Stillwater OK bills itself as America’s Friendliest Town and Oklahoma State University comes very close to declaring itself the same in the university category. Nothing in our visit hinted that they may be exaggerating. This university, in a small, lively college town in northern Oklahoma is busy rebranding itself from its roots as Oklahoma A&M into a major, broad-based research institution with excellence well beyond agriculture and engineering. That seemed evident from the get go. The university’s well-regraded Greenwood School of Music is getting a spectacular new facility that’ll be attached to the similarly amazing new McNight Center for the Performing Arts which is nearing completion. They have the New York Symphony booked for opening night. And if you think going to Northern Oklahoma and messing around with music is an impractical waste of your parents money, tell it to OSU alumnus Garth Brooks.
The university is centered around a beautiful quadrangle framed by the library, academic buildings and an arboretum-like garden and if you wander off toward the gigantic Boone Pickens Stadium in the athletic quadrant, you’ll run across a series of stunning new residential complexes. Living-learning complexes that put students together based on mutual academic interest are also available.
Like most land-grant universities with agriculture as it’s reason for being, OSU has a number of programs and majors that are laser-focused on micro areas within industries. We spent some time in the Wayne Hirst Center for Beverage Education. On display were Oklahoma wines, a burgeoning industry in the state. OSU and its students in food science—both undergrads and graduate students—were playing both an integral role in the state’s food economy but were also developing specific skill sets to be players in our country’s enormous food sector. There was nothing abstract about this: students were going to leave here with immediate, well-paying employment with a universally acknowledged food service pedigree, Oklahoma State. The same could be said for programs in aviation, engineering, agriculture and other areas.
But not everyone here is thinking that way. One of our guides was a Poly Sci major, another was English. They were experiencing small classes, great teachers, and the poly sci person said she had great TA’s for her intro class discussion sections. They were inspired, optimistic students having life-changing experiences at OSU. And there were regular mentions of “Cowboy Family”, the idea that once an OSU Cowboy, forever an OSU Cowboy. This is a very close, multi-generational family you’re joining.
Surprisingly, OSU is less than 30% Greek. And ESPN has named OSU’s Homecoming “Americas’s Greatest Homecoming”. On that weekend little Stillwater balloons to 100,000 people and the party is non-stop. OSU is a big-time sports powerhouse and sports is the catalyst for the university’s bonkers school spirit.
So why would a student from a far off place like New England or Florida or California consider OSU? Academic excellence and a strong residential community aside, here’s an anecdote that may help answer the question. The student who greeted us told me that she lived in a tiny town in the Oklahoma Panhandle. She attended a K-12 school and was in the largest senior class in modern memory: 11 graduates. Her parents were both detectives for the local police department. In her freshman year, she became good friends with a young woman from Southern California. She took her home for a long weekend and her friend arrived at a community very few Americans have ever experienced. Remote almost beyond description, Panhandle life is deeply rural, detached from almost every convenience enjoyed by other Americans, filled with a handful of self-sufficient descendants of the pioneers. That weekend would never have happened at UC Davis. No doubt it added a richness to her academic and social life, making her OSU education something much bigger than a GPA.
While the 25% of students here not from Oklahoma represent a small (but growing) sector of the population, they come from 49 states. There are students from dozens of countries as well. If you come here from afar you’ll receive a sterling education and become part of a cult-like collegiate family. The friendliness will amaze you. And there’s a chance you’ll get to spend a weekend in the Panhandle.