Oregon Institute of Technology

Public · Moderately Selective · OR

Photo: OregonTech (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationOR · West

SettingRural

Undergrads2,892

Student:faculty17:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate28.7%

6-yr grad rate53.8%

Drop-out rate31%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$13k

Out-of-state tuition$37k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity36.3%

Gender diversity48.8%

International0.7%

Identity—

Overview

Oregon Institute of Technology, widely known as Oregon Tech, is Oregon's public polytechnic university, based in Klamath Falls in the southern part of the state with a second campus in the Portland metro area. Its identity is built entirely around applied, hands-on degrees rather than a traditional liberal arts model, and it positions itself deliberately as a career-outcomes-focused alternative to Oregon's other public universities.

Academics

Engineering technology programs are the core of Oregon Tech's identity, alongside strong allied health fields such as medical imaging, dental hygiene, and respiratory care, and a renewable energy engineering program that draws directly on the university's own geothermal-heated campus as a working example. Curricula across the university emphasize direct, applied lab and clinical work over theory-first instruction, and class sizes stay small.

Campus & student life

The Klamath Falls campus sits in a remote, high-desert part of southern Oregon, geothermally heated by wells on campus property, a distinctive, literal example of the renewable-energy focus the university teaches. The Portland-metro branch campus offers select programs in a more urban setting for students who want city access, and both locations keep a practical, unpretentious campus culture centered on applied coursework rather than a traditional college-town social scene.

Getting in

Review leans practical, with math and science preparation weighted heavily given the technical nature of nearly every program, and less emphasis on essays than at a liberal-arts-oriented school.

After graduation

Graduates see strong, direct placement into applied technical fields, engineering technology, health imaging, and renewable energy sectors in particular, reflecting the university's explicitly career-first design and close employer ties in those industries.

Worth knowing

The geothermally heated Klamath Falls campus is a genuine, not symbolic, feature of the renewable energy program, and applicants drawn to hands-on technical fields over theoretical study should see Oregon Tech as a deliberately different model from Oregon's other public universities.

oit.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate95%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1000–1270 · ACT 18–27

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying