this'll be my 4th year at OSU.
Summers are pretty nice, hardly any traffic.
When school starts is when you have to watch out. Lots of freshman who are on their own for the first time, and to make matters worse: most of them have cars. Watch out for the poorly modded hondas, brand new VW, BMW, and Mercedes'. these are the freshman, and sorrority girls. None of them know how to drive. It's quite sad really, a four way stop is some kind of puzzle to them.
housing is kind of expensive, but it gets more reasonable the farther from campus you get. there is tons of new housing going up in the south part of town. lots of golf courses, TONS of police, but not to worry, they are only looking for drunk students.
there is a very nice gun shop in Philomath, just a few miles away.
the College is pretty conservative, but the rest of the town is fairly liberal. I don't notice it much though... nowhere near as hippy as Eugene.
Overall it's a pretty nice little town. not too big, not too small.
and you can count me in on the shooting group too.