University of Oklahoma Campus Highlight

Created by the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a doctoral degree-granting research university serving the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU is truly an extraordinary institution, known for its academic excellence and strong sense of community.

OU is ranked by The Princeton Review among the top 10 public universities in the nation in terms of academic excellence and cost for students. Just one year after launching a five-year Campaign for Scholarship endowments, we reached our goal of raising $50 million, allowing the university to award hundreds of new scholarships and ensuring that OU will remain affordable and keep open the door of opportunity for all qualified students. Because the need for scholarships remains high, the campaign goal was increased to $100 million to be raised by September 2009. In addition, OU's private endowment has more than quadrupled since 1994, growing from $204 million to more than $960 million.

Attracting top students from across the nation and 95 countries around the world, OU provides a major university experience in a private college atmosphere. OU is number one in the nation in the number of National Merit Scholars enrolled per capita among public universities and is in the top five of public universities in the nation in the graduation of Rhodes Scholars. The OU Honors College is one of the largest honors programs among public universities in the United States, matching the University's best and brightest students with faculty in classrooms of 19 or fewer students. OU is one of the few public universities in the nation to cap the class size of first-year English composition courses at no more than 19. The University is first in the Big 12 and at the top in the nation in international exchange agreements with countries around the world with 171 student exchange agreements with universities in 60 countries. The number of endowed faculty positions has more than quadrupled since 1994, increasing from 100 to 420, helping to retain and attract talented faculty members.

There is a true sense of family on the OU campus. Serving as a model for other public universities, OU established the Faculty-In-Residence program which places faculty members and their families in each of our residence halls to foster faculty and student interaction and encourage intergenerational friendships. Further, a different professor adopts each floor of the residence halls as well as each fraternity and sorority, allowing students and faculty to build relationships outside of the classroom. These and other student-centered efforts were recently rewarded when OU was ranked in the top 10 universities in the nation in the Freshmen Year Experience, according to a national study by the Policy Center on the First Year of College.

OU is extraordinary, too, because of its excellent programs and resources. OU's two public museums, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, rank among the top university-based museums in the country. OU's Bizzell Memorial Library features the largest history of science collection in the world, and is the only place in the United States where you can hold a book with Galileo's handwriting in your own hands.

OU has emerged as a pacesetter for public higher education in the United States and is poised for greater success in the future.