collins, Colorado. I really need some more listeners, so PLEASE tune in. (by the way, to tune in one must go tohttp://www.klikradio.org and hit the tune in button. The radio station works with iTunes, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer.) Please tune in! And if you want to, you can call in live to my show and give your opinion on what I am talking about or have talked about by calling 1-888-212-KLIK (5545). Please, I need listeners!
Oregon Ratings:
Info Session: 9.5/10.0
Tour: 8.0/10.0
Staff Meeting: 6.5/10.0
Total: 8.0/10
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