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Hi everyone, first post here and sorry if it gets too long. So I am a graduating high school senior who has been accepted to both Montana State and Oregon State (for engineering) and I can't decide which school to attend. I am from Portland, OR, though I have visited both campuses and like both. I am going to attend college primarily for education, though I do want to hear the good and bad of both Bozeman and Corvallis.
Hi everyone, first post here and sorry if it gets too long. So I am a graduating high school senior who has been accepted to both Montana State and Oregon State (for engineering) and I can't decide which school to attend. I am from Portland, OR, though I have visited both campuses and like both. I am going to attend college primarily for education, though I do want to hear the good and bad of both Bozeman and Corvallis.
I can speak to Corvallis.
The city is about 50,000 people, and it has been about 50,000 people for as long as I've known it (I grew up in the area and still visit quite often). It simply doesn't appear to want to grow and has always been hypercautious about annexation. About 25,000 students, so they are a huge part of the city, but they don't dominate it.
Massive number of people who simply like living there. Student jobs are somewhat difficult to get.
Major employers: the university (duh), Good Samaritan hospital, Hewlett Packard, a couple of others.
It still has a decent downtown, which in this day is really odd. There's also a downtown-ish area just off campus.
Lots of parks, trees, and nature all around. You think Portland is green? I think Corvallis has it beat.
Somewhat more conservative than most of Oregon, it's in the middle of farm country, but it's not hyperaggressive about it, and 'conservative' in most of Oregon is usually centrist in most of the rest of the country.
Very, very nonreligious. Depending on the year, Oregon is usually one of the most nonreligious states, Benton County one of the most nonreligious counties, and Corvallis one of or the most nonreligious city. Church happens, but it's simply not a thing there. Notice my screen name: when I met people in Georgia who went to church all day Sunday and felt that was normal, it simply boggled my mind.
Weather is pretty similar to Portland, so I don't have to describe it to you.
Incredibly bike-friendly. You can get anywhere on a bike in the city.
Rent is pretty high. If you have or can get a car, it's possible to live outside town in Philomath or Albany where it's a little better, or you can live in the dorms, which are actually not bad.
The university ranges from mediocre to quite good depending on major, and has a very high research output. The major you're looking at (engineering) is quite good at OSU, with a pretty new facility, and has always been one of the most popular majors there. However, know what you're getting into. At least while I was there, the Business School was joke-named the 'School for Failed Engineers'. A very good option is the Construction Engineering Management program, which perches between civil, construction, and business.
I got into a few places, some pretty solid. I picked OSU because of location and family in the area. All in all, I don't regret the choice a bit-but be sure you work very, very hard in engineering and do some internship or co-op type work to stay competitive, and be ready to move to the work on graduation.
The city is about 50,000 people, and it has been about 50,000 people for as long as I've known it (I grew up in the area and still visit quite often). It simply doesn't appear to want to grow and has always been hypercautious about annexation. About 25,000 students, so they are a huge part of the city, but they don't dominate it.
Massive number of people who simply like living there. Student jobs are somewhat difficult to get.
Major employers: the university (duh), Good Samaritan hospital, Hewlett Packard, a couple of others.
It still has a decent downtown, which in this day is really odd. There's also a downtown-ish area just off campus.
Lots of parks, trees, and nature all around. You think Portland is green? I think Corvallis has it beat.
Somewhat more conservative than most of Oregon, it's in the middle of farm country, but it's not hyperaggressive about it, and 'conservative' in most of Oregon is usually centrist in most of the rest of the country.
Very, very nonreligious. Depending on the year, Oregon is usually one of the most nonreligious states, Benton County one of the most nonreligious counties, and Corvallis one of or the most nonreligious city. Church happens, but it's simply not a thing there. Notice my screen name: when I met people in Georgia who went to church all day Sunday and felt that was normal, it simply boggled my mind.
Weather is pretty similar to Portland, so I don't have to describe it to you.
Incredibly bike-friendly. You can get anywhere on a bike in the city.
Rent is pretty high. If you have or can get a car, it's possible to live outside town in Philomath or Albany where it's a little better, or you can live in the dorms, which are actually not bad.
The university ranges from mediocre to quite good depending on major, and has a very high research output. The major you're looking at (engineering) is quite good at OSU, with a pretty new facility, and has always been one of the most popular majors there. However, know what you're getting into. At least while I was there, the Business School was joke-named the 'School for Failed Engineers'. A very good option is the Construction Engineering Management program, which perches between civil, construction, and business.
I got into a few places, some pretty solid. I picked OSU because of location and family in the area. All in all, I don't regret the choice a bit-but be sure you work very, very hard in engineering and do some internship or co-op type work to stay competitive, and be ready to move to the work on graduation.
Thanks for the reply, I plan to have a car and live on campus regardless of which school I attend for the first 2 years. From what I have heard so far both MSU and OSU seem to have few off campus housing options. One question, how were the class sizes at OSU?
Thanks for the reply, I plan to have a car and live on campus regardless of which school I attend for the first 2 years. From what I have heard so far both MSU and OSU seem to have few off campus housing options. One question, how were the class sizes at OSU?
Pretty typical of a public state university. For intro courses, you typically have a very large lecture section with a smaller practical section: for instance, in one class you might have several hundred receiving lecture, and then a section of 10-20.
Once you move to upper level or less popular, 15-30.
I worked for a small private university later in life and realized small class sizes were normal there from the very first class. That's one reason tuition was so disparate-but it also explains why some posters on C-D think hobnobbing with PhD students and individual research with professors is normal.
I think those individuals have no conception of how unusual their experience really was. Those opportunities exist, but you have to aggressively seek them out and have a fair bit of luck when you're talking mid-tier public schools like OSU.
Pretty typical of a public state university. For intro courses, you typically have a very large lecture section with a smaller practical section: for instance, in one class you might have several hundred receiving lecture, and then a section of 10-20.
Once you move to upper level or less popular, 15-30.
I worked for a small private university later in life and realized small class sizes were normal there from the very first class. That's one reason tuition was so disparate-but it also explains why some posters on C-D think hobnobbing with PhD students and individual research with professors is normal.
I think those individuals have no conception of how unusual their experience really was. Those opportunities exist, but you have to aggressively seek them out and have a fair bit of luck when you're talking mid-tier public schools like OSU.
Tuition differences between public and private schools has more to do with state funding then class sizes...
OP, I have friends with kids at Montana and they LOVE it there. Outside of classes and such, the area around campus is simply amazing and beautiful. They love the outdoors, fishing, hiking, camping, etc. though.
Thanks for the reply, I plan to have a car and live on campus regardless of which school I attend for the first 2 years. From what I have heard so far both MSU and OSU seem to have few off campus housing options. One question, how were the class sizes at OSU?
If you have a car, there is a ton of rental housing (apartments and houses) north of Walnut Blvd. I lived in the Northpointe apartments while I was in grad school there. Several of my fellow grad students rented homes in the Timberhill area. One even bought a house and sold it for a small profit by the time she was done with school.
Big difference in overall size, OSU has about 30k in students while MSU has about 15k. I attended MSU although it's been a number of years ago. My personal opinion is that Bozeman is one of the most attractive places in the world period as far as the scenery surrounding the city so Bozeman is going to win for most attractive surroundings.
Other positives include great outdoor recreation opportunities; if you're a skier you're 20 miles from great skiing or 50 miles from world class skiing (Big Sky). You're about 100 miles from Yellowstone. Hunting, hiking, river/creek fishing, snowmobiling, etc. are all good to great and pretty easy to access as compared to other places. Most students that were from out of state were there for the skiing and outdoor activities. There is no comparison to Corvallis here; MSU wins the outdoor recreation opportunities hands down.
Freshman class sizes were usually 100 - 150; class sizes were down to 30 - 40 by Junior year and sometimes smaller. I can't speak to the specific quality of the College of Education in either place, but overall MSU wins a lot of awards and earns a lot of quality of education recognition for a state school of its size. There were a lot of major companies on campus recruiting every year for a college of MSU's size, especially considering how far MSU is from any major cities. I would say in many majors, the quality of the education received would be better at MSU but I can't speak to your specific major. Is the quality of education so much better that it's worth paying out of state tuition for? In my opinion probably not but then I'm not into skiing.
That being said, if you're from Portland, it might be a difficult adjustment for you. Bozeman is a city of around 40k that is 120 miles away from any other decent sized cities, is a good 350 miles from any city with a population over 150k, and something like 500-600 miles to the closest major city (Salt Lake). It might be different now with online shopping, but several times a year we would drive to Billings (population something like 100 - 150k) 120 miles away just to shop because Bozeman at the time only had two price options, Walmart or super high end expensive and nothing much in between. In the winter, Bozeman can feel like a very isolated place. For comparison, picture being in Beaverton and driving 120 miles to get to Hillsboro with only a handful of tiny towns and maybe one small city in between. Even the biggest cities in Montana are tiny by Portland standards and are isolated from each other by 120 - 180 miles with generally not much in between. The two things that tend to cause new transplants to leave the state are the isolation and the winters.
Other considerations:
--Bozeman is a long way from anywhere and requires a lot of time and/or money to travel to or from it. Flights in/out are generally expensive and there's no other options to travel back to Portland besides to drive.
--Rents will be just as expensive if not more so than Corvallis and off campus options are more limited because Bozeman is a smaller town and a more desired place to live. You will be competing for housing against working folks and retirees that want to relocate to Bozeman and they tend to have more resources than students.
--The winters are long and cold; there will be snow on the ground from December - March and it can snow any month of the year. I've seen snow there every month of the year except July. The temperature would normally get down below zero during the day for a week or two a winter. More frequently, it would be below zero at night and rise above zero during the day. One positive is that it will be a ton more sunny in Bozeman, both summer and winter.
--Winter driving will be a learning curve for you coming from Portland and there will be times when the roads will be so bad you won't be able to leave town, although driving in town is usually doable. If you bring a car, make sure it's not a rear wheel drive.
--If you're a sports fan, MSU is in a smaller college division than OSU so MSU doesn't play big schools or play in the same tournaments as OSU. You will never see MSU on ESPN Gameday. People at MSU tend to have less interest in spectator sports since MSU doesn't have the greatest winning record and doesn't play big name schools. Nobody drives around with flags sticking out of their cars on game days.
Big difference in overall size, OSU has about 30k in students while MSU has about 15k. I attended MSU although it's been a number of years ago. My personal opinion is that Bozeman is one of the most attractive places in the world period as far as the scenery surrounding the city so Bozeman is going to win for most attractive surroundings.
Other positives include great outdoor recreation opportunities; if you're a skier you're 20 miles from great skiing or 50 miles from world class skiing (Big Sky). You're about 100 miles from Yellowstone. Hunting, hiking, river/creek fishing, snowmobiling, etc. are all good to great and pretty easy to access as compared to other places. Most students that were from out of state were there for the skiing and outdoor activities. There is no comparison to Corvallis here; MSU wins the outdoor recreation opportunities hands down.
Freshman class sizes were usually 100 - 150; class sizes were down to 30 - 40 by Junior year and sometimes smaller. I can't speak to the specific quality of the College of Education in either place, but overall MSU wins a lot of awards and earns a lot of quality of education recognition for a state school of its size. There were a lot of major companies on campus recruiting every year for a college of MSU's size, especially considering how far MSU is from any major cities. I would say in many majors, the quality of the education received would be better at MSU but I can't speak to your specific major. Is the quality of education so much better that it's worth paying out of state tuition for? In my opinion probably not but then I'm not into skiing.
That being said, if you're from Portland, it might be a difficult adjustment for you. Bozeman is a city of around 40k that is 120 miles away from any other decent sized cities, is a good 350 miles from any city with a population over 150k, and something like 500-600 miles to the closest major city (Salt Lake). It might be different now with online shopping, but several times a year we would drive to Billings (population something like 100 - 150k) 120 miles away just to shop because Bozeman at the time only had two price options, Walmart or super high end expensive and nothing much in between. In the winter, Bozeman can feel like a very isolated place. For comparison, picture being in Beaverton and driving 120 miles to get to Hillsboro with only a handful of tiny towns and maybe one small city in between. Even the biggest cities in Montana are tiny by Portland standards and are isolated from each other by 120 - 180 miles with generally not much in between. The two things that tend to cause new transplants to leave the state are the isolation and the winters.
Other considerations:
--Bozeman is a long way from anywhere and requires a lot of time and/or money to travel to or from it. Flights in/out are generally expensive and there's no other options to travel back to Portland besides to drive.
--Rents will be just as expensive if not more so than Corvallis and off campus options are more limited because Bozeman is a smaller town and a more desired place to live. You will be competing for housing against working folks and retirees that want to relocate to Bozeman and they tend to have more resources than students.
--The winters are long and cold; there will be snow on the ground from December - March and it can snow any month of the year. I've seen snow there every month of the year except July. The temperature would normally get down below zero during the day for a week or two a winter. More frequently, it would be below zero at night and rise above zero during the day. One positive is that it will be a ton more sunny in Bozeman, both summer and winter.
--Winter driving will be a learning curve for you coming from Portland and there will be times when the roads will be so bad you won't be able to leave town, although driving in town is usually doable. If you bring a car, make sure it's not a rear wheel drive.
--If you're a sports fan, MSU is in a smaller college division than OSU so MSU doesn't play big schools or play in the same tournaments as OSU. You will never see MSU on ESPN Gameday. People at MSU tend to have less interest in spectator sports since MSU doesn't have the greatest winning record and doesn't play big name schools. Nobody drives around with flags sticking out of their cars on game days.
Thanks for the response. I understand MSU would be a huge change from the Portland area, but the change could always benefit me. Also I am offered a scholarship from MSU, so, until I get my aid offer from OSU, MSU is actually less expensive than OSU ($16,000/year verses $24,000/year).
Tuition differences between public and private schools has more to do with state funding then class sizes...
Well, bless your heart. State support at OSU is, on average, about $5,000 per student per year. At the private school I worked at, tuition was over $40,000 per student per *year*. The difference in tuition rates has very little to do with state funding. It has to do with class sizes, facilities, and programs.
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