What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$10,509 to $20,986 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $28,872 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $16,309.Aid and debt
37.5%
receive need-based grants
$32,106
average debt at graduation
2,493
students got merit aid
about 10% of undergraduates
$3,177
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1160–1310 · 22% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 23–28 · 43% of the class submitted
29.7% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Important
- Class rank
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Considered
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Oklahoma rates course rigor as Very Important, and your essay and your recommendations as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. A strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. And recommendations matter here too — a recommender who knows you well helps.
Oklahoma rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Oklahoma just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Oklahoma essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
40.7% of Oklahoma classes have fewer than 20 students.
40.7%
under 20 students
47%
20 to 49
12.3%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Oklahoma CDS 2025–26, I-3.
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
50.8%
first-years from out of state
28.5%
live on campus
25.5%
of men in fraternities
33.2%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White53.9%
- Hispanic15.3%
- Multiracial9.9%
- Asian7.1%
- Black5.2%
- Unknown / other2.4%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Oklahoma CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
58% of Oklahoma students graduate in 4 years.
58%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
75%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
89.1%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
65% finish in 6 years, against 75% of all students.
A 10-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Norman.
Norman is a college town of a bit over 100,000 that OU dominates outright — the university is the metro's fourth-largest employer, ahead of every hospital system in the state.
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What makes it unusual is that it is not isolated: Oklahoma City sits twenty miles north, close enough that the Thunder, the airport and a downtown job are a half-hour drive rather than a weekend trip. Campus is flat, open and enormous, wrapped around the North and South Ovals, and most students move off campus after first year into the neighbourhoods around Campus Corner.
The City
College town
Norman, OK
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Shannon Lucid
NASA astronaut who flew five spaceflights and spent six months aboard the Russian station Mir in 1996, the only American woman to do so. She held the American record for time in space until 2007 and received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. She took all three of her degrees here — chemistry, then biochemistry.
Class of 1963
J. C. Watts
Sooners quarterback who led two Orange Bowl wins, then served four terms in the US House of Representatives and delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union. He was the first African American in Oklahoma to win statewide office.
Class of 1981
Olivia Munn
Actor and television host, from Attack of the Show! and The Daily Show to HBO's The Newsroom and Apple TV+'s Your Friends and Neighbors. She took a journalism degree here with a minor in Japanese and dramatic arts.
Sterlin Harjo
Filmmaker and co-creator of the FX series Reservation Dogs, made with an all-Indigenous writing and directing team and set in Oklahoma. A citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he studied art and film here before his first short premiered at Sundance.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Boomer Sooner and the Pride of Oklahoma
The marching band was founded in 1904, three years before Oklahoma was a state, and it plays 'Boomer Sooner' and the 'OU Chant' at every home game. Three quarters of its members major in something other than music. In 1983 the band played Boomer Sooner close to 300 times during the Bedlam rivalry game, which the Sooners came back to win — a story OU still tells.
Walking Under the Clock Tower
The Clock Tower stands a few steps from Bizzell Memorial Library and is the most photographed spot on campus. Campus lore says anyone who walks underneath it will not graduate in four years, so students detour around it for four years and only walk through after they have their degree.
The Spoonholder
A concrete bench on the North Oval lawn, built as a memorial by the Class of 1910, crumbled over the decades and rebuilt by the Class of 1999. The name comes from an old courting practice, and the myth is that whoever you kiss there is who you will marry.
Weekend escapes from Norman
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Norman
Oklahoma City
30 minutesTwenty miles up I-35: Bricktown, Scissortail Park, the First Americans Museum and Thunder games — close enough to be an evening out rather than a trip.
Turner Falls and the Arbuckle Mountains
1 hourWaterfalls, swimming holes and hiking trails south on I-35, and the closest real change of terrain to the flat country around Norman.
Dallas-Fort Worth
3 hoursThe nearest big metro and the region's global airport, and where the Red River Rivalry is played at the Cotton Bowl each October during the State Fair of Texas.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Will Rogers World (OKC)
30 minutes from campus
For international flights: Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) — about 3 hours by car, or a short connecting flight.
Pro sports nearby
- Oklahoma City Thunder NBA
- Oklahoma City Comets MiLB
- Dallas Cowboys NFLAbout 3 hours away
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
OU is one of the few campuses where a federal agency is a building on the quad — NOAA's severe-storms operation shares the National Weather Center with OU's meteorology school — and Oklahoma City's aerospace, energy and health employers are a half-hour drive.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Tinker Air Force Base
- NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory
- FAA Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center
- Devon Energy
- Paycom
- INTEGRIS Health
- The Boeing Company
Downtown Oklahoma City — about 30 minutes from campus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Oklahoma admits 77.6% of applicants and enrolls 25,054 undergraduates in Norman, and only 47.0% of them are from in state — unusual for a flagship, and a measure of how far the football brand reaches. Greek life is a major social structure rather than one option among many: 25.5% of men and 33.2% of women join, while 28.5% live in university housing, so most students are off campus after their first year. Classes are large-public sized, 19 students per faculty member with 40.7% of sections under 20. On cost, OU meets 60.7% of demonstrated need and its graduates leave with $32,106 in average debt. 89.1% come back for a second year, 58.0% finish in four and 75.0% within six.