Any potential Lewis & Clark families here? It’s one of my daughter’s top three or four choices among her acceptances, and we’re trying to decide. She and my husband went and visited for an admitted student day on Friday, and they really liked it. They also gave her a nice amount of merit aid, making it reasonably affordable for us.
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My son’s grandparents (my parents) went to L&C many years ago, and my son applied and was accepted. We also felt the merit aid was generous! We have not had a chance to visit yet, but will be considering it.
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I feel like our daughters applied to a lot of the same schools including L & C. We have never been to see it but it seemed like a sure bet to get a bunch of merit, and it looks beautiful in all the materials and I think Portland would be a nice vibe for my kid. They also seem to have a pretty good choral music program and that’s important.
I want her to maybe visit since between merit money and a small music scholarship it’s less expensive than our state schools (UCs and CSUs) would be. But she’s having a hard time considering a school that has such a high acceptance rate when compared to other selective schools she got into like Oxy and Scripps. But we just may not be able to swing those kinds of schools financially. I’m going to push for visits to L & C and Oberlin, both of which are “affordable” just with merit.
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It’s a beautiful school! You will enjoy your campus visit.
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We do have a bunch of overlap!
I’ve been pondering how much the high acceptance rate matters, too. Oberlin is tempting for us as well, for the same reasons (more selective, better merit aid). And we’re considering Oxy, GWU, Muhlenberg, and on the state school side, SDSU, CSU Fullerton, and UW (we’re in Seattle). We’ve already eliminated LMU because we can’t afford it (even with the merit aid), and Oxy & GWU would be a bit of a stretch, financially.
My other reservation about Lewis & Clark is that it’s not very diverse. Also true of Oberlin, but even more so at L&C. For me, that’s a big downside. But when my kid & my husband visited last week, they did have the impression that the theatre dept. was fairly diverse.
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LMU was a waitlist for our daughter (and that’s fine because she really wasn’t that interested). Occidental would be so great for her if the money was right (in LA — she’s interested in film and music industry stuff), but the music merit scholarship plus a bit of need based aid is likely not enough. Oberlin is just the right amount of selectivity to make her feel good about it but she’s really resistant to even visiting. I might just insist and see what happens. Glad to hear your L & C visit was good. I might start looking at flights to Portland. If the phrase “love the school that loves you back” means anything, it would apply to L & C because they have gone above and beyond to make it affordable for us! It seems like a lovely school. I think she’s ruled out U of Puget Sound even though they also were generous. There are too many schools on the list, and she needs to cut some!
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I think you might really like L&C when you see it! I don’t know much about the music department, but the theatre dept. seemed very vibrant and welcoming to my daughter & husband (I wasn’t able to go). The head of the dept. reached out to her ahead of the visit to offer to give her a tour of the program. And the campus is quite beautiful, set apart a bit from the city but close enough that it’s not hard to get to.
Portland itself can be somewhat gritty, but also very cool with good cultural opportunities, restaurants, and parks. We go there a few times a year for fun.
My daughter was admitted EA and we’ll be visiting soon. We are similarly comparing L&C to other more selective schools with strong STEM, including UC.
Merit aid was generous, but still 10k more than UC (we are CA residents).
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I know this thread is old, but where your daughter ended up
She is at UC San Diego! I think so far so good, though I don’t feel like she’s FULLY all in like her brother was with UCLA right away. A smaller school might have been even better for her (as I said above, if Occidental had been less expensive…), but in the end I think she cared enough about rankings (unnecessarily imo, but it was her choice!) to pick UCSD over a Lewis & Clark or U of Puget Sound, both of which gave her excellent money, enough to make them real options.
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Thanks for the update! I’m glad UCSD is working out. It does take some kids at least a year to be all in, at least in our experience with our older kid. Good luck to her!