Campus visit - Portland State University
By: Marc Rosegold

March 07, 2000

Portland State represents Oregon's only true urban campus when considering 4-year state-supported universities. PSU is located in the heart of the city, just blocks from the Portland Art Museum in a beautiful 'no-traffic' section of Park Avenue. You must really want and be ready for a city experience to enjoy PSU.

While PSU has traditionally been known as a 'commuter campus', this image is rapidly changing. The fastest growing segment of their student body is the 'traditional freshman' and PSU is currently in their third year of a new program to welcome first-time freshman to campus. The two components of this relatively new program are 1) Freshman Inquiry and 2) Freshman Experience. The Freshman Inquiry Program is an interdisciplinary approach to meeting general education requirements. 30 - 35 students are paired together for the entire year with the same interdisciplinary faculty team to explore a theme-based instructional program. Some examples of the themes are Faith and Reason, Embracing Einstein's Universe and the Columbia Basin, to name a few. The Freshman Experience is a University Housing Program that addresses the housing/social/emotional needs of traditional freshman. Two floors of Ondine Residence Hall are specifically identified as 'freshman only' and receive extra staffing to assist in managing the extra demands that freshman new to the 'big city' have. They not only provide safety management, but also assist in making the freshman experience successful both socially and academically.

One concern I often hear from parents centers around safety in Portland. The campus has numerous 'call-boxes' from which anyone can instantly contact the Campus Public Safety Office for an escort. In general, the crime stats for PSU are actually lower than most other large Oregon universities (with the exception of theft).

One perception I have heard from parents is that PSU, because of its lower threshhold gpa (2.50), must be for students who are less capable. From what I can gather, this perception just doesn't hold water. While the gpa requirement is lower than other OUS schools, the average entering gpa for admitted freshman is actually 3.2 (which is on-par or better than some other schools that require a higher threshold gpa for admission). The folks at PSU say that they don't want gpa to be a barrier to anyone wanting to continue their education.

PSU's strongest majors are business (especially accounting - PSU ranks 5th in the nation on CPA test scores), engineering, psychology and the sciences. Students from PSU make up the largest block of admitted students to OHSU for medical and dental school. The pre-health and pre-dental science advising is particularly strong.

So if you are looking for an inexpensive, urban university, then check out Portland State.