I spent the weekend and the beginning of the week in Eugene, Oregon visiting the University of Oregon and checking out the Historic Preservation Program. It was amazing. It was green. It was beautiful. And yes, it was rainy.
I know you are all curious as to what exactly I thought of it and if I am going to go there, so I put together a little Go, No-go list. Mostly for myself, but also for your information. Here are my reason why I SHOULD go to UofOregon and why I SHOULD NOT go (in no particular order). And I reserve the right to list some factors in both the pro and con list, because honestly, some things are like that in life.
L-E-T-S-G-O ... Let's Go, Let's Go!
* Fresh Air
* Trees and flowers everywhere on campus
* The HP program is the BEST on the west coast ... maybe in the country
* Not one, but TWO field school opportunities (hands on preservation work). One in the Pacific Northwest for one week this summer and another for one month in ITALY next summer.
* A River Runs Through It (the Willamette River that is, runs through Eugene) and has a really cool bike/walking path.
* Design Intelligence magazine ranks the UO Department of Architecture eleventh in the nation. The HP program is in the same school - called triple A (AAA) Architecture & Allied Arts - and I can take some Architecture classes.
* Located in Eugene, Oregon - a classic college town. And we all know that Provo, Utah is not the classic college town ... so this would be a new experience.
* Saturday Market! I could buy fresh fruit and veggies all spring and summer.
* Trader Joe's ... and the deal is done - I can live here.
* No sales tax in Oregon!
* Possibility of getting my tuition waived, my medical insurance covered, and get paid ... IF I can get a Graduate Teaching Fellowship (GTF) position (cross your fingers for me)!
* The UO's New Student Rec Center is amazing ... two strength and conditioning centers, a three court gym (not that I really care but still cool), covered outdoor tennis courts, indoor tennis center, indoor climbing wall and juice bar, two mat rooms, swimming pool and more.
* New and old buildings on campus ... the new ones are even all environmentally friendly and sustainable (the big buzz word in building these days) with solar panels, a green roof and other stuff ... super cool. And the old ones are pretty.
* Football and Basketball ... I guess they are good sometimes, which is cool.
* The HP program might be moving to Portland after my first year, which would be even greater professionally as well as socially (more peeps - aka Mormons - live in Portland than they do in Eugene ... its always nice to have a community).
* The director of the HP program is awesome and I am interested in similar things as he is ... good for mentoring.
* Good job placement. Graduates of the program work in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, etc in a wide range of positions in Architectural Firms, for the National Parks Service, for City and State Governments, etc.
* The health center has a sun room!
I know you are all curious as to what exactly I thought of it and if I am going to go there, so I put together a little Go, No-go list. Mostly for myself, but also for your information. Here are my reason why I SHOULD go to UofOregon and why I SHOULD NOT go (in no particular order). And I reserve the right to list some factors in both the pro and con list, because honestly, some things are like that in life.
L-E-T-S-G-O ... Let's Go, Let's Go!
* Fresh Air
* Trees and flowers everywhere on campus
* The HP program is the BEST on the west coast ... maybe in the country
* Not one, but TWO field school opportunities (hands on preservation work). One in the Pacific Northwest for one week this summer and another for one month in ITALY next summer.
* A River Runs Through It (the Willamette River that is, runs through Eugene) and has a really cool bike/walking path.
* Design Intelligence magazine ranks the UO Department of Architecture eleventh in the nation. The HP program is in the same school - called triple A (AAA) Architecture & Allied Arts - and I can take some Architecture classes.
* Located in Eugene, Oregon - a classic college town. And we all know that Provo, Utah is not the classic college town ... so this would be a new experience.
* Saturday Market! I could buy fresh fruit and veggies all spring and summer.
* Trader Joe's ... and the deal is done - I can live here.
* No sales tax in Oregon!
* Possibility of getting my tuition waived, my medical insurance covered, and get paid ... IF I can get a Graduate Teaching Fellowship (GTF) position (cross your fingers for me)!
* The UO's New Student Rec Center is amazing ... two strength and conditioning centers, a three court gym (not that I really care but still cool), covered outdoor tennis courts, indoor tennis center, indoor climbing wall and juice bar, two mat rooms, swimming pool and more.
* New and old buildings on campus ... the new ones are even all environmentally friendly and sustainable (the big buzz word in building these days) with solar panels, a green roof and other stuff ... super cool. And the old ones are pretty.
* Football and Basketball ... I guess they are good sometimes, which is cool.
* The HP program might be moving to Portland after my first year, which would be even greater professionally as well as socially (more peeps - aka Mormons - live in Portland than they do in Eugene ... its always nice to have a community).
* The director of the HP program is awesome and I am interested in similar things as he is ... good for mentoring.
* Good job placement. Graduates of the program work in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, etc in a wide range of positions in Architectural Firms, for the National Parks Service, for City and State Governments, etc.
* The health center has a sun room!
* You don't have to pump your own gas, in fact - you can't, its illegal.
NO-GO
(while there are only a few items that are no-go's these things are really, really important).
* Small town
* It rains all the time in order for it to be that green ... and I have been known to get seasonally depressed. And you know its bad when the new health center includes a sun room.
* Small town means not a lot of my peeps (the Mormons) and lets face it - that is a down side when you are single and still looking for Mr. Right. I hate to say it, but its true.
* And when I say there aren't a lot of my peeps I need to mention that a lot of the peeps will be younger than me ... like the boys will most likely be about 21 ... (just a reminder I am currently 24) ... sigh.
* The closest temple is in Portland - two hours away.
* Its not DC ... and what about all my friends in the DC area?
* I can handle the mascot being the ducks ... but donald duck??? what is that??? This just may be a deal breaker.
* Its not DC ... and what about all my friends in the DC area?
* I can handle the mascot being the ducks ... but donald duck??? what is that??? This just may be a deal breaker.
What do you think? Could I be a duck? Should I be a duck? In all fairness, I will be attending an open house for accepted graduate students at the University of Maryland on April 6th and I will post a similar list. But until then, feel free to tell me what you think.
3 comments:
That is an excellent "Let's Go" list. And the more you talk about it the more impressive the program sounds. You'd "only" be there 2 years, so maybe the opportunities (Italy trip, hands-on experience, architecture classes) weigh out the negatives (rain, not DC, etc.), though the duck might be a deal breaker.
The whole time I was reading this I kept thinking, "If it walks like a duck..."
You have some strong arguements, and I never thought about the peep thing, but with some more time and that trip again to Maryland you will have some more clarity. (I am secretly wishing that you fall in love with BU, but I know that isn't going to happen, hehe.)
But really, is a turtle a better mascot? At turtle that they don't even really call a turtle?
GO DUCKS!!!! I'm all for it!
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