OU Analysis Essay

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a public research university, founded in 1890. It is the largest research institution in the state of Oklahoma and is known as one of the big football schools in the U.S. It is a good engineering school and its academics, student life, and financial factors prove the fact.

Academics

The University of Oklahoma (OU) is currently ranked among top 100 public universities nationwide by U.S. News & World Report. The Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering is ranked third in the nation and is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. The school gives students opportunities to do research starting in their freshman year and one in three students study abroad during a four-year period. OU has an 81.3% admission rate, 66.9% graduation rate, and 92% freshman-to-sophomore retention (The University of Oklahoma, 2014). It has student to faculty ratio of 17:1 and 46.5% of the classes have less than 20 students; it has about 31,176 enrolled students and more than 1,834 full-time faculty members (US News & World Report, 2018). OU has a 90% job placement rate for its graduates (Petroleum Ninja, 2018). The school

All students are encouraged to submit a FAFSA which will determine the student’s “eligibility for grants, loans, work study, and need-based scholarships” (Mines, 2018g). The university is very involved in making available financial aid, as demonstrated by their generosity of providing either scholarships, grants, or loans to more than 85% of its student population (Mines, 2018g). However, of the 803 financial aid applicants Mines received from freshmen, the needs of only 26.5% of the students who received financial aid from the school were fully met (College Data, 2018). Thus, this low percentage may be amounting to the relatively high average indebtedness of $32,901 for the 2016 graduates (College Data,