Introduction There are so many universities all over the world. These universities have their differences and similarities. Oregon state university and Idaho state university are some of the renowned universities in U.S. this paper compares and contrasts Oregon state university and Idaho state university in terms of the courses offered, academic programs, student life,quality of education, tuitions as well as their major activities. Oregon state university (OSU) which was founded in 1856 is one of the most prestigious universities in U.S and it is located in Corvallis in Oregon State. Idaho stateuniversity (ISU) is located in Pocatello in the state of Idaho and was founded in the year 1901.OSU is said to have more than 10 colleges each having academic departments which offer different programs. The most renown colleges of OSU include college of;veterinary medicine, liberal arts, honors college, college of science,college of medicine among others. Due to its many colleges which also include two schools the university has more opportunities for students and it is reported that the university offers vacancies to more than 23,000 students. On the other hand ISU has slightly less number of colleges some of which include; college of business, pharmacy, technology, engineering as well as arts. The total student population is claimed to be approximately 13,000 which is almost half that of OSU. It is worth noting that the two institutions though both prominent differ in the core academic orientation.OSU is well known as one of the best universities in the world in terms of research activities and the university is reported to have received the greatest amount of federal research funds amounting to $ 300 for the 2009/2010 academic year only. The university has been granted land, sea, space and sun grants and it is also reported to be extensively active in various fields of research such as marine and climate studies as well as nuclear science and medical engineering. This is in contrast with ISU which focuses more on health sciences and it is the states preferred institution in giving out the best health professionals through its well established health colleges offering a wide variety of health sciences courses such as dental surgery and nursing. ISU offers human health programs in more than 30 health professional disciplines and they have at least 15 clinics most of which are located in Pocatello. However it is worth noting that the two universities offer health sciences programs though not as established in OSU as it is in ISU. The two universities offer both on campus and online tuition programs but there are notable differences in the cost of tuition especially in on campus students. While it generally costs approximately $ 14,162 for a student to complete a course at ISU it costs about $ 17,365 in OSU. Another notable difference in the two institutions is their differences in the student faculty ratio. Generally there are more students per faculty in OSU standing at 24 to 1 as compared to ISU where student faculty ratio is 13 to 1. This statistics simply mean that OSU though larger than ISU has less faculties as compared to ISU. It can be argued that both institutions have a lot of similarities in the intramural and extramural