What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$15,760 to $31,021 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: $34,793 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $16,483.Aid and debt
36%
receive need-based grants
$26,691
average debt at graduation
3,386
students got merit aid
about 16% of undergraduates
$8,020
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1050–1320 · 11% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 22–29 · 4% of the class submitted
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- Important
- Personal essay
- Considered
- Class rank
- SAT/ACT scores
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- First-gen status
- Where you're from
- In-state residency
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Legacy status
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Oregon rates course rigor as Very Important, and your essay 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.
Oregon doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Oregon just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Oregon essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
30.3% of Oregon classes have fewer than 20 students.
30.3%
under 20 students
46.6%
20 to 49
23.1%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Oregon CDS 2025–26, I-3.
19:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
46%
first-years from out of state
27%
live on campus
19%
of men in fraternities
18%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White59.9%
- Hispanic17.2%
- Multiracial9.6%
- Asian6.8%
- Black3.1%
- Unknown / other0.9%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Oregon CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
57.1% of Oregon students graduate in 4 years.
57.1%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
70.8%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
85.7%
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
61.5% finish in 6 years, against 70.8% of all students.
A 9.3-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 Eugene.
Eugene is a small, green, rainy city in the Willamette Valley that has been shaped by the university and by running in roughly equal measure.
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It is walkable and bike-friendly, cheaper than Portland, and closer to the outdoors than to anything urban — the coast and the Cascades are each about an hour or two out. The counterculture streak is genuine rather than marketed: this is the town Ken Kesey came back to. What it is not is a big-city job market or a nightlife destination, and students who want either tend to make the drive north.
The City
Mid-size city
Eugene, OR
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Phil Knight
Co-founded Nike, which began as a distributor run out of his car after he ran middle distance here for coach Bill Bowerman — Nike's other founder. He took a business degree in 1959, and his giving has since rebuilt much of the campus.
Class of 1959
Ken Kesey
Wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and became a central figure of 1960s counterculture. He studied journalism here and graduated in 1957, wrestling and acting while he was a student.
Class of 1957
Chuck Palahniuk
Author of Fight Club and a dozen other novels. He took a journalism degree here in 1986 and worked as a mechanic and a volunteer at a homeless shelter before publishing.
Class of 1986
Ann Curry
Network news anchor and foreign correspondent, longtime host of NBC's Today and a reporter from Darfur, Syria and the Congo. She graduated from the journalism school here in 1978.
Class of 1978
Steve Prefontaine
The distance runner who at one point held every American record from 2,000 to 10,000 metres, and whose races at Hayward Field made the stadium a landmark of the sport. He ran here from 1970 until his death in 1975 at twenty-four.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Hayward Field
The track on campus is one of the sport's landmarks, host to the Prefontaine Classic and repeatedly to the US Olympic Trials. Eugene calls itself Track Town USA and means it — the meets fill the stands the way football does elsewhere.
The Oregon Duck
The mascot is a licensed Disney character, the product of a long-standing handshake agreement over Donald Duck, and its sideline routine — including push-ups after every score — is its own event.
Autzen Stadium
One of the loudest stadiums in college football for its size, and the anchor of the fall Saturday across the river from the main campus.
The Pioneer Cemetery and the old campus quad
The oldest part of campus, built from 1876 onward and wooded enough to feel like a park, sits directly against the newer buildings — a visible record of a university that has grown around its original core.
Weekend escapes from Eugene
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Eugene
The Oregon Coast
About 1 hour 15 minutesFlorence and the dunes are the closest stretch — cold water, big headlands and no crowds outside summer.
Portland
About 2 hoursThe nearest big city, and the nearest major airport. Music, food and the job market Eugene doesn't have.
The Cascades and Bend
1.5 to 3 hoursSkiing at Willamette Pass in winter, and the high desert around Bend for climbing and mountain biking the rest of the year.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Eugene Airport (EUG)
About 20 minutes from campus
For international flights: Portland International (PDX) — about 2 hours by car.
Pro sports nearby
- Portland Trail Blazers NBA
- Portland Timbers MLS
- Portland Thorns NWSL
- Eugene Emeralds MiLB
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Eugene's own employers are the university, health care and a cluster of sports and outdoor brands; the wider market is Portland, two hours north, where Nike's presence makes the alumni network unusually concentrated in sport, apparel and design.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Nike
- PeaceHealth
- University of Oregon
- Columbia Sportswear
- Intel
Portland — about 2 hours by car, with Amtrak and frequent bus service
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Oregon admits 87.4% of applicants, so the question is almost never whether you get in. It is what happens next. Aid covers 55% of need, graduates who borrow leave owing $26,691, and 46% of first-year students come from out of state, paying $47,466 rather than the $17,475 an Oregonian pays — a combination that asks families to be honest with themselves before the deposit, not after. 85.7% return for a second year and 70.8% finish within six, but only 57.1% finish in four. The academic shape is unusual for a flagship: there is no engineering school, and the degrees run to social sciences and business at 16% each and journalism at 13%, so a student set on engineering should look elsewhere and a student who wants to write has landed somewhere with real pedigree. Campus life runs off-campus — 27% of undergraduates live in university housing and 19% of men and 18% of women join Greek life — and classes are large, with 30.3% of sections under 20 and 19 students per faculty member. Track is not a metaphor here: Hayward Field is on campus and the sport is closer to the institution's identity than football is at most places.