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With eight schools and colleges featuring 269 academic programs, the UO’s astounding array of course offerings focuses on everything from calculus to cartography, Brontë to biochemistry, nanotechnology to neurology, Russian to reporting, saxophone to supply chain. The university's commitment to academic excellence encourages high-achieving students to choose the UO, the state's flagship institution of higher learning.
The UO is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, one of only 61 schools in North America, and is also home to the Robert D. Clark Honors College, the oldest honors college in the nation.
Schools and Colleges Highlights
School of Architecture and Allied Arts
Build, design, and develop green practices with the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. The journal Design Intelligence ranks the UO #1 in sustainable design concepts and principles for architecture, and ranks the Department of Architecture 15th in the nation. The UO’s Interior Architecture Program consistently ranks in the nation’s top five among accredited programs.
College of Arts and Sciences
Imagine, analyze, write, and philosophize in the College of Arts and Sciences, which is constantly introducing new majors and programs to stay on the leading edge of relevance. Recent program additions include cinema studies, Latin American studies, and queer studies.
From classics to linguistics to theater arts, explore 17 departments and programs in the Humanities, with hundreds of courses that explore the human experience from every angle. Choose from among 20 foreign languages that fulfill the undergraduate language requirement—and beyond. The list encompasses the expected (French, Spanish) as well as the unexpected (Anglo Saxon, Swahili). Our newest language offering: Arabic.
The 14 departments and programs in the Social Sciences examine the why, what, and how of contemporary issues. Social sciences include some of the largest, most popular majors on campus (political science, economics, history, sociology) as well as up-and-coming majors like environmental studies, international studies, and women’s and gender studies. Social sciences reach across the globe, into the many dimensions of human experience.
The eight departments and programs in the Natural Sciences range from human physiology to geological sciences to physics. Explore the new underground nanotechnology research facilities of the Lorry I. Lokey Laboratories, which features highly sensitive instruments that reveal new views on chemical and physical phenomena. Test your physical limits in the environmental chamber. Or go totally cerebral with MRI technology in the Lewis Center for Neuroimaging, which will soon be housed in the Lewis Integrative Science Building slated for completion in 2012. The LISB will be home to strategic research clusters related to the human brain, molecular biology, nanotechnology, and solar energy. The first of its kind in the nation, the green chemistry program of the UO Department of Chemistry eliminates or reduces the use of toxic chemicals by finding creative ways to minimize the human and environmental impact without stifling scientific progress.
College of Education
Research, observe, and learn to teach in the College of Education, whose faculty has been deemed the #1 most productive educational research faculty in the U.S. The college is among the nation’s top 10 most selective public or private institutions. Education faculty members created the leading national model for effective behavior support, nurturing school-wide positive behavior, and the UO’s Special Education Program has been ranked in the top three nationally for seven consecutive years.
School of Law
Research, learn, and litigate in the UO School of Law. Oregon Law developed the first public interest environmental law clinic, the world’s largest and oldest Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, and an Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program that was one of the first in the nation. Oregon Law is the only law school in the Pacific Northwest that can boast of having three programs ranked in the "top ten" by U.S. News & World Report, and preLaw magazine has named Oregon Law as one of the "Best in Practical Training" law schools in the country.
Lundquist College of Business
Market, manage, and merchandise in the Lundquist College of Business. BusinessWeek magazine confirms that students seeking a top-tier undergraduate business education at a great value can consider LCB a major contender. The Lillis Business Complex is one of the most environmentally friendly business school facilities, and the first certified environmentally friendly business school facility in the nation. Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review have ranked the college’s entrepreneurship program among the top in the U.S., and Forbes hails the Oregon MBA program among the best in the nation for return on investment. And ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, and more recognize the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center as the nation's first and best sports business program. The UO's New Venture Championship is noted by BusinessWeek and Forbes as one of the top worldwide business plan competitions.
School of Journalism and Communication
Photograph, film, and interview in the School of Journalism and Communication, featuring a media curriculum placed among the top 25 in the nation. Nine of the UO's 10 Pulitzer Prize-winning alumni earned degrees form the SOJC, and Flux, the school's student-run magazine, has won 13 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker Awards, the highest honor for college student magazines. Flux has received more than 100 national awards, making it the most honored college student publication in the country.
School of Music and Dance
Hum, harmonize, and get in step with the School of Music and Dance. The school is the recipient of a grant from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to study skilled performance in musicians. Since 1991, the UO music education program has placed 100 percent of its graduates seeking teaching positions. The Oregon Jazz Ensemble has won the first place award at the Reno Jazz Festival (college division) six times since 2000, and in 2010 the UO's Gospel Singers ensemble took first place at Disney World's inaugural Gospel Choir Fest. SOMD students travel the world; twelve students from the Oregon Marching Band traveled to China as part of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Orchestra, and five UO opera students traveled to Germany in 2009 to perform in Nosferatu at the Berlin Konzerthaus. Holdings of the UO Library related to music and dance include 30,000 music scores and parts; 25,000 books on music; 225 music periodicals; 60 dance journals; 40,000 recordings; and a historical sheet music collection.
Academic Resources at the UO
Each academic term, the UO offers over 3,000 undergraduate classes, only 110 of which have more than 100 students. And UO students ease into rigorous college course work with Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs), small learning communities of 25 first-year students organized around a theme or idea tailored to a variety of student interests. FIGs help students embrace the life of the mind while taking two core courses together.
Each day, on average, about 7,500 individuals use one of the seven libraries that constitute the UO Libraries. Home to the largest research collection in the state, the UO Libraries offer more than 3 million volumes and 46,000 journal subscriptions, as well as online reference chat service and state-of-the-art media stations. And the UO Scholars’ Bank is open around the clock for students to explore the research of their peers and mentors.
The university’s resources allow students to obtain prestigious internships at home and abroad. Internationally inclined students the world on any of the 165 study abroad programs going to more than 95 different countries.
