Is the school too remote?

@northeasttransfer where did you decide to go?

Ir4550, thanks for the visit report. Regarding getting to the mountains, the outdoor program does an outstanding job of getting students out there. There are trips almost every weekend, including kayaking, hiking, climbing, rafting, skiing, snow-shoeing, ice climbing, and more. They’re led by experienced student leaders, food and transportation are included, and the outdoor shop rents equipment at low cost to students. The Bob Carson Outdoor Fund pays for all students to take at least one trip for free. My son got a season pass to the local ski area, an hour away, and skied almost every winter weekend. It’s a dinky place if your used to Squaw Valley, but they had a blast.

Whitman is a great school and that’s the biggest attraction, the campus fosters a close knit community of students, but the town and outdoor program can provide enough variety to keep it from becoming too claustrophobic for most students. Of course, those who choose it are looking for small and close knit.

Good luck with the college search!

I’d be less concerned about the remote location being a factor for social life, than whether the remote location will make it difficult and costly to travel there for multiple breaks.

Look at cost and FREQUENCY of air travel routes. Ask the school about transport options.

Look especially at airfares during Thanksgiving & xmas time to see if that’s in your budget. I’ve read too many threads by parents who were blindsided by the high cost of air tix during holiday season.

It’s true, PrimeMeridian, and a very good point, that’s one of the reasons there is less economic diversity at small LACS in the boondocks, and for Whitman it means fewer students come from outside the west coast. If you live several hours from an airport hub, getting to Whitman is a long trip and probably expensive. If flying, it’s wise to make reservations early, flights are cheaper months ahead. Whitman does give merit and/or need based aid, so that can help lower the overall cost. Pasco is a very viable alternative airport an hour away, with more flights from more places, it does involve a bus ride to campus or a friend to pick you up. The thing that is very hard to calculate while making a budget is the savings a close-knit community can produce, once students get acquainted there is a lot of helping each other out. Carpools form in Seattle and Portland, often eliminating that final leg of a flight. We live in the Bay Area and my son had a car, he picked up friends for the drive there and dropped them off on the way back. Rides back and forth to the airport in Pasco are a frequent occurrence.

Middlebury’s population in 2010 was 8,496, not 6,588.

Got my data from “city data” that uses the 2010 census: http://www.city-data.com/city/Middlebury-Vermont.html

I think @fragbot nails it: “… someone pretending it’s not in the boondocks is working way too hard.”

Yes, w/o question, WW is bigger than Middlebury Vt. I’ve spent plenty of time in both places. But, again, we’re working awfully hard here - WW being less remote than Middlebury is like pointing out to a woman who generally avoids dating short men that Kevin Hart is a lot taller than Danny Devito. It’s technically true, but you should make sure she understands that Kevin Hart is still really short before she swipes right.

It’s a small town (yes, there are smaller towns in the US) smack at the bottom southeast corner of Washington, a beautiful but very large and lonely expanse of land. Rinse and repeat: 4.5 hour drive to either Seattle or Portland, and 3+ hrs. to Spokane. It’s not near anything. The very definition of isolated.

Yes, I’m repeating myself; and so is everyone else in this thread.

“My forehead is bleeding.”

You are doing Internet research to compare the populations of Middlebury Vt. and Walla Walla Washington. That’s why your forehead is bleeding; you are working overtime to make a non-point. Give it some time; it’ll heal.

Your kid goes to school in the boonies. It’s ok; so does mine.

Funny, when my son visited Whitman he fell in love with what he saw, who he met, and an energy he did not sense at other places. When friends or family pointed out it was in the middle of nowhere he responded with it was smack dab in the middle of all that he cared about. To him it was simple, where else could one experience this unique combination? Too remote, for him, meant a place which was unwelcoming, rural in the extreme.

@morandi, that’s all lovely, but also quite subjective. If there is to be any meaningful exchange between people, there has to be some common understanding what’s what.

So if you are acquainted with Whitman, nothing about the idea that it’s relatively isolated should strike you as funny.

That is a very different topic than whether your kid likes it or not, and what he/she finds there. Of course if they love it, then the location won’t matter too much or, in cases like your son’s, at all.

But if someone asks the genuine question if the school is remote, I think you have to answer ‘yes’. Then chime in with all that’s wonderful about Walla Walla … and there’s lots to that. But as one poster up the thread put it, if you’re trying to sell Whitman by making an argument that WW is not in the middle of nowhere, you’re just working too hard.

The school and the town will overcome its isolation, or it won’t. Depends on the kid.

Oh it’s way out there for sure. Good school but Walla Walla is in the middle of nowhere. 5 hours from anything.