Oglethorpe University Top Questions

What are the academics like at your school?

Lindsay

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.