OU The Best Freshman Experience

Introduction
OU attracts a LOT of people from Texas, because it's actually the closest BEST university (for people in the Dallas area, specifically). It's a public university experience, with a private university feel. The academics are respected nation and world-wide. OU ranks number one per capita among all public universities in the number of National Merit Scholars enrolled. The University of Oklahoma ranks in the top 10 in the nation in the Freshman Year Experience, according to a national study by the Policy Center on the First Year of College. The Princeton Review ranks OU among the best in the nation in terms of academic excellence and cost for students.
With seven Goldwater Scholars in the past two years, OU ranks in the top 10 universities in the entire nation to demonstrate leadership in science and mathematics. If you're thinking about studying abroad, OU ranks first in the Big 12 and at the top in the nation in international exchange agreements with countries around the world. The University has 174 student exchange agreements with universities in 66 countries. More than fifteen hundred students from almost 100 countries are enrolled on OU’s Norman campus.
OU is one of the few public universities in the nation to cap the class size of first-year English composition courses at no more than 19 students.
The University has created an Honors College with one of the largest honors programs among public universities in the United States. More than 2,600 students participate in small classes of 19 or less.
Just one year after launching a five-year, $50 million Campaign for Scholarship endowments, OU achieved its goal and has now passed the $98 million mark, allowing the university to award hundreds of new scholarships and ensure that OU will remain affordable and keep open the door of opportunity for all qualified students.
OU continues to break private fund-raising records, with more than $1 billion in gifts and pledges over the past decade, which has provided funding for dramatic capital improvements, the growth in faculty endowment and student scholarships.
Since 1994, research and sponsored programs expenditures at OU have more than doubled, and OU continues to set new records for funding for externally sponsored research. OU ended FY 2007 with total expenditures of more than $250 million.
The OU Health Sciences Center in FY 2006 continued its impressive rate of research growth by achieving more than $135 million in federal, state, corporate and nonprofit or foundation grants and contracts. Funding from the National Institutes of Health – considered to be the gold standard for research – was $62.3 million.
Since 1995, almost $1.5 billion in construction projects have been completed, are under way or are forthcoming on OU’s three campuses, the largest of which is the $67 million National Weather Center.
OU is home to one of the two largest natural history museums in the world associated with a university. The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History has more than 6 million artifacts and contains 198,000 square feet on 60 acres of land. The museum exhibits include the largest Apatosaurus on display in the world and the oldest work of art ever found in North America — a lightning bolt painted on an extinct bison skull.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s collections total more than 8,000 works of art, including OU’s Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism, the single most important gift of art ever given to a U.S. public university; the Adkins Collection, among the most important private collections in the nation of works by the Taos artists as well as Native American works of art; the former U.S. State Department Embassy art collection; and the Dorothy Dunn collection of Native American art.
OU is one of only 20 public universities in America with an endowment above $1.1 billion and has quadrupled, increasing from 100 to 457, the number of endowed faculty positions in the past 13 years, demonstrating a strong commitment to excellence.
OU’s 2007-08 freshman class is the largest at a four-year public university in Oklahoma history. More than 10 percent of the entire freshman class came from high school with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

Campus Life and Social Life
I think 80% of girls are in a sorority here. The Greek system is HUGE. I rushed, and am glad I did because I made a lot of friends, but now that I'm a Junior, I'm not as into it. If you're anti-Greek, you probably won't be as happy here. Keep in mind that the Greek system is a lot more than just parties; it's a TON of community involvement and service. The parties are endless, and the sports are obviously phenomenal...the SOONERS, come on. Academics
Professors are great, TAs are good, too. I'm now at the OU Health Science Center, and the professors are even better there. I think that once you get into classes for your major, the quality of the professors are even better. The workload is intense for health-science students and interior design, specifically. Most other majors have less of a workload, and it's really not too bad. Our meteorology program is one of the best in the world, if you're into that! All health-sciences are respected nation-wide. The students at OU are really, really smart-I think most people don't go into OU thinking that it's as "smart" of a university as it is...we have the MOST national merit scholars of any public university in the nation.

Student Body
Honestly, the student body is beautiful. The girls and guys are just really really good-looking. I appreciate that there are some really liberal and some really conservative students. Since we're located in the Bible Belt, yet are a college-campus, there's always people speaking their minds on campus. Rather it's bible-thumpers or protestors, it's fun to observe different points of views. I'm very liberal, so at times I feel like the student body is "too conservative," especially since so many are in the Greek system and have a lot of money. There for sure is a stereotype that "OU is for the rich kids" and "OSU is for the down-to-earth kids" but OSU is also known as the school for kids who didn't get into OU, so there are pros and cons of each. UT-Austin is our biggest rival in football, and probably biggest rival for academics, too. No other schools in the Big 12 really come close.

In Closing...
An awesome 4 year university! I don't know if I'd recommend transferring your junior year, because the first two years are DEFINITELY the best and create the college experience! If you can get in, you should definitely come here!