University of Oregon?

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I'm intending on going stateside for a college education, and the local Center of American Education here in Singapore had a guy who advised me to head to UO. But I'd like to have real feedback from anyone who has either heard of UO, or been there before, because it's going to cost me about 200 grand over two years, and I want to be careful about which college I go to.

I've heard of University of Oregon. They're definitely a well-respected school, but I don't know much more about them than that.

This is going to be somewhat of a random mish-mash of my knowledge about it. I have a lot of friends that go there, it's where my grandpa went to college, and I took an Organometallics grad class there in 2007. I was actually offered a full-ride scholarship there, but I turned it down since they don't have an engineering program. I'd advise you to go to Oregon State University, but that's only if you're looking to get an engineering or computer science related degree. Otherwise it's a tossup. UO is more of a liberal arts college, but it does have a respectable natural sciences department. The downside to this is there are a lot, and I really do mean a lot, of hippies. Not political activists, but jobless moochers that do nothing but sit around and smoke a sh*tload of pot, complaining about the "man" oppressing them, and smelling horrible. On the upside, if it's your thing, there's a lot of attractive girls in the liberal arts programs that need to make money and turn to the ample amount of the strip clubs in the area (OSU is in Corvallis, which has a ban on strip clubs).

A lot of people that go to OSU and UO will tell you to never go to the other, since we're sports-team rivals. I really don't care about sports, so if you have any further questions, I'll answer them as honestly as possible (my only reason for preferring OSU is because it has a great engineering program and a lot less hippies).

Ah, my mistake then, for neglecting to mention what majors I want to go to, and my political leanings.

I'm thinking of doing either Journalism, Political Science, Philosophy, or Business Management. Yes, I'm aware that Eugene is hippieland, but that doesn't bother me much. Probably the sort of guy who will elect to stay at the "study" dorms because I'm there to graduate and not piss around.

As for my general political beliefs, I'm a realist libertarian. Not the crazy, ideological, anarcho-capitalist sort that tries to explain everything away with "the free market fixes everything", but I'm against the tyranny of the majority/mob, of which one of the most recent examples being Proposition 8 despite America possessing a Constitution that purportedly protects people from this said tyranny. Also, I'm a strong believer of the role of an intelligent, and well-regulated government.

One more thing. I'm Asian. Specifically, ethnically Chinese. Will I end up being socially, an island, which is probably going to be excaberated by my AS?

Ah, then University of Oregon is probably your best shot, I forgot to mention it in my last post, but UO's a great journalism school. A friend of mine's currently there for a degree in that, beware that during your junior year you're required to write a 100 page long paper.

I strongly doubt you'll be a social island, if you're referring to your being Chinese adding to the effect of your AS causing you to be the said island. The Pacific Northwest, being on the Pacific coast, has one of the highest Asian populations in the US. One in five students is Asian, easily. I don't remember a time walking around either of UO's or OSU's campus without hearing at least four languages other than English. Hell, today they're having a Japanese festival on the UO campus, I wanted to go, but I didn't get a ticket. They also have a yearly Asian festival at the events center. You should have absolutely no trouble at all finding friends or social activities in which to partake.

UW or Washington is pretty good itself since what I heard from my big sister who went there for Japanese Linguistics. (She now in Japan teaching English to Japanese children)

They have a pretty damn good Engineering program too. I may be going there to get my PhD in Chemical/Polymer Engineering, and my sister's currently going there to get her B.S. in Bioengineering.

And I really wish I had applied to the JET program to teach English in Japan, but back when I still could, I was thinking I'd have a job in engineering by now, not a year and a half of fun-filled unemployment.

Well she isn't in JET something similar to it basically. They get a good amount of money from Billy Gates as well. She went to the Captailship Campus or Seattle.

I am a student at University of Oregon, if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. As far as the majors you are interested in, Business is probably the strongest program of the ones you are interested in. It is a great area to live in, and there are many options for living around the area (other than on campus). You can often rent a room from a family for much cheaper than living on campus, which can also be more private.

Here is a website that has a number of "rooms" for rent, at eugene dot craigslist dot org. I would suggest meeting the people/checking the place out before agreeing to anything. I have a wonderful situation I am in currently, and I only pay around $400 a month total for housing/utilities.