<p>Toledo – When people at Linfield told us that “PLU was just too far away” they were referring to the distance from Portland. Since D is coming from the East Coast the thought that she’d be with students who thought Tacoma was “too far” from Portland really turned her off.</p>
<p>Libcam,</p>
<p>Did they mean Portland is too far away from Tacoma for students in Tacoma to want to go hang there regularly? If so, I would think they’re right. Portland is a couple of hours south of Tacoma. If you were a student in Tacoma you wouldn’t likely have any problem at all visiting family in the Portland area for Thanksgiving, but you wouldn’t necessarily think in terms of, hey, it’s the place to go every Friday night. At least I wouldn’t think, but you never know. ;-)</p>
<p>Tacoma isn’t especially close to Seattle either. I know I’ve gotten stuck in Tacoma traffic when I was driving south from King County, WA to Oregon. Yuck. Tacoma’s not really that far from Seattle, though. </p>
<p>Just pointing out that if you lived in the PNW you might see it differently.</p>
<p>Gotcha! Just trying to decide it the two hour drive from Portland to McMinnville is worth it, in order to check out Linfield;)</p>
<p>toledo, I would be surprised if it took a full hour to get to Linfield from Portland.</p>
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<p>Toledo, I take it you’ll be driving from Portland to McMinnville via Tillamook? That may take you a little more than 2 hours. ;)</p>
<p>Well, I obviously am clueless but at this point I am not going to try and figure out what it is that I am missing. Just didn’t want someone to stumble onto this thread and get the impression that Linfield was that far outside of Portland. Carry on.</p>
<p>It is confusing, Greta. I think it’s good you offered up a clarification. </p>
<p>Because of the wink, I figure Toledo knows it’s not two hours and was making a bit of a joke – acknowledging the conversation <em>is</em> confusing between multiple cities, schools, directions, and acronyms.</p>
<p>Have I got that right, Toledo?</p>
<p>Thanks, Greta. I guess libcam meant Tacoma to Portland is two hours. I’d actually be driving down from Seatac, so I’m sure that’s two hours. libcam did a pretty good job in describing attitudes. Son will want to find kids willing to hit the ski slopes on the weekends. Driving two hours isn’t a big deal for us, if I can combine Linfield with Willamette, so may make the sacrifice.</p>
<p>Mt hood is pretty close to Portland. It takes about an hour.</p>
<p>Perhaps I have not explained myself well. From what I’ve seen, when people discuss moving to the Pacific Northwest for college they frequently talk about proximity to Portland or Seattle. I would not be at all surprised if when visiting a college in this region you were to be asking about a school that isn’t super close to one of those and you would then get answers addressing that, so you don’t make the mistake of believing, say, Portland, is only a 20 minute drive away from Tacoma. The social scene, activities, or airport in Portland are not really a hop, skip, and jump away from Tacoma. I wasn’t there to witness the conversations. I’m merely pointing out how, logically, people often answer visitors’ questions. </p>
<p>It isn’t automatically that someone doesn’t see beyond their own backyard. They may just be trying to help.</p>
<p>The people at Linfield who told us that “PLU was just too far away” were from the area between McMinnville and Portland, and were saying that they didn’t want to go to school at PLU because it was too far from home. Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>I just liked the name of your thread… I have nothing to offer, other than I live in Seattle- all my life and LOVE it…
But, I have a daughter that only wants to go to school on the east coast- NYC to be exact.
Maybe your child can talk to my child ;)</p>
<p>Kids seem to intuit their own destinies, be it NYC or a tiny town in Oregon. And of course, each way of life has its own rewards. One of mine spent college in a tiny town and one in NYC, each to happy results.</p>
<p>Here’s something that may be of interest to anyone with a child considering moving more than a couple hundred miles away from home to go to college. Sometimes schools have reports online showing the geographic distribution of the student body. This is probably something many on CC are already aware of, but maybe there’s a reader or two for whom this is new information. 
Anyhow, thought I’d put it out there. Here are a couple of examples.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.linfield.edu/assets/files/institutional-research/Fast%20Facts/Student%20Body%20Overview%20McMinnville%202011-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.linfield.edu/assets/files/institutional-research/Fast%20Facts/Student%20Body%20Overview%20McMinnville%202011-2012.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.plu.edu/institutional-research/factbook/georgraphic-distribution-2000-2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.plu.edu/institutional-research/factbook/georgraphic-distribution-2000-2011.pdf</a></p>
<p>These were both found under institutional research on the college websites.</p>
<p>Very interesting, Deborah T. Thanks!</p>
<p>libcam,</p>
<p>Congrats to your daughter on her choice. If she’s interested in L&C’s overseas programs have her check out the New Zealand program. It’s a biology emphasis. If it fits with her major, it a great program for the students. It involves a lot of field studies, so the group is away from a classroom environment a good deal. Lots of hiking and kayaking to get to areas.</p>
<p>My son just completed the program and based on limited communications with him and his Facebook page, they had a great time while exploring the area. They did spend a month in the classroom at Victoria University in Wellington, so they were able to take part in social activities available there. </p>
<p>My take on the program is that you’d pay at least double the extra cost of the program, to take a similar vacation tour. We wished we were traveling with him as it was basically a one in a lifetime experience. </p>
<p>If she’s interested, have her check out the information session on the program. I think New Zealand is offered every other year, so the group that when this year will be describing their experience this coming school year.</p>
<p>Glad to come accross this thread. My S is trying decide between Willamette & Linfield currently. S plays sports and recruited by both and we visited both of the as well as Pacific in O a few months back. Any other parents or others that have input or knowledge about these 2 schools to help decide which would be best match is appriciated. S interest is in economics. thx…</p>
<p>It might be based on feel. Linfield is more sporty, local and “vocational” than Willamette. WHat I mean y that is there are more education, nursing and business type majors. All the people who I know of who attend(ed) there followed their sport. One who is a swimmer felt that the culture was segregated by sport and revolved around parties and drinking. This is hearsay, though. Pacific is a really small environment - all things being equal I would not choose it over Willamette. Willamette is a friendly, middle of the road type place where most people seem to be happy and find a fit. They have the law school and I think a 5 year MBA program available. Our tour guide was involved in that, I think, although it wasn’t on our radar so we didn’t ask further.</p>
<p>My husband graduated from WU with a degree in econ and played soccer a hundred years ago–it was a great college for that then! We’ve been involved alums, and there is a recent track athlete grad–Nick Symmonds-- who is an Olympian. As the above poster mentioned, WU is more liberal arts than vocation-centered, with top notch business and law schools. Closer to Portland. But Linfield is a great school–a lot will depend on “feel” I suspect.</p>
<p>Any others have feedback on linfield? Currently thier FA pkg. is. better for us +6k over WU is is important for us. S likes both and would be playing football but our biggest concern is quality of education, internships and preparing him for future professional life.</p>