opinion of the university of oklahoma

[WalterMitty]

trashed by many atlasians.  but dont they have one of the best meteorology programs in the nation?

[GaussLaw]

It's a decent plains state school.  I went to Mizzou, so it's not like that's much better.

[Indy Texas]

It's a decent plains state school.  I went to Mizzou, so it's not like that's much better.

At least OU stayed in the Big 12. Unlike you guys who had to go back to your slave-state roots like A&M did.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

An okay school. Decent at football.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's probably not a terrible school, but I imagine most of the Atlas trashing of it is a response to Bushie claiming it is "among the best schools in the world".

[Stranger in a strange land]

It's a good school for sure, but to say it's one of the best in the world is a stretch.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I'm sure it's fine, but it's not a top 25 school, so it's not one I'd really want to go to. It's definitely not one of the best schools in the world.

[New_Conservative]

Decent school, its meteorology program is very good.

[Cubby]

Mild HS because unlike other non-urban counties dominated by universities (Douglas, KS; Athens, OH; Jackson, IL; Tompkins, NY, etc.) Cleveland County is still very Republican. As late as 2004 it was more GOP than the state average.

[Mechaman]

Mild HS because unlike other non-urban counties dominated by universities (Douglas, KS; Athens, OH; Jackson, IL; Tompkins, NY, etc.) Cleveland County is still very Republican. As late as 2004 it was more GOP than the state average.

So you're judging the university by how the rest of the county votes?  Yeah that makes a lot of sense.

It is hardly fair to judge the University of Oklahoma as HP when it resides in a county that has about nine times as large of a population as the university (OU has about 30,000 students, Cleveland County has about 270,000 people).  Douglas County has about 115,000 people residing in it and about 25,000 of them go to University of Kansas (that's somewhere between a fourth and a fifth of the county).  Further, if you want to bring in population factors of the cities, Lawrence has about 90,000 people residing in it, which is about over 78% of the population of Lawrence County.  Norman, by comparison, has a little over 118,000 people living in it out of a county population that is nearly 270,000.  Which, if you do the math it's around 44% (less than half the population).  If you consider that a lot of the rest of the population is either rich OKC suburbanites who commute to Oklahoma County to work and largely conservative smaller towns it's not a fair comparison.

Norman could vote 65% Democratic and the county could still be something like 55% Republican, just to give you an idea of how much of a factor that is.

Am I arguing that University of Oklahoma is some liberal oasis?  Definitely not.  However your logic is very dishonest when you consider that, by sheer numbers, the demographic influence that OU and Norman has over Cleveland County is a lot smaller than that of KU and Lawrence.

I could've used the other examples you listed as contrasts, but Lawrence was both a) closest and b) in a politically similar state.

[Mechaman]

As for the school itself, pretty great considering it's Oklahoma.  The University has several sites throughout the state that allow people with post college degrees to pursue Masters programs in several fields through pretty liberal stipends.  There are some programs you can get into where you actually get paid to pursue Masters studies instead of getting further and further into debt.

Not sure if the stipend program is federally funded (probably is), admittedly I am kind of ignorant on how it works.  I'd have to ask more information on it from my friends in the Masters Program.

[Хahar 🤔]

Bob Stoops is great and I generally rooted for his teams against Mack Brown's Texas teams at the Cotton Bowl every year.

[DemPGH]

Yeah, meteorology is first rate and they also have a rare books and incunabula collection that's like 3rd best in the nation - I toured it back about 2009 or 2010. They're no joke. They might be on par with Wisconsin, better in some areas, not as good in others, so about par. If you applied yourself, you'd get an excellent education there.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

apparently they have a really good native studies faculty

[Kushahontas]

pretty good school; great football team; but unfortunately as you all already know, Oklahoma....

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The Harvard of flyover country.

[Maxwell]

The Harvard of flyover country.

I'm guessing you're joking.

Overrated by people within the state, (mostly) underrated by people outside of it.

[Cubby]

..........If you consider that a lot of the rest of the population is either rich OKC suburbanites who commute to Oklahoma County to work and largely conservative smaller towns it's not a fair comparison.

Norman could vote 65% Democratic and the county could still be something like 55% Republican, just to give you an idea of how much of a factor that is.

Am I arguing that University of Oklahoma is some liberal oasis?  Definitely not.  However your logic is very dishonest when you consider that, by sheer numbers, the demographic influence that OU and Norman has over Cleveland County is a lot smaller than that of KU and Lawrence.

I could've used the other examples you listed as contrasts, but Lawrence was both a) closest and b) in a politically similar state.

Are you referring to Moore? Because from what I saw last year after the Tornado it seemed about as economically well off as Joplin or Tuscasloosa. But I only saw it after there was rubble everywhere so its not a fair comparison.

You're right about U-OK being out-voted by hordes of Wal-Mart shopping Pentecostals, but Cleveland votes more like Utah County (Brigham Young) than any of the other counties I mentioned before.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The Harvard of flyover country.

I'm guessing you're joking.

Overrated by people within the state, (mostly) underrated by people outside of it.

Our Dear Friend compared it to Harvard. 

[memphis]

Trying to operate a legit university in Oklahoma has to be a Herculean task. Imagine trying to teach geology to a bunch of Young Earth Creationists. Or biology. Or history. Or any class, really. Major FF just for the effort.