Wondering if others have thoughts/experience on choosing between Cal Poly SLO, Wisconsin (Madison) and Oregon Honors College for a Liberal Arts major - who is likely Philosophy and leaning pre-law. He’d like to go to law school outside CA. Price is not an issue given scholarships
My son loves SLO campus but is worried about whether its good for Philosophy and/or pre-law (they appear to have no formal pre-law advising and only real advising option seems to be in Poly Sci)
He also likes Wisconsin a lot (other than weather) & wonders if it’ll be much better school for applying to law school later.
And we’ve put Oregon Honors on back burner as SLO and Wisconsin seem better ranked academically, but is that a mistake?
He needs to go where he has the best fit for himself.
They’re obviously different - enormous from large for Wisc and Oregon. Cal Poly likely has more STEM orientation but it will still be fine. It’s also large. Oregon has Honors - you pushed aside but how does the Honors curriculum look to him?
Maybe check the curriculum of the department to be sure.
Pre Law means nothing - get good grades and a good LSAT.
Where you go has little to zero being on what law school you 'll end up.
Lots of kids choose Oregon over SLO, or vice versa. I am not sure that one is more prestigious than the other for liberal arts? I hear that Oregon has a nice honors college as well. I don’t know as much about UW but it could be great too, if he likes it.
Our kid was accepted to Oregon State honors, plus a bunch of higher ranked schools. We originally pushed OSU off the list because it seemed logical to put the safety school on the back burner. But in the end he put OSU back on his list, and after visiting it again, decided it was the best of the bunch. I regret keeping it on the back burner all that time because we lost out on some opportunities (like applying to housing earlier). It’s really all about what they offer and how it matches up with what your kid is looking for.
I think there’s no wrong choice here. I do want to say though that it’s a misconception that Cal Poly a a strictly a STEM school. There are certainly plenty of science, technology, engineering and math options, but the largest major, by a long margin, is business.
I did my graduate work at UW Madison (history with a minor field in religious studies, which overlaps with philosophy), and their humanities departments, whatever he’s interested in, are outstanding. Madison is one of my favorite places. That said, Oregon is excellent, as well, and he’ll get plenty of personal attention in the Honors College. Neither school will confer an advantage over the other for law school. So it’s really about fit.