What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$12,107 to $27,459 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: $31,653 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $17,750.Aid and debt
41.6%
receive need-based grants
$25,935
average debt at graduation
7,730
students got merit aid
about 24% of undergraduates
$8,145
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1127–1360 · 8% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 24–31 · 4% of the class submitted
28% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- GPA
- Important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Personal essay
- Character
- Considered
- Class rank
- SAT/ACT scores
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
- Not considered
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
What this means for you
Oregon State rates two things you can work on as Important: course rigor and your essay.
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AP, IB, and dual-enrollment classes strengthen an application here — a strong mix of them helps. A strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application.
Oregon State rates demonstrated interest 'Considered' — it can tip a close decision, without being decisive.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Oregon State just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Oregon State essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
27.3% of Oregon State classes have fewer than 20 students.
27.3%
under 20 students
48.3%
20 to 49
24.4%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Oregon State CDS 2025–26, I-3.
18:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
16%
live on campus
12%
of men in fraternities
15%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White62.3%
- Hispanic13.6%
- Asian7.6%
- Multiracial7.4%
- Unknown / other2.8%
- Black2.3%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Oregon State CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
44.8% of Oregon State students graduate in 4 years.
44.8%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
68%
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
58% finish in 6 years, against 68% 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 Corvallis.
Corvallis is a classic college town — walkable, bike-friendly, and genuinely shaped around student life.
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It's small enough that you'll recognize faces downtown within a few weeks, and surrounded by forests, rivers, and trails that make getting outside effortless. Students who want big-city energy will need to road-trip to Portland, but those who thrive in tight-knit, outdoorsy communities tend to fall hard for this place.
The City
College town
Corvallis, OR
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Linus Pauling
The only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes — Chemistry in 1954 and Peace in 1962. He took a degree in chemical engineering here, and the university's Linus Pauling Institute carries his name.
Class of 1922
Jensen Huang
Founder and chief executive of NVIDIA, whose chips underpin the modern AI industry. Oregon State names him among its alumni as a 1984 electrical engineering graduate.
Class of 1984
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Civil War Rivalry Game
OSU's annual football showdown against the University of Oregon is one of the oldest and most heated rivalries in the Pacific Northwest, drawing massive crowds and intense school pride on both sides. The winner earns bragging rights for the full academic year, and the week leading up to the game is its own event on campus.
Convocation
Every fall, incoming students walk through the Memorial Union Quad in a formal procession that marks their official entry into the Beaver community. It's a surprisingly moving moment — the kind of first-week experience students actually remember at graduation.
OSU Midnight Pancake Feed
During finals week, university staff and faculty flip pancakes for students late into the night as a stress-relief tradition that has become a beloved campus staple. It's equal parts practical and genuinely charming — free food at midnight from your professors goes a long way.
Weekend escapes from Corvallis
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Corvallis
Portland, OR
1.5 hoursOregon's biggest city delivers world-class food, live music, art museums, and a weekend's worth of neighborhoods to explore — close enough for a Saturday trip, easy enough to do regularly.
Oregon Coast (Newport)
1 hourNewport sits right on the Pacific and offers everything from dramatic sea stacks and tide pools to the Oregon Coast Aquarium — a genuinely great day trip any time of year.
Crater Lake National Park
3.5 hoursThe deepest lake in the US sits inside a collapsed volcano and looks almost artificially blue — it's one of the most visually stunning places in the Pacific Northwest and absolutely worth a weekend camping trip.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Portland International Airport (PDX)
1.5 hours from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Portland Trail Blazers NBAAbout 1 hour 30 minutes away
- Portland Timbers MLSAbout 1 hour 30 minutes away
- Portland Thorns FC NWSLAbout 1 hour 30 minutes away
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
OSU's strengths in engineering, agriculture, and environmental science align well with Oregon's booming tech sector and robust sustainability industry, with Portland serving as the primary career hub an hour and a half away.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Intel
- Nike
- HP Inc.
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- USDA Forest Service
Portland, OR — approximately 1.5 hours from campus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Oregon State admits 78.9% of applicants, so getting in is rarely the hard part; finishing on time is. 89.1% of first-years come back, which is strong, but 68.0% finish within six years and only 44.8% in four — a gap worth planning around, because a fifth year costs what a fifth year costs. In-state tuition and fees run $16,032 against $42,747 from out of state, aid meets 59.2% of need, and graduates who borrow leave owing $25,935. Classes are large for a school of 31,586 undergraduates: 27.3% of sections hold fewer than 20 students, at 18 per faculty member. And it is not a residential campus — 16% of undergraduates live in university housing and 12% of men and 15% of women join Greek life, so Corvallis itself, not a quad, is where most of four years happens.