looking at schools. What's LetsRun's take on University of Portland?

Good idea or nah? wrote:

Pretty simple. What do you guys think of a school like UP? Let's just say that I'm a competitive runner and could potentially make their varsity my junior or senior year.

Great program, develops talent. I'm not sure why this is a question. Are you looking to humble brag or can you not find the search barrrrr?

not a humble brag. Im not super fast but would potentially go and be more of a recruited walk on.Ive talked to some people and they have some bad things to say about UP. I didnt find many things like that online and wanted to see if anyone has first hand experience

Cool running program. My favorite d1 program right now actually.

But if you want to go there... you ought to think about your education. At U of Port you will be exclusively taught by Marxist Feminist Black-supremacist Antifa professors and if you speak your mind about an opinion that is anywhere right of Stalin on the political spectrum you will be immediately expelled.

You can walk on if you run 9:15 and get a small scholarship at 9:05 and a larger scholarship at 8:55. Are you under 9:15?

midwestrunner69 wrote:

Cool running program. My favorite d1 program right now actually.

But if you want to go there... you ought to think about your education. At U of Port you will be exclusively taught by Marxist Feminist Black-supremacist Antifa professors and if you speak your mind about an opinion that is anywhere right of Stalin on the political spectrum you will be immediately expelled.

I have no direct experience with UP, but my kid put it on his list of colleges he's interested in. The stereotypes of Portland are well known, but UP is a catholic institution. So I kind of seriously doubt this would be the case. But am interested to hear from anyone who went there on the actual in class experience. Is it pretty liberal? Mix of traditional academic liberals and conservative catholics?

We recently toured Providence College (another catholic institution run by the Dominican Friars), and they were pretty up front during their recruiting speil that all religions are welcome and their educational mission is inclusive. The students we talked to said the religious experience is there if you want it, but not pushed.

What about UP in this regard?

Go Long wrote:

I have no direct experience with UP, but my kid put it on his list of colleges he's interested in. The stereotypes of Portland are well known, but UP is a catholic institution. So I kind of seriously doubt this would be the case. But am interested to hear from anyone who went there on the actual in class experience. Is it pretty liberal? Mix of traditional academic liberals and conservative catholics?

I was exaggerating for humor. But, it is partly true. It is very liberal. You will not find many conservative Catholic colleges in America after Vatican II. Most colleges were founded by a religious order, and other than the FSSP, there are no strictly traditional conservative orders left.

As a general rule: Colleges founded by Dominicans will be the most conservative but still liberal, Franciscans are almost always liberal, and the Jesuits are borderline heretics lol.

Christendom, Wyoming Catholic, and Ave Maria are about the only conservative catholic colleges left as far as I know.

12.6 scholarships to distance only?

Look up Trevor Dunbar and Izaic Yorks.

A good place to go if you want to run a LOT of miles and never get heard of again.

Lots of rain!

I don't know much about the program first-hand, but do think it would be a good place for a D1 walk-on because there are plenty of other competitive running groups in the area to fall back on if it turns out collegiate running isn't your thing.

Good idea or nah? wrote:

Pretty simple. What do you guys think of a school like UP? Let's just say that I'm a competitive runner and could potentially make their varsity my junior or senior year.

Are you a liberal?

Do you mind lezbos making out in pub?

Are you ok with a school that does not have great credentials in academics?

Then, yes, this is the school for you!

tacomafan wrote:

Look up Trevor Dunbar and Izaic Yorks.

A good place to go if you want to run a LOT of miles and never get heard of again.

Heh?

Good idea or nah? wrote:

I'm a competitive runner and could potentially make their varsity my junior or senior year.

They could potentially have a track by then, too

Predictor wrote:

You can walk on if you run 9:15 and get a small scholarship at 9:05 and a larger scholarship at 8:55. Are you under 9:15?

Not completely true. A buddy of mine went to my school and the offered him 21k just for athletics and he only went 9:28 and 4:18. I will admit that he showed that he could run a lot faster, probably sub 9:10, but Rob Conner looked at the program we come from. Not crazy mileage and pretty low intensity. He decided to not go there sadly and now his collegiate career has been much less than what was expected due to his lack of interest and overall commitment. They have a lot of money to give out. Also my coach knows Rob well and raced in HS together, so that helps

I'm a UP alum, and I'd say that UP is a mixed bag in this regard.

There are plenty of academic liberals, but the campus culture does have some traditional elements... there's not a huge party scene, students aren't allowed in opposite-gender dorms after certain times (I think 10PM on weeknights and midnight on weekends), many members of the administration are priests, etc.

The student body isn't particularly activist, though there have certainly been a few incidents over the past few years that have fired people up. The school paper is a decent place to look to see the type of stuff that students are talking about... it's all pretty typical for college kids, but a lot more tame than what you might see at other schools:

http://www.upbeacon.com

From my experience, liberal students feel it's too conservative and conservative students feel it's too liberal.

Students who are really into being Catholic can certainly get their fill with all the campus ministry offerings (about 40-45% of the students are Catholic), but students who aren't can go all four years without dealing with anyone from campus ministry let alone going to a Mass.

Academically, it's quite strong... engineering, nursing, biology, and business are the most popular majors, but it also requires a liberal arts core curriculum for all students.

As for XC - the results over the past years speak for themselves. UP has two podium finishes in the past four seasons (3rd in 2014, 2nd in 2017) and hasn't finished worse than 18th at Nationals since 2003, with six top ten finishes during that stretch. And every year a handful of runners qualify for NCAAs in track as well - pretty much exclusively in distance events.

And in exciting news for the program, a new track is going to be built within the next 2-3 years:

https://portlandpilots.com/common/controls/image_handler.aspx?thumb_id=0&image_path=/images/2018/9/18/Track.jpg

(a video flyover of the renderings here:

https://youtu.be/FZ7lWAs3MMk?t=21

)

This is a major addition, since there currently is no track on campus. Of course, the wonderful running trails of nearby Forest Park (about 3 miles away from campus) are there as well.

I loved my time there, and I certainly would recommend anyone to at least check it out.

thanks, that was very insightful and encouraging. The campus life sounds good. I was worried that it may be very very liberal in which case I may not fit in exactly

The Weatherman says: wrote:

Lots of rain!

Good experience for a future of homelessness and drug addiction.