<p>My D has been accepted at Willamette University for the BA of Theatre. She plans to minor in English. We would appreciate you sharing your views or experience with this school. Thank you.</p>
<p>D is in her freshman year there and loves it. Have you visited? It's a beautiful campus with both old and new buildings. Class size is small, courses are challenging. Foodservice is very good. Professors are very easy to meet with. It has all the advantages of a small school as far as personal attiention. D has made a bunch of new friends very easily as students are very friendly overall. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank you Opie ofMaybery2. We are visiting this Thursday. D is meeting some of the faculty during the day and is spending the night with a student host. Friday is a day for the accepted students to visit, so are planning to spend Friday there too.</p>
<p>In our experience Willamette is a nurturing environment with regard to student-professor relationships. Very accessible profs, small student body. The campus is pretty, but extremely compact. They have some brand new dorms that are nice. Frat / sorority life is quite big, and Salem is not a metropolis. Downtown is walkable, however, and the location of the school makes it easy to get around. Take a good look around during your visit and have fun! We know many students and profs there and the only ones we know who are unhappy became so as the campus became "smaller" to them over time. We hear lots of good things about classes, teaching, study abroad, and interaction with Tokyo University students. Good luck!</p>
<p>Best pizza in Salem = Pietro's off the I-5 freeway at the Market Street exit. Try a Barmaid's Special with mushrooms.</p>
<p>Maybe so,about Pietros, but if you're a Willamette student Lefty's Pizza and Blues club on 12th street - across from campus - is THE PLACE!</p>
<p>My D loved the school, sat in on classes, loved the students, lots of personal attention. She got her best scholarship there and they flew her out for a visit. In the end she was worried about the rain, being an arizona gal and worried that lack of sun could effect her level of energy and happiness. We were disappointed and if it wasn't for location she would have attended. A lot of my son's classmates at Pomona have had siblings that went to Willamette and have loved it!</p>
<p>we are in Portland right now- looking at Lewis & Clark and PSU
but I would like to look at Willamette at some point-
does Salem seem any bigger than Olympia?
D really wants a city
I am also curious about Greeks-
We haven't visited any schools seriously that had any at all- so I am curious as to differences if any- to schools that don't have sororities</p>
<p>emeraldkity- my husband and son visited Willamette a few months ago. He sat in on 2 classes and loved the philosophy class. Everyone they talked with was nice and encouraging. The Disabilities director was really helpful and informative and spent a great deal of time with them. I think her advocating for my son might have helped him get in. The admissions person he inteviewed with was also superb.
Unfortunately my son though he really felt positive about the school felt that Salem was not a place he wanted to spend 4 yrs. He also was concerned about the lack of sunshine and depression.</p>
<p>AZMOM,</p>
<p>How funny your D and mine are complete opposites. Mine turned down both AZ schools and choose WU cause she wanted seasons. </p>
<p>As far as cold all the time, Super Bowl sunday I get a call from my D it's around 70 and she's sunbathing in Salem. It's a smaller town, but what I would consider a good college town. Like Bham and WWU, but not Pullman and WSU. </p>
<p>You have to try the Busick(sp) cafe for breakfast. It was featured on $40 a day Food Network. As much as I hate to wait for a table, the food was very good and the price was right.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input. We are getting ready to visit tomorrow morning. I'll do a little write up when we get back.</p>
<p>Mothermoo: My D was in theater all through high school and first two years of college. A friend of hers from high school went to Willamette for theater with a nice scholarship. She liked it there, just graduated last year, and is pursuing theater in CA. </p>
<p>They have a excellent choir which did a joint concert with my D's high school choir while the college group was on tour. I talked to some of the students and they seemed to love the college.</p>
<p>D is just finishing up freshman year at Willamette. First semester was rough but her latest comment was she couldn't think of a better place for her to be. Weather can be a challenge, especially for a desert rat like her, but she's made tons of friends and never seems to find a lack of things to do. Campus is compact and though she has a car she never seems to go anywhere else on weekends. Definitely a happy camper. Think leaving all her new buddies for the summer will be difficult now.</p>
<p>I've known a number of kids and families who've been very happy with Willamette. Salem is a small city but because it is the capitol it is vital in many ways and the proximity to Portland means it is easy to get to urban attractions, yet you can live with less traffic, more relaxed way of life. In smaller schools like W, the presence of Greeks is very different from in the big universities and I have never had the sense that they skew campus life at W in any particular direction. Willamette and Salem are definitely more conservative in some ways than Portland and its schools--but there seems to be a very open-minded and inclusive atttitude to campus life and a high level of student satisfaction and challenge.</p>
<p>Ok, snicker away. I saw Rachel Ray's $40 a Day recently and she had lunch in the caf at Willamette and the food seemed spectacular. It was her money-saving tip and she had great food. You could probably catch that in repeats. Stop laughing everyone!</p>
<p>Well I think I am going to find out more about Willamette
Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>D now says that rural is ok, just as long as she doesn't feel she is isolated
We looked at L & C, and I wrote up a review- but didn't feel it was fair since our observations were limited ( D liked it however) and mine were biased by a girl I sat in front of on the shuttle.</p>
<p>We will also look at U of O soon</p>
<p>"I saw Rachel Ray's $40 a Day "</p>
<p>Yup, it's true. Foodservice is different than most colleges. They work with local farmers and produce healthy, different foods than you'd normally expect to see on a college campus. </p>
<p>At the welcoming for new students and parents, the foodservice was excellent, especially when you are feed several hundred people. Not necessarily high end (caviar?) but healthy wholesome foods that you'd serve guests proudly. </p>
<p>My D would call me almost daily to tell me what was for lunch, dam her. The foodservice staff is very friendly and enjoy the kids. My D even introduced me to the "Wrap Lady" who made her vegan wraps. ;) </p>
<p>We also eaten at the breakfast place on that show, it's true there too. I would go again, even though we waited 30 minutes for a table and I HATE to wait for foodservice. So it had to be good.</p>
<p>"D now says that rural is ok, just as long as she doesn't feel she is isolated"</p>
<p>Em, the train station is next door to campus too. So if your D wants to come home and doesn't have a ride, she can hop amtrack. If you have time in the morning, try the Busick (sp?) cafe, a few blocks from campus. mmmmm.</p>