<p>Mamaduck: I’m sure your daughter knows it’s rainy here in the Northwest, but it’s gray a lot as well, and that can be depressing to some. Of course, it’s nowhere near as chilly as Chicago.</p>
<p>Saintfan, we’re kind of a long story on the financial front. My husband works at a college that participates in tuition exchange. It’s not guaranteed, but at Pacific she would be almost certain to get full tuition covered (very high percentage of eligible applicants receive the award). At Seattle U, it’s about a 30% chance. Taking that into account, Pacific is both a financial and academic safety.</p>
<p>emeraldkitty - thanks for the correction on Whitman merit aid.</p>
<p>Kathie I only knew they had merit cause I knew someone who received it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have expected them to offer it.
But maybe they feel they need to, to get students to come to Walla Walla!</p>
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<p>Otherwise my daughter wouldn’t be a happy new grad…not huge amount, but when you are balancing two equally good colleges on that knife edge that is May 1, $10,000 per year is huge.</p>
<p>And EK, students there love WW. Mine took snowboarding as her PE class two years, looooooved the fancy restaurants at bargain prices, enjoyed the very close feeling on campus.</p>
<p><em>blushes</em> OK I went and re looked at our aid package from Whitman and now see the fairly substantial scholarship there was merit based. I just had this idea in my mind that they did needs only so I didn’t even really look that carefully. That was very sweet of them… so I stand very much corrected and also grateful to have discovered that.</p>
<p>OP: hope you are getting the info you need.</p>
<p>Linfield is in a small town. Is beautiful but is rural
PLU is near Tacoma, so not far from Seattle.
Lewis & Clark, is in Portland, so has access to all that wonderful Portland has to offer.</p>
<p>As an Oregonian, I would be partial to either Linfield or L&C. I did know someone that went to PLU, though, nice campus.</p>
<p>It depends on whether a rural or city environment is desired. In any of the cases, you will get the rain. PLU will be much rainier, as it is further north.</p>
<p>It is exciting to hear of the desire to experience a different coast. That is quite adventurous. I did the same thing for grad school, going to DC, and am so glad that I did.</p>
<p>Any of these schools are going to be just fine!</p>
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<p>Yes, but you have to ride the school transit van to get there…L&C campus is located far from the hip areas of Portland.</p>
<p>This brings back memories from last year and the year before–D1 and I did several Oregon and WA trips–the difference for us being that WA is our home state! </p>
<p>She is now a very happy freshman at UPS and neither one of us can believe that she only has about a month left of her first college year.</p>
<p>We toured Pacific U, U of Portland, Williamette, Linfield, PLU, Seattle U, WesternWa U, UPS and had thoughts of U of O but she felt she had enough good choices. Accepted everywhere, and in the end it came down to UPS and Williamette,(with Seattle U at her #3 spot) both great schools. UPS blew us away w/their academic scholarships and financial aid award but Williamette came very close at the end–by the way, it IS worth it to pursue final choice schools via emails/phone calls in a polite way regarding $$. </p>
<p>Want to put a good word in about Linfield’s study abroad program-she has a good friend there who has really taken advantage of that and has already gone 3 times, the program is a strength of that school.</p>
<p>Have heard really good things about Whitman but wrong side of the mountains for D1. She was not interested in Reed, or L&C. Pacific U–nice finaid but somehow the school felt depressing, and not quite close enough to Portland.</p>
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Is this a real down side? A 30 min ride downtown while you can live at a former millionaire’s estate? And the bus runs each day.</p>
<p>Warning about L&Cs shuttle, it is why my youngest didn’t apply. We went on a tour but left our car at the hotel, so we were taking the shuttle back to the Nordstroms meeting place.
Apparently a current student was sitting behind us, and the way she was talking about drug use on the phone( not pot), put us off. It’s amazing what people will say when you are in earshot but they can’t see your face. We just had the overall impression of some students having way too much spending money.</p>
<p>I was grateful for the shuttle though. Although I have been to Portland many times since my oldest moved there to attend college 11 years ago, finding L&C is a real pita. It’s not by anything.</p>
<p>I live near L&C. It is a MAXIMUM 20 min bus ride downtown (and the Trimet bus is probably faster and more reliable than L&C shuttle). It is also a beautiful 45 min. walk down Terwilliger Blvd. to Lake Oswego–Farmer’s market, wonderful coffee shops, restaurants, little shopping area. If a 51 year old can do it, students can too!</p>
<p>Seattle U was the only one that we visited. They have their automatic merit aide listed on their website. It is calibrated by SAT and GPA, so DD was eligible for significant aid without a separate application. Our guide was the daughter of a friend - she had come reluctantly after being admitted to Princeton because she received no aid at Princeton, and a full ride at Seattle U. She could not say enough about the quality of the quality of the education and the opportunities she was offered, and was completely convinced it was actually a better fit for her to be a “big fish” than Princeton would have been.</p>
<p>Pros - very pretty campus, Capital Hill has interesting things to do and is right on public transport, Seattle is beautiful and has lots of great employers. Everyone very friendly. </p>
<p>Cons - I always look at the books in my discipline in the bookstore. I was not impressed with the books chosen - they were excessively “agenda driven” and didn’t have sufficient basic content for me. I love the service aspect of Jesuit schools, but you can’t serve effectively if you don’t know how to teach the basics of your subject. Also, I know this sounds trivial, but my DD could not get past the lack of diversity in physical appearance of the students. Every student we saw except our guide was wearing frayed jeans, a Northface jacket, and had straight hair. My DD is no fashion plate, but she was uncomfortable that everywhere she went people commented on her appearance. She was wearing nice jeans, a darling wool coat, and a white scarf and had flatironed her hair (well, at least at the beginning of the day 
Not exactly fancy… I am sure that others will argue that this is not true, but it was on the April day that we were there.<br>
We did have a great time at the Pink Door Restaurant and Pike Place Market though, and that John Fluevog shoe store? Wow what fun and funky shoes for a Mom who likes comfort!</p>
<p>^^ shoot4moon— my daughter calls that look “Oregon-y” and tires of it. She dresses a little differently than many of the kids at her school, too. I call it down to earth and wholesome, she calls it bo-ring… Sigh.</p>
<p>We went to Linfield and then daughter made her decision. We left Linfield early, cancelled our visit to PLU and the drove back to Lewis & CLark so she could say yes in person. Linfield seemed remote and the students, both current and admitteds, seemed very local. D was told by one admitted who lived in Portland that PLU in Tacoma was just too far away. She heard that type of thing often, and I was told that by a couple parents as well. D spent the night in a dorm and saw first hand the significant split between those in Greek life and those not. This was really a turn off, especially compared to L&C with no Greek system. I attended the Parents Welcome session and there were only 47 people in attendance, including about a dozen admitteds. And in the Q&A session there were only about 5 q’s asked. Neither D nor I got a good vibe. SHe also thought, afrer experiencing the great, healthy food at L&C and UPS, that it was odd that there are burgers and fries on the menu every lunch and dinner at Linfield.</p>
<p>So, after many e-mails and phone calls, tons of mail, lots of time online and two lengthy visits to the NW, the choice is L&C and D is thrilled and excited. L&C offered less aid than the other 3 schools, but the package was still attractive and it’s not all about money. My wife and I are happy with her choice and looking forward to visiting and learning more about Portland</p>
<p>Congratulations on your choice, and welcome to Portland!</p>
<p>congrats, libcam! You planned a great visit and managed to find the local variability. Linfield is very much more “local” as you said. My D experienced that when we dropped in on Gustavus on our midwest trip. I’m glad your D found her spot! Welcome to the PNW.</p>
<p>shoot4moon - my DH and I had our first date at the Pink Door (then on to Kells) You are lucky that you visited in the age of polar fleece instead of back when all us PNW folks wore ragwool sweaters everywhere . . . trust me, it’s an upgrade.</p>
<p>Congratulations, libcam. I think that’s cool that your D wanted to tell L&C her decision in person. </p>
<p>What did people mean by, “PLU was just too far away”? Far away from what? </p>
<p>And as to the burgers at Linfield, would you say there wasn’t much of a variety? Or did you just think it was odd to have burgers and fries as choices at all meals? </p>
<p>The local thing would bother me, as would the lack of questions.</p>
<p>Congratulations to the D of the OP. There is a long time poster whose daughter is graduating from PSU. PM me if you want more info. She had a great experience (her D I mean.)</p>
<p>Congrats, Libcam–have a VooDoo donut to celebrate! ;)</p>