At a Glance
Oklahoma admits 77.6% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
37.5%
receive need-based grant aid
$32,106
average debt at graduation
Oklahoma graduates carry an average of $32,106 in debt.
Merit Aid
2,493
students received merit aid
$3,177
average merit award
Getting In
Oklahoma admits 77.6% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 22% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 43% of the class submitted
29.7% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Oklahoma considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Considered — showing genuine engagement with this school may help your application.
Student Life
40.7% of Oklahoma classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Oklahoma, 40.7% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
50.8%
Live on campus
28.5%
Men in fraternities
25.5%
Women in sororities
33.2%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Oklahoma's student body is 53.9% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Oklahoma graduates 58% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Oklahoma graduates 58% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Oklahoma
58%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $28,872*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
75%
Overall 6-yr rate
65%
Pell recipient rate
A 10 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
89.1%
89.1% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
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. 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.
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.
The City
College town
Norman, OK
Best For
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
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 & 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
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
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 64.5% 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.