Oregon State University

Oregon State University (OSU) is located in Corvallis, Oregon. About 19,000 students attend OSU, most of them from in-state. OSU was once known as Oregon Agricultural College; agriculture, animal science, and forestry continue to be some of the more popular degrees. Corvallis is in close proximity to a good deal of farmland, and OSU manages the nearby McDonald-Dunn Forest[?] as a research forest, as well as keeping a large sheep barn. However, Corvallis is not much of a rural town. It has 50,000 permanent residents, one of the best public libraries for a town its size, and is home to the second largest Hewlett-Packard manufacturing site in the world. Several smaller technology companies are based in the area as well. Perhaps because of this, OSU has a growing, healthy engineering college.

Although OSU's focus is solidly on agriculture, engineering and other subjects outside of the liberal arts, the novelist Bernard Malamud spent the 1940s and 1950s teaching English Composition there. His experience there was the basis for his novel A New Life.

It is true that there is not much to do in Corvallis. There is no shopping mall, only one movie theater, and one of the more popular hangouts is WINCO Foods. However, Oregon has a wide variety of natural recreation areas, including tall mountains, a beautiful, if rainy, coastline, several large forests, a desert, and many rivers. OSU students are only a few hours' drive away from any number of outdoor recreation opportunities. In addition, the major cities Portland and Vancouver, Washington are only about 100 miles north of the campus.

More about Oregon State University can be found at OSU's website (http://oregonstate.edu).