Located just a few minutes from downtown Tulsa, the University of Tulsa is a small private school with comprehensive academic offerings. TU is non-denominational, and has about 3000 students in their undergraduate engineering, nursing, business and arts & science majors. There are also another thousand (ish) students in their graduate programs, including law school.
With a 9:1 student to faculty ratio and an average class size of 13, TU fosters a collaborative environment between professors and students, and gives students robust opportunities to research and even travel with faculty members. TU offers a number of interesting majors, including cybersecurity, data science, entertainment management, computer simulation/gaming, exercise and sports science, as well as other more traditional majors throughout the natural and social sciences.
Our tour guide Caitlin spent her first two years at TU as a biology major, thinking she was pre-med, but like many college students, her interests in another area, psychology, grew as she took more interesting classes. She switched her major at the end of her sophomore year, and will graduate in four years as a psychology major with a biology minor. She plans on taking a gap year to get some additional research experience before applying to graduate school, and she has multiple faculty mentors at TU who will help her get that experience to make her grad school application as strong as it can be.
TU has a traditional campus and freshmen are required to live on campus, but about 85% of students live on campus all four years. A small Greek system with 6 sororities and 8 fraternities gives students additional housing options – we visited one of the sororities and took a quick tour of their house, which had about 20 women living in it. In addition to double occupancy rooms, the house had a study lounge, formal living room for meetings and guests and a dining room that accommodated full chapter meals.
The University of Tulsa is one of the rare medium sized schools without a religious affiliation. TU is working to increase enrollment, while also increasing the quality of each incoming class, as reflected in their rising average GPA and test scores, though the latter are optional. Tulsa feels more diverse and progressive than Oklahoma City (the two largest cities in OK), and offers more cultural opportunities including a very active performing arts center (Evelyn actually took in an a capella performance while we were there!). With its urban location and geographically diverse student body, TU is a great option for students looking for a more personalized environment to pursue their continued education.
Lesa and Evelyn visited TU in fall, 2023. You can scroll through our photos of this lovely campus below!