At a Glance
Oregon admits 87.4% 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
36.4%
receive need-based grant aid
$26,691
average debt at graduation
Oregon graduates carry an average of $26,691 in debt.
Merit Aid
3,386
students received merit aid
$8,020
average merit award
Getting In
Oregon admits 87.4% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 11% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 4% of the class submitted
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Oregon considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
30.3% of Oregon 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 Oregon, 30.3% 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)
47%
Live on campus
27%
Men in fraternities
19%
Women in sororities
18%
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."
Oregon's student body is 60.1% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Oregon graduates 57.1% 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.
Oregon graduates 57.1% 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.
Oregon
57.1%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $34,793*
* 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.
70.8%
Overall 6-yr rate
61.5%
Pell recipient rate
A 9.3 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
85.7%
85.7% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
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. 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.
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.
The City
Mid-size city
Eugene, OR
Best For
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
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 & 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
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
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 47% of undergraduates come from out of state paying $45,361 rather than the $16,509 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.