Frankie W.
Yelp
God. Seriously, I love this school so much. Out of all the schools that I have visited, I enjoyed this one the most and am happiest here the most. Of course this is entirely subjective, but I never felt more "at home" than I do here, not even back home in CA. Oddly enough, whenever I return to the Bay Area to visit family, I become less & less inclined and more hesitant to come back. I feel very accepted here (although I do get the occasional ignorant question about my culture) but I joke about myself all the time so it's not a big deal, depending on the seriousness of the question or how poorly educated this so-called person is.
I've had soo much fun pretending I'm a foreign exchange student and putting up a fake strong accent just to get on people's nerves and seeing their "Ohhhh wowww, that is very wonderful!" (slow voice), it's hilarious!!!!
Anyway, I came here to continue school and pursue a chemistry degree after a couple year hiatus and was considering this school or OSU in Corvallis for science. UO is known for their green chemistry as the preferred form of method in the labs, but from what I had read previously, I heard some past college students felt the chemistry departments were not challenging enough. I was like whatever, I don't want anything that's gonna strip me of my social life, which I am lacking anyway! Yeah. Thanks for the heads up, student reviews, I still lack a social life. Now imagine what would've happened if I went to OSU...
Reasons for choosing this school:
-Campus looks so much more beautiful and less boring than OSU
-Track town; I'm a runner so this is pretty awesome.. Plus less fatties. Take those chins and tuck'em in! (I made that up, I'm copyrighting that shit, bitches!)
-LGBT friendly. Come on, hoootttttt girls, too much eye candy may possibly give me a seizure :(
-Stoner town/420 friendly (I think this is a very obvious given)
-Everyone I've encountered here has been nothing but friendly and always smiling (for me at least), although I hear it's not necessarily the case for others
-All the local shops and stores + eco-friendly + vegan/vegetarian friendly town
-bike-friendly town with LOTS of bike lanes!
- ....hot girls
-hoped for a not too stressful academic life in the science arena
It's easy to meet people and talk to people, but keeping and creating close friendships is a bit tough. So far I found 1-2 people while 1-2 others who became close to me just came and went.
What I didn't like:
- Seriously, you can't get away from the "O" logo. It's everywhere you go.
- greek system: large amounts of bros and bimbos, I'm not kidding. Lucky for me (and possibly for you) it's EXTREMELY to get away from... just don't hang too much around the Journalism & Business people.
-I feel like even though there are other Asians here, people don't really blend their friendship circles with different races (pretty common universally though), although they're open to, but it just leads to really ridiculous lack of knowledge about EVERYTHING. Not everything has to do with my culture, man.
Example of what I get: "So in Hong Kong, do they also serve American food too, or? Like, fries?"
-my chemistry advisor is very unhelpful and gives very misleading information that nearly set my chemistry career backwards. I rarely ever go to advisors or like to take advice, but I tried to just flow with it, and realized they just aren't helpful.
Other departments and staff are pretty awesome though
-In the bay area, I literally almost never meet people who have similar tastes in music or interests as I do. When I meet one, I get VERY excited (and still do). Here, I have almost no trouble meeting people who share the same interests as I do.
-I had literally no social life or ability to wander to clubs and groups due to excessive studying indoors.
You don't really need a car here, but it certainly helps when you want to go to Portland or whatever other places with ease. Otherwise you could take the Amtrak or the Greyhound (highly not recommended unless you want to sit next to a meth head or smell like piss the remaining of the day).
This sounds possibly racist to my own kind but, I also came here to get away from all the Asians I encountered back in the Bay Area. Coming here was SO MUCH more refreshing!! I like to meet people of all kinds & backgrounds, but when it comes to a point where your friend base becomes homogenous... there is a real problem.
If you sports fans really care about the sports aspect of a school, which I don't, we've got a great football team & track team, and we're in the Pac-10/12
Oh yeah, another reason I considered this school: Our school colors are green & yellow, and although that doesn't sound too appeasing, OSU's school colors are orange & black. For those of you who were in the same dilemma as me. Just sayin'. Would you want to go to school that constantly is stuck in a morbid halloween theme without the fun and costumes, or bright sorta-acceptable colors?