Our college counseling team had the great pleasure of meeting with the admission office at University of Tulsa (or “TU,” as it’s referred to by students!) and we learned a LOT about what makes it a special place. Here are five reasons to consider TU:
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- The Cane Careers Program: Unusual among most colleges and universities, University of Tulsa offers a guaranteed job program: Graduates are guaranteed to be employed within six months of graduation, or the university owes them a semester of free graduate school. How does TU deliver on that guarantee? Through integrating career counseling throughout students’ experiences at the university. Students typically begin meeting with career services counselors during their first year of college; the university also promotes networking events including monthly networking lunches with local alumni and business executives and offers free memberships to local co-working office spaces to connect students with local start-ups. The Cane Careers Program was truly one of the most robust and impressive career placement initiatives our counseling team has come across!
- Scholarships: As a private school, TU’s cost of attendance can be steep for many families. However, 100% of admitted students qualify for merit scholarships, and the average student typically pays only about half of the cost of attendance. What’s more, any students who are designated National Merit semi-finalists or finalists automatically get a full-tuition scholarship. TU is one of the only small, private colleges offering such generous aid to students with strong PSAT scores.
- Ease of transferring among different programs: University of Tulsa has five colleges – arts and sciences; engineering and computer science; health and natural sciences; business; and its brand-new Honors College. While some universities require students to apply directly to one college and it’s then difficult to change majors or transfer colleges, TU makes switching seamless. Students are encouraged to explore different majors during their time in undergrad, and it is typically quite easy to switch majors throughout the five colleges, making TU a good choice for an undecided student who might still be interested in pre-professional programs like business or the health sciences.
- Opportunities for service: Speaking of the brand-new Honors College, TU has always had an Honors program, but this summer is transitioning it to a full-scale college, making it a more robust academic experience for students. Interestingly, TU’s Honors College will focus on service, as well as mentored research resulting in a thesis. TU offers a lot of ways for students to engage in the Tulsa community and help others. For example, its MINE program (Making a Difference in Engineering) is a student club that partners with a different Tulsa nonprofit organization each year and allows students to assist with the engineering or design challenges those nonprofits face. Last year, MINE students worked with an elementary school serving children with disabilities and they were able to design and build a bicycle for a student without arms.
- Personalized advising and mentorship: Many colleges boast about their low student/faculty ratios and small class sizes. What stood out to our counselors about TU was the amount of personalized advising and mentorship that all University of Tulsa students receive as soon as they enroll. In addition to the impressive support provided by the career services offices, TU students are also given Student Success Coaches, who help students select courses and majors and help navigate the transition to college. All incoming students are required to take a First Year Experience course, which focuses on skills from study habits to laundry! And all students have peer mentors who check in periodically and can help with some of the social and academic challenges that are typical of a first-year college experience.
While Tulsa, Oklahoma might seem off the beaten path for some students, its unique programs and student-centered approach definitely make it worth investigating!
