Mississippi State University vs. The Evergreen State College

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello! After quite a bit of consideration, I only applied to two schools. I've been accepted and received financial aid from both of them, and now I have to make a very tough decision.</p>

<p>Mississippi State is only a two hour drive from my hometown. The campus is beautiful! I'm going in undecided, and I have a lot of options for majors. I'm familiar with the area, so that's nice. I'm not sure how well I'll fit in with the student population- MSU is very sports-centric. I've visited there a lot, and I just feel like I'm different from other students. The biggest plus is that it's close to home, so I could visit my family a lot. I have younger siblings and I don't want to miss them growing up. I feel like a degree from MSU would be more prestigious than Evergreen. Also, my boyfriend of a year is a student there- I have not yet decided if this is a pro or a con.</p>

<p>On the other hand, Evergreen in Olympia, WA is across the country from where I live. It has been my dream school for quite a while. In case you aren't familiar with this institution, it's different from other schools: instructors give out narrative evaluations in lieu of grades, and students take courses that revolve around a central theme instead of traditional classes. It's a very free-spirited type of school. I love that it's in the middle of a forest. The school's a bit smaller than I would prefer (4,000ish undergrads.) But I want the "traditional" college experience, and i'm worried that I won't find that at TESC.</p>

<p>Any advice for me? Where would you go? I am honestly so confused about this, and I keep going back and forth. Thank you for reading.</p>

2

<p>If you are not a vegan pot-smoking hipster you won’t really fit at Evergreen.</p>

3

<p>Hi Marla1,</p>

<p>Please ignore the comment left by “barrons,” that response paints Evergreen students with way too broad of a brush stroke. That’s a completely ignorant view of the school and one that has no bearing in the education you’ll get at Evergreen.</p>

<p>It is true that Evergreen is pretty far from a traditional school, and many seek it out for that reason (no football teams, no frats or sororities, collaboration over competition). What things are important to you when you say traditional?</p>

<p>It could be an incredible growth experience to leave your hometown and live somewhere completely new. It will be really hard at times and you’ll miss your family and boyfriend a whole lot but you will learn a lot about yourself and meet some incredible people as you settle into your new environment. That will be the case at MSU as well, but less dramatic perhaps. </p>

<p>In terms of one degree being more prestigious than another, that’s not necessarily true or worth worrying about, it just depends. Fewer people have probably heard of Evergreen, but a lot of employers and grad schools definitely have heard of it and love it because it produces a lot of students who are well rounded and critical thinkers. But really what matters is not the degree it’s what you do while you’re there. If you challenge yourself, take classes that both inspire you but also stretch you out of your comfort zone, you’ll be doing yourself a huge service. Not everyone chooses to do this at Evergreen, but that’s part of it, you have the choice. You are the one responsible for choosing every class you take or setting the structure for independent learning contracts, and while you get help from advisers and faculty (faculty who you will get to know reallllly well and who realllly care about you), it’s you making the choice. </p>

<p>If you are thinking of entering MSU undeclared, just keep in mind that at Evergreen you never have to declare a major and you are able access all of the curriculum. You can try something, see if you like it, stick with it, or if you don’t like it you can easily change to something else. The programs are set up so that each quarter you’ll be exposed to several subjects, which is often how someone who thinks they are interested in music figures out they actually have a passion for physics, or teaching, or social justice, etc. MSU may have more steps to go through to change your mind.</p>

<p>Evergreen is not perfect, and no school is. It’s east to paint a place that is designed to be the alternative to the rigid and soul crushing factory style education system as a utopia, but there is no such thing as a utopia, right? So be prepared for some programs to be not as good as others (same as all schools, just more intense because you only take one per quarter), some faculty are full of themselves (same as all schools), and it’s gray and rainy for most of the year and that can seriously be a bummer (the summer really makes up for it, but most people don’t stay the summer). And ultimately if you try it and don’t like it, you can still transfer to another school (let me know if you have questions about transferring).</p>

<p>I recommend looking at the program catalogand see if you find anything that excites you:</p>

<p>[2013-14</a> Undergraduate Index A-Z at Evergreen](<a href=“http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2013-14/index.htm]2013-14”>http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2013-14/index.htm)</p>

<p>You can also email faculty with any questions you have, and please visit the school and take a tour and sit in on a program if you haven’t already. Think about why you are going to school in the first place. Also, can you afford the out of state tuition? Be smart about scholarships, financial aid, and don’t put yourself in a situation where you are 21 and $100,000 in debt unless for some reason you have to.</p>

<p>I hope this helps, I had an incredible time at Evergreen, and it definitely changed my life going there. It’s not a great fit for everyone, that’s the truth. There are so many different kinds of people who go there, from all walks of life, but definitely a lot of students who espouse an alternative lifestyle. I grew up in Southern California, so it was far away but still west coast, so it was not as dramatic of a transition. There are a lot of out of state students, though not a very many from Mississippi. </p>

<p>What are your biggest academic and non-academic interests? </p>

<p>Best of luck, let me know if I can help at all. I feel for you, I know how hard this can be.</p>

4

<p>“But I want the “traditional” college experience, and i’m worried that I won’t find that at TESC.”</p>

<p>You definitely will not, especially since your notion of “traditional” has been shaped by an SEC campus. I don’t know if there are two public schools in the country more different from each other than these two. Is there still time for you to apply to some middle ground schools, like (let’s say) the University of Oregon, that have both a free-spirited forest vibe and a traditional college culture?</p>

5

<p>While barrons’ comment may not explore all the dimensions of an Evergreen education, it is important to recognize that the opinion is widely held. Certainly Evergreen was the destination for the “stoners” from the last few years at my kids’ HS.</p>

<p>I’m not saying everyone there is a stoner, but it will certainly be a part of the experience there, due to self-selection among the student body. And the reputation is important to know.</p>

6

<p>It’s one thing to look at a school based on what kind of students go there straight out of high school, and another to look at the kind of graduates that school produces.</p>

<p>The stoners are certainly there, as they are at lots of colleges, but if smoking weed and chilling is the only reason they show up, it’s highly unlikely they will be making through all four years. On the other hand, the students who take responsibility for their education and make it through Evergreen are more in touch with what they really care about and have learned how to think critically. They’ve been trusted from the moment they arrive with the ability to direct their own learning, something which often doesn’t happen until grad school. That’s hard, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s good practice for the real world.</p>

<p>Marla1, if you are strongly considering Evergreen, my guess is that you are wanting to go there to work hard. You’re not thinking of it as an excuse to slack off, like many of the “stoners” who have given Evergreen a reputation that unfortunately overshadows a large majority of students who take their education seriously. In fact, they are in a culture where it is considered cool and normal to be seriously excited by what you’re studying.</p>

<p>The reputation that Evergreen is packed with 18 year old stoners is also unfair to the high percentage of transfer and nontraditional (25 and older) students, many of whom have families and work to support themselves through school and choose Evergreen because it welcomes people like them. You have to accept it as a place that has both, and everything in between. </p>

<p>This page has some helpful stats: <a href=“https://www.evergreen.edu/institutionalresearch/factpage.htm[/url]”>https://www.evergreen.edu/institutionalresearch/factpage.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>Wow, Miss State and Evergreen State are polar opposites. How did you manage to narrow it down to those two? </p>

<p>Anyway, the only complaint you seem to have about MSU is that the student population is generally unlike yourself. But no campus can be painted in black and white; I’m sure you can find some students at Miss State that you can relate to. On top of that, you can be near your family and your boyfriend (which I could only see as a plus). </p>

<p>At Evergreen State, however, you’ve already stated that you are concerned about the prestige of an Evergreen degree, the college experience you would have at the school, and the size of it.</p>

<p>In the end, I’m not sure the decision can be rightly made by comparing pros and cons. But, based on the information you’ve provided, it seems like you’d be a little happier at Mississippi State. Really though, the decision is yours and yours alone. If you meditate on it, I’m sure you’ll find the answer you’re happy with.</p>

8

<p>I’m in WA state, and no way will my kids be going to Evergreen. Maybe an extreme example, but read this:</p>

<p>[Waste</a> your Tuition at Evergreen State College! It’s fun! Get High! | The Ethicist - seattlepi.com](<a href=“Seattle Post-Intelligencer”>Seattle Post-Intelligencer)</p>

9

<p>If you like the quirkyness of Evergreen, have you looked at some liberal arts colleges? [Colleges</a> That Change Lives | Changing Lives. One Student at a Time.](<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://www.ctcl.org/) is a website (colleges that change lives) with ones similar to Evergreen, that you might find closer to home but still similar. check it out!</p>

10

<p>wait, just realized you probably finished applying. anyways, I think any state school will be a very different experience than Evergreen. I think most schools would be a very different experience than Evergreen. could you visit it? I think that would help a lot.</p>

11

<p>This rant that you are referencing literally couldn’t be farther from the truth nor hint more strongly at it’s author’s unstable mental state. I could go through what he wrote line-by-line and tell you exactly how asinine and incorrect it is, but it’s not worth the effort. This was either written as a joke or else the author was a poor fit for the school and incredibly paranoid and delusional. </p>

<p>If you are making up your mind about Evergreen from his opinion (remember, it is not a Seattle PI article, it’s just on their reader’s blog), you are incredibly misguided and mistaken. Please regard this article as pure rubbish. I hope that when your kids grow up you at least let them look into Evergreen if they are interested in going there.</p>

12

<p>Have you looked at the Honors College at Mississippi? And have you visited Evergreen? It really sounds like you need to visit both to get a sense of how you would fit in. With 20,000 at Mississippi, you are going to find a group of student you fit in with. The same is probably true at Evergreen, the question is would it meet your expectation of a college experience.</p>

13

<p>I strongly recommend you visit Evergreen, if you have not done so, before accepting. It’s really the only way to get an idea of whether your impression meshes with reality. Mossbeard gave a very thoughtful and knowledgeable description of Evergreen–both the positive and the negative.</p>

14

<p>Thank you for all the responses! I’ve been thinking about this constantly but I just can’t decide. Right now I’m leaning towards Miss State, because of its proximity to home and lower cost of living. I’m visiting Evergreen next month, so that should help me make the decision.</p>