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The school has a very at-home attitude. Everything is very relaxed, from the student body to the professors, which is great for intellectual freedom. It is expected for you to go out of your way to develop working academic relationships with your professors. If you have problems, they will ALWAYS be there for you. OU is a small world, where everyone knows everybody else, at least by sight. I know the school is planning to expand, and I hope they do not lose these attributes when they do. If you do not thrive at OU, you probably will not at any college.

Once again, this school places a lot of emphasis on small class size and individual attention. Most professors will have everyone's names memorized by the third class. The core curriculum is really awesome because you can jump right into your major the first semester. The majority of core classes incorporate a "class participation" portion to their grading scale, so expression of opinions and debate is strongly encouraged, which I love! For the writers out there, and from what I have heard about other schools, OU is essay intensive. You will probably write five medium length (around ten page) essays per class per semester, along with other junk. For the psychologists - I took intro. to psychology and it remains one of my favorite classes there. I also lived with two psychology majors last semester and I never heard them say a bad thing about it. Psychology at OU can be challenging, requiring you to study often and be able to design and implement your own research on campus pretty regularly. They also go on trips to psychology symposiums and the like. The head of the department gave one of my friends one-on-one tutor sessions after her grades started falling. Now for my focus - the sciences. I have never had a truly dull science class here. If you want to do independent research, the resources are there if you develop a good plan and talk to your professors. Actually, even if you do not have a good plan but have a general idea, they will help you come up with one. A friend and I wanted to expand an E. Coli project we worked on in class, so my professor asked me to write up a proposal, which I did. He then helped me work out any bugs, came up with a budget (which the department is covering), and is helping us with it during his free time over the summer! So, if you come up with an idea that your professor is interested in studying, they will really go out of their way to help you do it. Or, if you do well in your classes and cultivate a rapport with your professors, you can work in the labs doing grunt work, which is great for an undergrad.

Eclectic is probably the best way to describe the student body. No one is out of place at OU - everyone finds their niche. Oglethorpe has a great financial aid program, so you will find people from all over the socio-economic spectrum. From spoiled rich kids to those smart kids from the projects, they have it all. There's also the international students who are always cool to talk to and learn about other cultures from. The "groups," while they exist, tend to blend together. Only 800 students live on campus, so there's always someone who knows someone from whatever clique. It can be difficult to branch out socially though. After the first two years you know who you would date and who you wouldn't. Reputation can be important at OU because of it's small size. You know who the jocks, intellectuals, stoners, and geeks are, but everyone gets along well. This can be a blessing or a curse. Bad for drama, good for campus solidarity. This can also be a negative for commuters, who are easily overlooked.

If you're interested in something, there's probably a group for it. If not, start one! Goups sprout in and out of existence pretty regularly. Right now i'm at least loosely involved/interested with: Oglethorpe Quidditch League, Get Active Oglethorpe, Oglethorpe Chess Club, OUtlet, Humans vs. Zombies, and Environmentally Concerned Oglethorpe Students - ECOS. These groups hold regular meetings and host events. Greek life at OU is alive and well. I do not partake, but tons of people do. They have socials and things all the time, but i'm not really into that. Chi Phi has great parties that are usually themed like: Disney, Mardi Gras, or Heaven and Hell. Generally, they do not throw alcohol at everyone. It's more like BYOB and just dance and have fun. Events at OU happen all the time. There are frequent movie nights, plays(often written by students), and meetings. They have movies on the quad regularly (but can never seem to do them when the weather is right), and trivia nights. Kids host things like ping-pong tournaments, Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Dance Dance Revolution competitions, Bible Study sessions, general study sessions...everything. This really is a good school for leaders. Word on these things spreads quickly on campus. They go all out for official events. Stomp the Lawn is always good. They bring a mini-carnival to the quad with bungee rides, an obstacle course, mechanical bull, cotton candy, etc... Boars Head was amazing(look up the history on the OU site). I did not go to the show, but the dinner was really over-the-top. They remade Emerson into a snazzy restaurant kind of deal while a band played, and had delicious food laid out and an open bar for those over 21. Hogwarts Day is my favorite. That we actually go to Hogwarts is a running joke on campus. Oglethorpe was modeled after Oxford, and Hogwarts was modeled after Oxford, so Hogwarts is Oglethorpe. On HD, they have a Quidditch match on the quad, free food and drinks (butter-beer, every flavor jelly beans, etc), wizard's chess, a sorting hat. Each academic building was assigned a "house," so the science majors wore blue for ravenclaw, art majors wore yellow for hufflepuff, etc. But the best part was how they decked out the cafeteria for dinner to look like the great hall from the movies. Instead of grabbing a plate from the line, they had the food laid out on the tables to be passed around and they gave out delicious chocolate frogs. Oh, and some of the professors dressed up in wizard's robes and sat at a head table, to complete the Hogwarts feel. They have a casino night every year with an open bar and a live band where you play for chips to win tickets for a lottery. Last year they gave out an ipod, t.v. and tons of other things. EGGsAM Breakfast: they have this every semester during finals in which some of the professors cook breakfast foods for the students for dinner. A nice pick-me-up during finals when all I want to do is jump out of a third story window. As far as sports go, i'm not into them. Our golf-team consistently ranks in the top ten, I think.

There really are not any. OU is such a small school that most people have not heard of it, unless in connection with Georgia Shakespeare or the Museum of Art.