University of Oregon
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Major: Sports Marketing
Minor: Media Studies
Student Self Identifies as: Caucasian Straight Male
Summary
I’ve been involved in the Warsaw Sports Business Club and I’m involved with the Cru Campus Ministry, which take up most of my time. I also do intramural sports.
Background
Gender Identity: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Straight
High School Experience: Public High school near Portland, OR with a graduating class of about 160 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Sports Marketing
Minor: Media Studies
Extracurricular Activities: I’ve been involved in the Warsaw Sports Business Club and I’m involved with the Cru Campus Ministry, which take up most of my time. I also do intramural sports.
Have any of your extracurricular activities had a particularly big impact on your experience?
Warsaw has been really good because it’s focused on sports business and is geared toward my major. Cru is something I’m passionate about and most of my friends are part of it.
Academic Experience
Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
I wouldn’t say there are a lot of essays for the major. Sometimes for the minor, there are essays in media studies or journalism classes. For my major, you generally have two midterms and a final. There are weekly assignments and some classes give out weekly quizzes. It isn’t too demanding, but it’s a good workload. The classes that deal with math, like finance or accounting, have scenario problems where you work out solutions. In some classes in the business school, you’ll have a lot of Excel work. For marketing classes, we do a lot of case study analysis. Right now, we’re analyzing a company and designing a new marketing strategy.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
All the classes in my concentration are upper-division, so you have to take all the lower division classes like accounting and finance first. As much as I don’t like that, I understand why they have to do that. What they do well is setting people up for networking opportunities. They have multiple clubs for different concentrations in the business school. They do a good job of focusing on the future.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I’d say it’s pretty competitive. People start applying to the business school after you make it out of the first round of introductory business classes. Once they weed out a certain number of people who’ve been in your introductory classes, it’s more competitive in terms of who you’re taking classes with, fighting for grades, and positions in clubs. I’ve made friends and acquaintances through various classes and pretty much every term I can assume I’ll know a few people in my classes. We do a ton of group projects so we’re always working together. People help each other get involved, so it’s collaborative in that sense.
How accessible are your professors?
They’re pretty accessible. All of them have to hold office hours throughout the week and most of them are good at responding to emails.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I didn’t know what I wanted to do going into college, but I saw the sports side of sports marketing and thought it sounded fun. Right now, I’m having a hard time being happy with it because I’m still taking the basic classes, but I’m getting excited because I will start more of the sports marketing business courses in the next term. I’m generally happy, but it’s hard to go through the [introductory] classes first.
Reasons to Attend
1) The campus life is really fun and there are lots of opportunities. It’s exciting being part of a school with a big sports culture.
2) Networking-wise, Oregon does a good job of setting people up to find jobs after college.
3) Academically it’s pretty good.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) The weather might scare a good portion of people away. Seasonal depression comes with that.
2) Eugene isn’t really built as a college city, so once you get outside of campus it’s not the nicest place to go exploring or hang out.
3) For some people, how liberal the campus is might not be something everyone likes. The process for Christian groups becoming recognized on campus was more difficult than it should. [See The Daily Emerald article, “Yanez: ASUO’s bias against conservative student organizations” and article, “A Republican reality: Being red on a blue campus.”]
Around Campus
Where have you lived on and around campus?
Freshman: Barnhart Hall with one roommate
Sophomore: 2125 Franklin Apartments with three roommates
Junior: Off-campus apartment with two roommates
What was your favorite living situation?
Probably the Franklin because it’s a nicer apartment.
How was transitioning from your hometown to Eugene, OR in terms of location?
It wasn’t too bad. My hometown is a lot smaller than Eugene so that was a little bit of an adjustment but it never really bothered me, especially because during freshman year you don’t really venture outside of campus that much because most people don’t have cars. By the time I was able to get out and explore the town, I wasn’t too shocked or anything.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I’ve never experienced anything unsafe personally. There’s almost always some sort of security walking or driving around campus. There are 911 emergency centers where you can press a button if you’re in trouble. There has been a lot of reports of armed robberies pretty close to campus.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I love going to football games or sporting events. Sometimes we’ll do events around the city like bowling, mini-golfing, or an escape room. Other than that, we’ll hang out on the weekends and have a movie night or play basketball.
What have been some of your favorite times at The University of Oregon?
Definitely the football games and all the sporting events. It’s a crazy atmosphere being at a big sports school. The little things like hanging out with my friends on campus and playing basketball are also great. Intramurals are fun too. I love playing with my flag football buddies.
How happy are you with the weekend options? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I’m pretty happy with them.
Campus Culture
How did you meet your closest friends?
Through Cru, our campus ministry. Some of them I met through the overnight stay you do during the summer. We had a pretty fun group and we’re still friends.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Oregon?
It’s pretty good there’s a lot of social stuff to do. It’s a pretty social campus. If you’re into partying, there’s a lot of it. There are always people to study with and if you don’t want complete silence there are people sitting around in the main student center. There are a ton of clubs and opportunities to make friends.
How would you describe the Christian community on campus? How strong is it?
I’d say it’s a lot stronger than I expected. There are multiple Christian clubs and groups.
To what extent do you think people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
Quite a bit. In Cru, there’s a big Asian-American population and a growing Hispanic-American population. A lot of my friends are different races and there’s a lot of diversity on our campus, in general. There’s a lot of LGBTQ clubs so pretty much everywhere you’ll find someone that identifies like that. [The undergraduate population is 6% Black, 14% Asian, 15% Hispanic, 3% Native American, and 60% White.]
To what extent do people in Greek life and not in Greek life mix socially?
I don’t interact too much with Greek life students. I think they’re pretty social, but it’s a pretty connected network so different houses in fraternities and sororities mix a lot. I think most of their friend groups are people in those houses. But, I do have a few friends in fraternities and sororities.
How do you like the size of Oregon in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How was transitioning to a school with [about 19,000] students?
I like it. It’s bigger than my entire hometown so a lot of people thought that would be weird for me, but I like being surrounded by so many people. It helps the diversity and you’re not just running into the same people every day. There are lots of opportunities to meet new people. But, if it were any bigger, I might not like it.
Careers
Have you learned any computer languages or software that will be helpful to you professionally?
I’m getting pretty familiar with Excel, which is one of the biggest programs they teach in the business school.