Here is my review from another thread - don’t know how to link it haha! But also want to add that the whole time we visited we could hear music from the music building echoing through campus - it was quite lovely!
"strong>University of Puget Sound - Daughter’s back up in state and just in case she changes to wanting an LAC. Similar visual appeal as UW in terms of coziness and old growth trees and pretty buildings. Obviously much smaller. We went to an open house and they did a lovely job with the choir performing and faculty speaking. Our STEM daughter was impressed by the ode to the value of a true Liberal Arts education. We were surprised how many attendees were up from CA and learned that they have surprisingly few students from WA. The student body, including our tour guide seemed pretty reserved and chill. Friendly but reserved. We are a little unsure about Tacoma just because it’s historically “grittier” than Seattle but Seattle has gone down hill itself and Puget Sound is in a very lovely neighborhood not too far from the ocean water.
Daughter could see herself likely being happy there (due in part by being closer to home) but neither of us left feeling super excited either. More just grateful to have the option. To be fair she’s always been pretty set on attending a large University."
Also, the weather could be a factor for anyone. A student who would thrive in the weather would be someone who disliked hot weather and who liked to feel “cozy”. Someone who prefers temperate weather. The lack of sun is a real thing for many people. One thing about the temperate weather is that it does allow outdoor enthusiasts to be outside for longer periods of time year round -without extreme heat or extreme cold. So that is a plus for many locals.
I agree with what @bethy1 wrote. One side of the campus is grittier than the other. There are some rougher areas in Tacoma but, unlike Seattle, they have made a lot of proactive efforts to attract businesses. The downtown also has roughly the same amount of restaurants as before Covid (also unlike Seattle).
Univ of Puget Sound is reasonably well regarded but less cache in the business community than UW or Gonzaga. WSU has this interesting conraderie thing where they love to hire each other. Puget Sound is also smaller so probably part of it. Another great perk are the beautiful nearby views of Mt Rainier.
Thank you! I think we might just have to get up there to visit. We’ll see where she falls with the rest of the schools she has yet to hear back from, but a trip to the NW would be fun.
She doesn’t want to talk about it a lot but if I had to take a guess, I think her preference is: 1.) Seattle U. 2.) Univ of Portland 3.) Gonzaga. 4.) Willamette
My son still has SeattleU on his list of possible schools, and I saw earlier that you mentioned that your daughter got into the honors program at SeattleU (my son was admitted to that too). We attended a scholarship weekend a few months ago at SeattleU and wanted to pass along what we learned about that program. I really liked the program director and I think they really treat the honors kids well, but being in the program really dictates the student’s classes for the first two years. They pretty much take all classes with the same cohort of 30-40 students for the first two years. For my son, he’s decided that while he may attend SU, he’s not sure he wants to do the honors program as he’d like to explore a bit more and wants a wider range of classmates. Re-reading the honors program website, this seems more obvious now, but we didn’t catch that when he did the honors app, so I thought I’d mention it
Thank you. We just toured last week and they did say it is ok to go into the Honors collegdd Ed and change to the regular program at anytime after and the credits will transfer. Only downside is the $1,800 per yr for the Honors college goes away.
Another difference with the Honors college is that the exams are oral rather than written.
Interesting! Does the oral exam scenario appeal to your daughter? Both of mine would have run away screaming at the first mention of that prospect! (OTOH, my dyslexic nephew would jump at the chance to do all his exams orally!)
We are going to admitted students day at Seattle U on Sunday.
My D told me she did not want to look at anything from University of Portland anymore.
She has talked about who she will room with at Seattle U as her good friend is attending also. She still has not pushed the button but looks like 95% Seattle U, maybe 5% odds on Willamette.
Also looked over things and Seattle U looks like $41k COA not $38k and thinking it is maybe because of an increase in tuition. Not sure how I did not catch it before.
Was just thinking of you all and wondering if a decision had been made! Our daughter has settled on University of Rhode Island - so not in the West after all! I keep waiting for the opportunity to do a full update post.
If that difference is meaningful in the decision-making, have you reached out to Seattle to see if there’s any additional funding possible?
Congratulations to your D! I was about to say that you could repost on your own thread (here) but I see that the thread is now locked. Perhaps reach out to the mods (@Lindagaf, @momofboiler1, @skieurope) to see if they’d be willing to unlock it so you can let everyone know how things turned out? I always love seeing resolutions to the match me threads.
Yes I will do that for sure! I really want to help anyone else in the future with a similar situation. And update all the wonderful ppl who helped us so immensely this year!!
Great! Detailed update is coming soon! I’ll also post it in the B student thread where I got a lot of great advice. Daughter is not technically a B student but her transcript is severely compromised due to medical issues.
(OTOH, my dyslexic nephew would jump at the chance to do all his exams orally!)