Why I Chose the UO

Katie D.

February 7, 2010 - 3:46 PM

Senior year is half over.  It's hard to believe, but it's true: this final stage of the college experience is quickly drawing to a close.  This is leading to a lot of nostalgia in my group of friends.  We keep thinking back over our time spent here: freshman year in the dorms, the service projects, the classes, the vacations, the frantic last-minute essay writing.  It's been an incredible three and a half years, and I love thinking back on all that has happened.  It seems like a miracle that all of these wonderful people and opportunities all arrived at this same place.  Everyone chooses their college for a different reason.  I want to share why I chose mine.

To start things off, I was very focused on my high school life and hadn't started thinking about which college I would choose until my mother literally forced me into a college planner's office.  That's when I started sorting through the conflicting advice I was receiving from my parents: my father took the pragmatic approach of advising an Associate's Degree at a local community college, while my mom was ready to fight my place into the Ivy League.  I was somewhat horrified by both options: the perceived limitations on the one hand and the intimidating encouragement on the other.  I had planned for a middle route as long as I'd been thinking about it: a small, liberal arts school with a good writing program and a band. 

I sifted through the hundreds of college brochures and started doing my online research.  I scratched off huge chunks of the country for geographic reasons: after spending part of every summer in my life, I knew for sure that the Midwest was not for me.  The South went for cultural reasons, and I postponed judgement on the Northeast.  It just felt so far away. 

The Colorado schools were viewed with a certain degree of skepticism: they were either too close to home or too full of graduates of my high school.  I was not the kind of highschooler who was looking for four more years of the same people and the same attitudes. 

I started looking at schools in the Northwest.  I had never been to Oregon or Washington before in my life, but what I was reading and the environment and opportunities on the West Coast were encouraging.  I picked five schools, starting in Eugene and ending in Bellingham, Washington, for college tours with my mom. 

I picked UO within the first half hour.  On paper, it had been in the bottom two: included because of the Clark Honors College, but not appealing because of its size and the obvious sports culture.  So I entered the campus without the highest of expectations.  But it immediately felt right.  It was bursting with energy, even in early August with few students in evidence.  Everywhere I looked, there were flyers for student organizations, activism, volunteering, cultural events, and encouragement to study abroad.  Campus was beautiful, and obviously a place where students went for more than just a classroom experience: this was a place to live. 

We took the tour, wandering through the buildings and the old trees.  It's strange to think back on that first tour, more than four years ago now.  The campus and city that are now my home were completely unfamiliar.  But there was a powerful sense of welcome in the campus. 

Something was obvious to me that first day that is important to me still: that the size of the institution, which could create a sense of invisibility, instead creates an energy.  There is so much promise in the student body, so much excitement evident in the posted fliers and in the announcements hung on faculty doors.  I saw lists of lecture series and couldn't wait to start.  I looked through the course offerings for Honors College classes and couldn't wait to register. 

We visited those other Northwest schools, and each new place made UO seem better and better.  There is something about the UO that allows for a sense of home, of place and familiarity within a campus large enough to generate powerful student organizations and incredible breadth of study. 

I only applied to the UO.  I applied for early admission and knew I was in the Honors College before Thanksgiving.  I was notified that I had received a WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) scholarship, which meant that my out-of-state tuition would be only 150% of in-state, before Christmas.  I was done with the college selection process before some of my friends had written the first draft of their entry essays.

I have never regretted my choice of university.  Last week a huge and joyful rally was held as a peaceful response to the vandalism of the LGBTQA Student Union office.  More than three hundred people came to support our fellow students.  THAT is why I chose the UO: because there are so many of us who care deeply about each other and about social causes.  Every week I walk down the halls and have to pass fliers advertising events I would love to attend, but simply cannot cram into my week.  Class registration time is such a headache, not because my schedule is particularly complicated but because I cannot imagine graduating without sampling the vast array of courses at my disposal.

I have come to appreciate what this campus really means to the students and the community.  This is a place of energy and collaboration.  We students go out into the community as interns, volunteers, employees, and peers.  We are activists and advocates.  We have a lot to give. 

The concerns I had about the negative aspects of the UO are still sometimes present.  I was hoping for a school with no Greek organizations, not because I think they are inherently damaging but because I think they sometimes sponsor bad behavior for otherwise good people.  Likewise with sports: I am not only disinterested in the games themselves, but am uncomfortable with the rabid nature of the fan behavior.  However, I find the general student population to demonstrate an ability to behave as dedicated students.  No school is perfect, and I would say that the damage done by a massive frat party is not so terrible in the grand scheme of things.

I am in love with this city, and this school.  I love the South Eugene hills, I love the walk up Hendrick's Park, and the climb to the top of Skinner's and Spencer's Buttes.  I love the individual houses I walk past on the way to campus.  I love the explosion of wild fruit in the fall, and the outrageous display of spring flowers.  I even love the rain most years, the predictable and even beautiful drizzle that enables the extraordinary biodiversity and GREEN of this city.  I love the Cascade mountains and the beautiful hills of the Coastal Range.  I love the ocean intensely, with the joy of someone who grew up in a landlocked state.  I love individual trees on campus, and the individual personalities of the campus regulars.  I love Cafe Roma, the hot chocolate they serve and the complete certainty that you will walk through the doors and see someone you know: a professor, the cute boy from Spanish last term, or a member of the favorite local band.  I love the recycling bins everywhere, and the overflowing public lectures.  I love the rallies and demonstrations and student publications. 

I love it enough to stay for another two years.  I've chosen my next step: I will hopefully be entering the Master's Program in Conflict and Dispute Resolution.  I'll have another two years to wander the Eugene surroundings and to familiarize myself with hippie history. 

This is the place for me.  I knew it after mere moments on UO turf, and I know it still, even now that I have seen its imperfections.  It is the whole of my life in a lot of ways: it's where I study, where I eat, where I work, what I share with my friends.  Better than I ever could have imagined on that first overwhelming tour. 

My campus, my story.  My UO.