This happening everywhere or does Oregon have its own issues? Seems like a great place to go to school…
FC/OT: Oregon struggling with enrollment?
- Thread starter Midnighter
- Start date
I couldn’t tell you a single thing about where any of their academic programs are ranked. I have no idea how much it costs to go there or anything about the campus other than what I see on TV for athletic events. I’ve only ever heard of one student in my 25 years here in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland talk to me about going to the university of Oregon. And the only reason that kid wanted to go there was because he liked their football uniforms.
He omitted the out of control spending and on campus expansion.
lanning needs to win more. That would fix everything.
Given the state of public education today, kids in Oregon don’t even know where Oregon is.
Can you see the future of brick-and-mortar universities?
Yet grades are higher than ever.Given the state of public education today, kids in Oregon don’t even know where Oregon is.
And you win. And you win. And you win, …
Another example of an athletic department with a university.
OSU has a much better rep for tech, engineering, math, etc. UofO is better known as a liberal arts school. I have a buddy that went there and his wife got her PhD in music there. I've been to Autzen several times for Ducks games when I lived in WA. Nice campus, fun atmosphere but didn't compare to State College but of course I'm biased. The alums sure do spend a ton on ducks apparel though. That's half the game day experience for them. No school does that better.
Last edited:
Last year’s high school graduating class was the largest in US history and the number of HS graduates will be decreasing significantly in upcoming years (a college “enrollment cliff”) which, coupled with a trend of more students opting not to go to college, is going to lead to more colleges struggling to hit enrollment targets. I’m surprised to see Oregon struggle but it’s not a huge state and Oregon State is decent too (and as has been mentioned is the more technically oriented school).
a lot of smaller schools are going to be closing in the next decade. Like hundreds across the country.
a lot of smaller schools are going to be closing in the next decade. Like hundreds across the country.
It's already started. Maybe not with complete closures but some PSAC schools are closing or consolidating programs. Small D1 like St Francis are moving to D3 athletics to cut costs and many others are riding the wave of female athletic programs like wrestling and flag football to add teams to increase enrollment.
As a coach I know of quite a few D3 liberal arts schools who are asking all teams to bring in 'X' amounts of kids each year to help cover costs. One football team is asked to bring in 75 kids a year knowing that less than half will be there in two years. They just want the government money or for the kids to take out loans then they dont care what happens
My son is looking at Oregon. None of their test scores, gpa or merit $$$ makes any sense. It looks like mismanagement from an admissions side of things. Additionally Eugene is earning the mini Portland rep among the locals. Pretty campus, nice area visually, terrific facilities yet something doesn’t add up. Corvallis is similar to PSU so I was biased on that visit to OSU on the same day as Oregon. Frankly, it’s not surprising they are having financial issues. There’s money to be made by the town and gown - we know how that works.
Yeah, I have been hearing the population is decreasing and college enrollments are going to start taking a hit in a few years which is going to hurt unstable institutions.
Have you all been to Oregon? Ain’t (expletive) going on, it’s a bunch of (expletive) weirdos.
incidental to this thread, but I was looking at a list of AAU schools (of which Oregon is one) and was surprised to see that they don’t even offer Engineering. At all. I knew that Oregon State was better known for engineering but it shocks me that a school of this size doesn’t at least have a token few engineering degrees.
Also of note was that UNC doesn’t offer Engineering either.
Also of note was that UNC doesn’t offer Engineering either.
Great post.
Enrollment cliff is a term that is becoming more prominent by the week. Yes, to the OP, this is a major concern for all major universities for a variety of reasons including:
uncertainty of one’s future.
solid paying tech school career paths. ( very affordable in Oregon BTW )
dwindling / disappearing research funds
majors being eliminated
impact of AI. ( who needs a language expert? )
Foreign students opting to attend college elsewhere ( Canada for instance )
American students going overseas to study
World Campuses
there is probably a host of other reasons s well.
By far one of the coolest states in the Union and Portland is an excellent city. Lots to do, see, experience in every direction. Great coast, high desert, Bend, Mountains, etc. etc. oh, and Tillamook Cheddar cheese As well as ice cream.
Where do you live?
He's quoting our meathead AD.
Not that it contradicts anything you just said though!
Nice outdoor music venue too. Right along the river. Great town and the high desert is a great ending. Always enjoy my visits.
They should host their own white out game and then “use it as a canvas to paint their masterpiece” solution to their enrollment issues.
“Schools are spending up to $20.5 million per year in direct revenue sharing with athletes. NIL budgets keep climbing. The transfer portal is a year-round bidding war. Facilities and coaching salaries are at all-time highs.
This spending makes sense, because winning drives enrollment, especially out-of-state enrollment, which is where the real tuition margin lives. A football program on national TV is the best recruiting tool a university has.”
I think they are bottom half of the B10 academically. I think Eugene is very liberal. I was on their campus recently, nice looking campus. Good place for California kids to go if they can't get into one of the big U of C schools.
This is happening at all levels. I was an Adjunct Faculty in the Sociology Department at Harrisburg Area Community College for 20 years before I retired in 2020. In 2005, for example, it was nothing for me to have the max of 35 students in each of my 2 or 3 classes each semester with at least a half dozen contacting me, begging for an override to let them into a class. By the time 2020 rolled around I was lucky to get 12 students per section. Then the full timers had to suck up those evening classes to make ends meet and the Adjuncts were left to suck eggs.
Add that to the dozen or more other reasons teaching was turning into a giant mess and it was time to ride off into the sunset.
Add that to the dozen or more other reasons teaching was turning into a giant mess and it was time to ride off into the sunset.
FWIW: Oregon - among Big Ten schools - is pretty much bottom of the barrel by any academic metric
You last two sentences kind of sum up what happens when you run a University as a life support system for "football"
Which brings to mind:
When asked about the so-called "Flutie Effect": the postulation that football success leads to the elevation of the university's actual purposes - like education; University presidents, of higher quality schools - like when Northwestern had their football resurgence under Gary Barnett - have said:
"Sure it gets us more applications (when the football team does well) - but not more applications from kids we can, or would want to, accept and enroll"
But that's the excuse a lot of lazy presidents - or those from "football schools" - give for emphasizing "football" (or other sports), over the actual missions of the university.
BTW: Where is Mark Emmert these days? (Seriously. IDK)
Make universities great again. Cut the subsidies. Cut the fraud. Focus on academics. Cut phony majors. Divest semi-pro sports teams. Stop treating students like infants. Raise admission standards. Hold HS’s accountable for the terrible students that they are producing.
“Schools are spending up to $20.5 million per year in direct revenue sharing with athletes. NIL budgets keep climbing. The transfer portal is a year-round bidding war. Facilities and coaching salaries are at all-time highs.
This spending makes sense, because winning drives enrollment, especially out-of-state enrollment, which is where the real tuition margin lives. A football program on national TV is the best recruiting tool a university has.”
I keep thinking about the above quote. Jesus. If Neeli said that about PSU, we’d all lose our sh|t…even if it’s true.
In Wisconsin we already over the cliff and dropping fast, which seems to be similar in other rural states with dwindling small towns. But small liberal art schools closed, UW system closed multiple campuses and planning more, consolidating, eliminating majors.
Ultimately a lot of problems with college - and with our society at large - stem from the fact that a high school diploma is meaningless in America today. It used to reflect a certain level of knowledge and skill but has been watered down so much that many “graduates” can barely read at all or struggle with middle school math. Which is why so many jobs that should require a HS degree have higher requirements because you don’t know if someone you hire is capable of writing a two sentence email.
And the irony is that at the same time we have HS graduates who are massively advanced at the same time - people who have blown through Calculus and are doing Differential Equations and Linear Algebra while in high school or all sorts of other advanced work. The smartest kids are doing so much more than in the past while the dumbest ones are doing even less than ever before.
In any event, we need objective standards to actually see what kids are mastering in high school. The move to test optional for colleges has been bad but SAT/ACT have never been the greatest option of assessment (though better than not considering them). I’d love to see the US to movie to something like A Levels in the UK.
Last edited:
I did not read all the posts, so sorry if this factoid was already posted:
Saw a news report that said that college costs have gone up 941% since 1980.
Take it for what it's worth.
Saw a news report that said that college costs have gone up 941% since 1980.
Take it for what it's worth.
That's amazing. U of O is the flagship university for Oregon and they don't have an engineering program. I didn't believe it so I went to their website and it's true. I don't know how they could be considered an AAU quality school without even offering BS programs in engineering.
Last edited: