Oregon Colleges (Portland, Eugene, Bend: rentals, coop, movie theater)

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Radio Flyer

jj...Yes, after posting, I found that link. It does look like my sons will be considered residents after one year if we (his parents) move to Oregon also. I even found the form that students would fill out to prove this. I certainly understand that people are going to try to bend the rules to pay less tuition, but we're not trying to get with anything.

On another note, I called OSU and they gave me the link to view the OOS CC core classes that are transferable. This might be a great option for my son, after all...definitely worth consideration. Mr. Flyer went this route in CA. He attended a community college and then went to a CSU.

While I'm here, I'll also add that it's frustrating that colleges use the umbrella term "aid" for both scholarships/grants and loans. They are two very different things. We'd like to keep the student loans as low as possible.

I completely agree! I've attended some college planning events put on by our school district, and they lump it all together. I guess the "aid" part is the guarantee of being granted the loan regardless of credit and the lower interest rate. But interest rates are so low in general right now, even a 2 or 3% rate, to me, doesn't really qualify as "aid."

I attended grad school UO in the mid- late-90s. Excellent education--I can say that because it was really difficult and I considered quitting a couple of times but stuck it out. It was no cake walk. Then I lived in Corvallis for 10 years after that and worked just off campus and can tell you that the university has an excellent reputation in several of its programs. Portland State U., while not at the same caliber as UO or OSU, is well regarded and received a big grant a few years ago for developing a program on sustainability.

I think any of the state universities (including OIT, WOU, SOU, and EOU) are fine for an undergraduate degree if you and your kids choose the right school for their desired major. It's the graduate degree that you should consider being more discerning about the school.

[Larry Caldwell]

There hasn't been much discussion of Portland State. Portland State is an urban campus. There are no dormitories on campus. All students live off-campus, which is expensive in Portland unless they can live with their parents. The majority of PSU students are adults, not "college kids." On the up side, they have the broadest selection of evening classes, because so many of their students have day jobs. PSU has a declining enrollment because rapidly rising rents and rapidly rising tuition has put PSU students in an economic vise.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

There hasn't been much discussion of Portland State. Portland State is an urban campus. There are no dormitories on campus. All students live off-campus, which is expensive in Portland unless they can live with their parents. The majority of PSU students are adults, not "college kids." On the up side, they have the broadest selection of evening classes, because so many of their students have day jobs. PSU has a declining enrollment because rapidly rising rents and rapidly rising tuition has put PSU students in an economic vise.

On the contrary. There are several residence halls: https://www.pdx.edu/housing/buildings.

Enrollment numbers have basically been flat since 2011.

[texasdiver]

Oregon native here.

I grew up in Eugene and briefly attended UO then transferred to Reed where I got my BA. Later on I went to grad school at UW in Seattle. I have a large number of friends and family who have attended most of the notable public and private schools all over the Northwest and as a teacher I advise a lot of HS students on college options.

Generally speaking I don't think Oregon supports its public universities to the same extent as other comparable states. I would compare Oregon to states like Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, even Iowa. and I frankly don't think the state has kept pace with what those comparable states in terms of higher education (or K-12 education for that matter as well). The UO and OSU are not in the same league as schools like University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, or University of Washington and are probably slipping further behind. Two years ago I spent much of the summer visiting a variety of public schools throughout the south with my daughter (when we still lived in Texas) and frankly I found schools like University of Oklahoma and University of Arkansas to be on par or ahead of UO in terms of facilities and overall feel. That's kind of embarrassing when you consider how much poorer Arkansas is. And out of state tuition at either school is at least 10-15 grand less than UO.

That said, if your kids plan to stay in the Northwest then no one will question their credentials if they graduate from one of the local public universities. This area is fairly parochial and in most professions it won't really be an advantage to come from some fancy university from another part of the country.

As for private schools there aren't very many of them in the Northwest compared to the Northeast or Midwest which are riddled with hundreds of reputable or prestigious private universities. Really only about a dozen or so private schools in the Northwest are worth considering. Reed, Lewis and Clark, Willamette, U of Portland, and Linfield in Oregon. In Washington there is University of Puget Sound, Seattle U, Gonzaga, Whitman, Whitworth, Seattle Pacific, and Pacific Lutheran are the only ones that come to mind. I'm probably forgetting a few. All of them are basically small liberal arts colleges despite many of them calling themselves "universities." None of them are true graduate research universities like Stanford, USC, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, etc. They are mostly glorified small liberal arts colleges of the sort you find everywhere in the east. There are also a bunch of small struggling bible colleges around here that wouldn't be worth your consideration for any academic reason but that's not why people go to them.

Bottom line? If your family is relocating to the Northwest anyway and plan to make this area home then there is obvious reason to look at schools out here. On the other hand, if you are just shopping around for interesting places to go to school with no real long term objective of settling here permanently then there aren't really that many advantages to coming out here for school. There are better schools and much better bargains to be had elsewhere.

[leastprime]

UO and OSU are residential and on the wet side. As are WSU, CWSU but on the dry side.
PSU, Udub are commuter with Udub have a significant residential.
WOSU is the minor sister to the other universities.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by leastprime

UO and OSU are residential and on the wet side. As are WSU, CWSU but on the dry side.
PSU, Udub are commuter with Udub have a significant residential.
WOSU is the minor sister to the other universities.

UW is pretty residential. Sure, not all the undergrads live in dorms. But the majority live in near-campus housing in the U District. It definitely has the feel of a 24 hour residential campus with student events happening all the time. There is a big frat row and lots and lots of nearby student housing and student neighborhoods. My idea of commuter campuses are the big ones in places like Texas and California where the great majority of students are locals who drive in from all over for the day and have other lives the rest of the time. They basically get deserted after 5 pm. UW-Bothell and UW-Tacoma would most closely meet that definition. In any event, these are the major public schools in both Oregon and Washington ranked by enrollment

University of Washington: 45,870
Washington State: 28,686
Western Washington: 15.060
Eastern Washington: 12,830
Central Washington: 10,750
UW - Bothell: 5,900
UW - Tacoma: 4,900
Evergreen State: 4,500

Oregon State: 28,800
Portland State: 28,000
University of Oregon: 24,125
Southern Oregon: 6,200
Western Oregon: 6,200
Eastern Oregon: 3,700

[oregonchickfan]

I am an Oregon native, but I currently live in Nevada. I did community college in Nevada, then transferred to OSU via their E-Campus. I did have a handful of credits that didn't transfer, but I think it's that way regardless of where you go to school.

My reasons for choosing OSU is because the E-Campus does not charge out-of-state tuition (there is a $75 technology fee, which is considerably less than out-of-state tuition), and their E-Campus is very highly ranked.

I've been trying to move back to Oregon for over a year, but things just haven't worked out. In the meantime, wherever I end up, I can still work on my degree. http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online-degrees/

[Radio Flyer]

Thanks again everyone for your input.

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I'm in Bend and we get a lot of out of state students at the local junior college, COCC (Central Oregon Community College). I don't know if they are saving money by taking 2 years of classes at a community college or if they just come here to ski while their parents are supporting them. This is a recreational area and everything is outdoor oriented.

At one point, we had an Olympic grade track coach and track and field students would come here just to work under that coach. A lot of Olympic athletes train here. I don't know if that coach is still here. Most, if not all, of the teachers at COCC have PhD's. It is an excellent school. But again, out of state tuition is not cheap.

We're starting to plan our summer trip. We're very open to our sons going the community college route. If our older son wants to move west on his own for his first year of school, he'll need a cc with a dorm...I researched COCC and they do have housing. The school is beautiful (from the photos). I'm gathering that Bend is touristy and a bit trendy. These aren't huge concerns, especially for a mere two years of my son's life. Who knows? He might love it.

The cold winter weather isn't a big deal, as he's coming from Maine. I am concerned about the remoteness though. Do the kids that don't ski go bonkers? Is there enough to do there? Do they venture into Eugene or Salem for more fun?

Any comments on this school are welcome.

[BendLocal]

Bend has become a full blown tourist town with many of the challenges that go along with it.

Rentals are a serious issue for Bend.

Census shows heavy rent burden on Bend, Deschutes County; Number of renters paying more than is advised ticks upward

Consequently, 55 percent of renters in Deschutes County in 2015 spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to numbers from the American Community Survey, released earlier this month by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Preston Callicott, CEO of Bend-based Five Talent Software, described affordable workforce housing as one of the two most important problems facing Bend, along with transportation. If Bend continues to get less affordable, he said more and more people will move to Redmond, Madras and beyond. Runberg added that this could end up hurting job growth in the entire region, as people get more estranged from Bend.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by BendLocal

Bend has become a full blown tourist town with many of the challenges that go along with it.

Rentals are a serious issue for Bend.

Census shows heavy rent burden on Bend, Deschutes County; Number of renters paying more than is advised ticks upward

Bend these days has basically become Boulder CO but without the advantages of having a major university or major metro area nearby. But it has all the other characteristics of Boulder such as trendy shops and restaurants and severe NIMBYism preventing any kind of growth in the housing stock. Bend also has a growing population of independently wealthy types non-local types who don't seem much interested in developing economic opportunities for the local kids.

It is also a heck of a long way from the closest major airport or city. You have to drive over long mountain passes on 2-lane roads to get anyplace else which can be tricky in winter as the passes sometimes close or can have difficult slow traffic. For example, today there was a 2-hour delay getting through Highway 26 near Mt. Hood which is the main route between Bend and Portland.

Bend is a cool place to visit on ski weekends or to retire to if you have the means. But I don't think it is where I would pick to settle with kids without having a serious upper middle class income lined up in advance.