Concordia University

Concordia University is truly an amazing school. The professors will do all they can to help you achieve all that you are capable. I chose Concordia because of its reputable nursing program. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to attend such an amazing school.

Not only an excellent school, but an amazing community. This school was the best decision I’ve ever made.

This is one the best libraries to study at! Love the top floor that is NO TALKING! Silent study!

I expressed interest in investigating a degree program here. Since then, I have been barraged by at least 50 phone calls and/​or messages from representatives of the school. I have asked them to stop pestering me, but they keep continuing. I don’t know why they can’t take «no thank you «for an answer.

The library is ooen to the community. I kive in the neighborhood and they have great access for those who live nearby. .great place to come study, and grab a cappuccino

Deciding to attend Concordia University is one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I am an alumnus of CU and arrived from northern California. I have extended family in the greater Portland area, but did not know anyone before I arrived to campus for orientation. The campus really has a family feel to it. I am proud of the community service the students, faculty, and staff proactively engage in. I quickly met amazing people that have since become life-​long friends of mine. The class sizes are kept small and that is exactly what I needed after attending a smaller high school. The average class size is listed at 20 and I feel that is right on with my experience. The professors are extremely accessible and will go above and beyond for the students. It is not uncommon to see the professors at choir concerts, sporting events, or asked to be guest judges at various campus activities. We have a wonderfully diverse student body, where I had classmates on the same floor that were from all over the U.S. and a couple of international students, too!
Concordia is growing and has a great reputation in the Pacific NW, and beyond! It is amazing at how many new structures have been built since I graduated in 2006.
I can write a doctoral dissertation on CU and what makes it special, but I highly recommend visiting campus to see if it is a good fit for you. :) You should really meet the people and see our beautiful campus. I am proud to call myself an alumnus of Concordia and am thankful for the opportunities to grow in my faith, help ignite my passion for service, and make wonderful connections with some fantastic people.

I am a parent, so my comments will be from a parent’s point of view. I am happy with the decision of my daughter to attend Concordia. All interactions with staff have been very positive. I have met several of the professors when I have visited campus and the thing that makes me happy is they know my child. Imagine what the chance of that is at other college campuses! She is happy with her education. She has developed very close relationships with some of the professors and she says she knows she will have contact with them all during her professional life. I especially like the volunteer opportunities as I think that type of learning adds to what takes place in the classroom. Foreign travel has been another plus! I wish I had attended a small school like Concordia. I attended a very, very large state university where I never met anyone in class. We came in, sat, and left. The idea of a small school where you can have lunch with professors, text and email them, and get to know classmates through several classes is a dream. Financially, what can I say? It is always money but the financial aid office works with you.

I got my BA here. Admittedly, I hadn’t heard of Concordia until one of their admissions people called me, but I applied, took a tour, and spent the next four years as a student there. The professors were great and actually cared about their students. I actually went out and got beers with a couple of the theology professors a few times. If I had been accepted, I would have stayed to get my MBA here, too, though I’m getting it online at Concordia Chicago now.
It’s great that CU Portland is working on expanding their online options for classes since it allows for students who can’t or would rather not make it to campus to still work towards a degree. Offering online options also fits in with the trend some programs are moving towards in terms of offerings.
The student body was amazing when I was there. Sure, there were exceptions, but that’s the case with any group of people. Most students cared about developing a sense of community and doing well in class. The only bad thing I think of mentioning in relation to students is the fact that student services was hard to work with for a number of people, but I spent four years and never had to deal with them. What was cool, though, is that one of the Residence Life staffers invited students to her on-​campus apartment for an amazing free breakfast during finals week.
Lastly, I wish CU’s MBA and M.Ed. programs offered more concentrations, but that’s something you could easily pick up online from CU Chicago or another school.

Concordia University-​Portland was my first choice for getting my secondary education. For the longest time I planned on going to OSU, but once I visited Concordia, my mind changed completely. When I visited CU for the first time, I felt totally at home. The people on campus — students, faculty, and staff — were all very welcoming and helpful.
Concordia’s admissions process is really simple and easy to complete. I think I applied September of my senior year and was accepted by December. At the time of your acceptance they give you your financial aid package. (The average freshman scholarship is about $ 12,000) I was awarded scholarships for band and choir, as well as a large scholarship because of my acceptance into the honors program.
The admissions staff is great — they go above and beyond to help you through the entire process, and sometimes they even contact you just to check in and see how you’re doing in general. I highly recommend taking a tour of campus if you’re interested — tours are led by current students who have lots of honest and helpful information about what Concordia is like.
The academic counseling staff is also really helpful. I am now starting my sophomore year here and have already changed my major three times. My academic advisers walked me through the entire process of changing my major and helping me re-​register for classes. With my current adviser’s help I’ve figured out how I can still graduate on time with a degree in Education.
I love almost all of the professors I’ve had. Dr Thomas and Dr Davis are probably two of my favorites. I also love the music program faculty — Dr Kuhn and Kurt Berentsen. Even my experiences with adjunct faculty have been positive. Paul Pick and David Rikert are both very knowledgeable in their respective fields of Education and Business. All of the professors go out of their way to help you understand course materials and help you succeed. They’re really there to support you.
Concordia University has provided me with a multitude of opportunities that I would not have at other schools. Being a part of the Honors program has been a great experience. With a maximum of 25 students per cohort, you really get to know this group of students well. The honors classes are academically challenging and interesting. In addition, I’ve had the ability to have multiple on campus jobs, providing me with some cushion to my college expenses. As a Biology major first semester, I was able to become a lab assistant and work in the lab prep rooms. This was a great way to build experience. That’s the thing about Concordia — they’re ready and willing to provide you with as many internships and career prep experiences as you’d like.
Concordia has several new facilities on campus, and only plans to keep growing. We have a brand new library which is a great place to study or just hang out. We also have a new soccer/​baseball stadium complex that is made entirely of turf. Just this fall Concordia built two brand new science labs, greatly increasing the space and abilities of the science program.
I know that Concordia looks like a really expensive school — and it is. But the fact is, they give you plenty of financial aid and really help you plan out how to pay for school.
I can honestly say that Concordia University was — and still is — the best place for me to be. I love almost everything about this school, and wouldn’t choose to go anywhere else. If you’re considering Concordia, you should definitely call the admissions office and ask them any questions you might have.

It is only fitting that I write a review on the school that actually recognizes me as a MASTER! Studying under Ann Widmer as well as the many other distinguished faculty members was not only an honor, but a humbling, butt kicking, social life destroying experience. Despite my antics, someone decided to give me a microphone at graduation. Many have asked — so here is a transcript.
GRAD SPEECH PART I: (for Part II, the part where I really lay it all out, send me a personal message)
Faculty, Administrators, and Staff, Friends and Family and, of course, my fellow graduates, thank you for bestowing this honor upon me as your commencement speaker. Before I get started, I must put something out on the table: I was quite surprised to be asked to be a speaker today, and in fact I was a bit hurt. Let me explain — I have been to my fair share of graduations. I know how these things work. Luckily for my personal student loan situation, they have not all been my own. But each has consecutively affirmed my belief that a commencement speech has one purpose, and one purpose alone: the belief that outgoing students should never be released into the world until they have been properly and systematically sedated. Thus — the commencement speech. Throw in some cookie cutter quotes about being an individual, but paradoxically make us all dress in identical grim reaper costumes… and you asked me to deliver this death message. Fantastic. Thank You. So I’m not exactly sure you knew what you were getting, but you obviously made a grave error. But it’s too late now, so let’s just roll with it.
Today’s speech is going to be a little different, a little unorthodox if you will, and I will. Some of you may find it to be shocking, others of you have had to deal with my antics over the last two years, and it’s been 26 years for those folks with the earplugs in the back row on the left. We just wave. It’s nice. I’m not going to stand up here and read you inspirational quotes from Gandhi or the Dali Lama. I don’t care what kind of soup you choose for your soul, and I’m certainly not going to tell you or anyone else what to do with your lemons… I hope by now you have that one covered on your own.
What I do want to talk about is this event that we have all been looking forward to. Our Commencement.
You know, I like this word. Commencement. COM-​MENCE-​MENT. It doesn’t even compare with my favorite word which happens to be «Eskimo» for obvious reasons, but commencement is a good word too. It’s a good word because we have all had it in our mind for quite some time. Everyone always asks us… «So when do you finish?» «When do you graduate?» «When will you have a social life again?» We have all been looking forward to this day. Well, maybe not this actual commencement ceremony, and certainly not THIS speech. And I highly doubt anyone woke up this morning, slipped on their ‘little black robe’ and thought «WOW, now this number really accentuates my… wisdom.»
Yet in some way or another, we have been looking forward to this commencement from the day we started class. In our minds, commencement means we are finished. We are done writing papers. We are done going to class. We have completed our program. We all think of this ceremony as the official end. But when you think about the actual word «commencement,» all of these words that we associate with our commencement are antonyms. Commencement is not completion. It is the opposite of completion. To commence something is to begin.
We are not finishing something here — they have tricked us! We are starting. We are commencing. It’s like we’ve just gotten to mile 26 of the marathon and instead of greeting us with a pint of ice cold, uh, water and a giant bowl of pasta, they say «Congrats — welcome to the starting line!» This entire ceremony is celebrating the beginning, not the end. And what are we beginning, exactly? Well, here’s a thought: I’m sure you all know this anonymous committee of «they» we all so often refer to:
«They say human beings use only ten percent of their brains…
«They say debt is a relatively cheaper form of finance than equity»
«They say that the Blazers will win the championship… whoops, now they say maybe next year…»
«They say that California will spontaneously fall into the Ocean»
But have you ever stopped to think about who these «they» people are? And why we all listen to them? Check this out: We are the new THEY. Today we begin our journey as «they.» WE become the educators and administrators. WE become the business owners and account executives. WE become the HR managers. WE become the marketing gurus. WE are the decision makers, the moral leaders, the shot callers, the role models.
Our physical time at Concordia may be over but they’ve prepared us to commence. We are commence, to begin to use the tools we’ve been given as armor, to go out and meet whatever challenge faces us head on. We are protected because we are prepared. Or so THEY say…