According to bestcolleges.com, there are six key factors to consider when picking where to attend college. Those factors are location, quality of education, student body size, cost to attend, campus environment, and the support system they are able to provide.

Last weekend, I had the joy of visiting three major universities in Oklahoma. I visited The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University and Tulsa. Some things I was looking for in these schools when touring was the liveliness of the location; how the buildings looked, the size of the student population, and the involvement in student life.

I arrived at the Tulsa campus at 9 am and the tour began. It was not what I was expecting as the campus was gorgeous. Everything from the sandstone buildings to the brand new workout facility or even the underground library. I loved the Tulsa campus and it instantly shot to the top of my list despite the student body being roughly the same size as College Park.

My overall rating of Tulsa University: the school was a solid 8.5/10 with its only cons being the lack of a football program and a small student population. For others, this might not be a problem, but for me, are two of the more important things.

From Tulsa we drove another hour and a half to Stillwater, Oklahoma,where Oklahoma State University (OSU) is located. My first impression was that the surrounding city was very odd; it was just like a little farm town that happened to have this giant state school in the middle of it. However, this was only the beginning of the weirdness. When we arrived on campus it was completely dead, like maybe one or two people walking around. The school fit the funky energy the surroundings gave off. The inside of the buildings were nice, but the outside was too out of place for my taste. There were just three separate light brick structures with a big grass patch in the middle.

My overall rating of OSU: I give OSU a 5/10. They did have an impressive football stadium, which almost made up for the lack of personality from the buildings. I also got to experience the campus life after the football team had lost to a low ranked team, and the campus’ reaction was interesting to see.

To conclude the college visit road trip, we drove another hour to Norman, Oklahoma to visit the University of Oklahoma. By this point I was, so we didn’t  get out and walk around. We just weaved in and out of alleys the car could fitz, getting a feel as best as I could for the campus and surrounding town. OU was very similar to OSU, the only true difference was the school colors and amount of people walking around. It was these people though that made the school more appealing to me. Plus, the giant football stadium that seemed like the focal point of the campus was insanely cool to see even if they weren’t playing there that day.

My overall rating of the Oklahoma schools: Although it may be a little hypocritical, OU gets a 6/10 for the same reasons as OSU but just with a cooler football stadium.

Overall, the experience was unique, and I would definitely recommend going as soon as you can. Also, just walking the campus by yourself is not the same vibe as going on a guided tour, so if you’re serious about a school a guided tour will definitely be the move.