<p>Hi all. My daughter is scheduled for an overnight campus visit. Although we live in the East, she is considering applying early decision, and we insisted that she spend a few days on campus before making such a decision. My concerns:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Students living on campus is reported to be 62 percent. Can anyone address this? Does it affect the students sense of community? Where do the other 38 percent live?</p></li>
<li><p>Does applying early decision impact financial aid decisions? Other threads at other colleges on CC seem to suggest that aid might be affected if a college knows that you are committed to attending a single school.</p></li>
<li><p>Is the presence of fraternaties and sororities really as passive as Whitman claims? With our eldest daughter (Carleton) we generally avoided discussing colleges with frats. I recently talked with admissions and asked this question, and the response was that the fraternaties and sororities were more like campus clubs, and certainly not exclusionary. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I apologize if these questions have been asked and answered in other threads.</p>
<p>Seeing the campus will definitely answer these questions in vivo–but I’ll offer what I know </p>
<p>1) The other 38% are typically living in off-campus apartments or houses in blocks adjacent to the campus–or on study abroad. Many juniors/seniors choose off-campus housing–but still eat on campus much of the time. There is great sense of community because of how the campus is constructed and the general culture of the school
2) I can’t comment on this because I don’t have sufficient knowledge.
3) Greek presence is very different than the stereotype, low key and not exclusionary. There is an article on this in the current issue of the school paper, the Pioneer, that might give some flavor. The sororities do not have off-campus houses, but are in dormitory halls; the frats are in adjacent houses and all parties are open to all as I understand it.</p>
<p>I have 2 Whitties: one a first year and one a senior and think it is a great school.</p>
<p>The kids in frats are not required to live in the houses, and many do not, making it more like a club. Even frat members have to spend the first year in the dorms, so the kids have a lot of friends outside of the frats.</p>
<p>My DS is a first year and has loved it there from the first day.</p>
<p>I will add that I think Whitman is probably quite fair with financial aid in relation to ED. In both rounds they are really looking for kids that really want to be at Whitman and are a good fit and will contribute in interesting ways to the community. They want coming to be affordable and know that kids are not able to “shop” FA if they go ED. You could certainly ask admissions what the differences are in FA offers, on average, between the 2 rounds. And the bottom line with ED, as I understand it, is that you are released from the commitment if you cannot afford to attend. They do not have the endowment resources that bigger schools do so you could no doubt get good comparable offers if you wait for RD (but that means multiple applications and the wait…which is another kind of “expensive”) In any case good luck and enjoy the visit.</p>
<p>1) lots of upperclassmen live off campus, but most off campus housing is very close to campus (walking distance) so they are not separated from the community. </p>
<p>2) I applied EDII last year, and whitman was very fair with FA. I can’t promise this will be the case with you, but it worked out for me. </p>
<p>3) I didn’t rush, but I know a lot of people in greek life and although each frat/sorority has its own reputation, generally they are not exclusionary or a bad thing for the campus in anyway.</p>
<p>I appreciate the time that you all took to reply to my questions. My daughter is going to visit, and I’m sure that she will get a pretty good idea as to whether Whitman is a good fit. After doing quite a bit of research, I’m comfortable about the frats and off campus housing. Sadly, I may ask her to apply regular decision. While I agree with Mmaah that there are costs to applying RD (and my daughter and I are well aware that the acceptance rate for ED is 77 percent and for RD is 46 percent – figures from a popular publication), financial aid is a serious concern. From our experience two years ago with our oldest daughter, financial aid offers showed wide variance. While most of what one reads claim that need based FA will be very similar, but merit based FA will vary according to a school’s resources and priorities, we didn’t find the former to be true. Top colleges on both the East and West Coasts offered significantly less need based aid (more than $10,000 less per year) than comparable colleges in the Midwest. While I suspect that Whitman will be more like colleges in the Midwest, you’re right Swirlygirl73, there are no guarantees. </p>
<p>Again, thanks. I’ll post again after her visit and update the story.</p>
<p>When we visited Whitman in spring 2008 for a visit (Spring Visitor’s Day), either the dean of admissions or the head of financial aid said that they would “understand” if an early admit withdrew acceptance because of an insufficient financial aid package. The implication was that they really don’t “hold” people to the ED commitment. Not sure if that has changed, and obviously your feeling about your commitment may differ from theirs. </p>
<p>Just got back from a Whitman visit and can tell you that the off campus housing seemed to surround the perimeter of the campus. Of course kids can rent farther away, but if they want to rent off campus there are options very close by. There were many upper class that still live on campus and there are a couple of Frats that also house some of the students. </p>
<p>The Frats seemed very, very low key. Not like most schools frats. We too prefer schools without the frat scene, but the ones at Whitman seemed very accepting of kids who are not a member of them. </p>
<p>My son spent the whole weekend and had an excellent visit and he learned quite a bit from his host student and all of his friends.</p>
<p>We loved everything about the school and felt very, very comfortable with the town and surrounding area. Everyone we met seemed genuinely happy and well adjusted. My son loved the caring and supportive attitude that the students seemed to demonstrate.</p>
<p>Whitman is definitely at the top of his list right now. I am very happy we visited as it’s comforting to know that if he gets in and decides to go there, we would feel comfortable.</p>
<p>I too have concerns about the merit aid, and I guess like all things it’s a wait and see situation. Not sure if we would do early decision as we want to apply to a few different schools. </p>
<p>Looking forward to hearing about your daughters experience!</p>
<p>A quick update. D had two nights and a day on campus, visited two classes, had an admissions interview and a campus tour, and did the ‘spend time with your host’ thing. </p>
<p>The good (actually, the very, very good): D could not stop talking about her host(s). I put this in plural because apparently both her official host and the host’s roommate adopted my D. From strangers in the Walla Walla airport to faculty, staff (especially security), and students, the impression was that there probably couldn’t be a friendlier or more supportive community. D was also impressed with the food, the dorms, and the freshman core class she attended, which was lively and interesting. </p>
<p>The not so good: The upper level class she attended was supposedly discussion based, but according to D only two students were answering questions and engaging in any dialogue with the professor, who was unsuccessfully trying to engage the rest of the class. D indicated that the topic of the class was quite interesting, but the class itself was less than impressive. The campus tour left her wanting to see more. She never got to see the new athletic facility, never got inside the theater (which she was looking forward to given the Princeton Review ranking), and only saw the inside of one building (science) where classes were held. Finally, and probably most upsetting, was the admissions interview. Apparently some interviews are conducted by faculty or admissions staff, other interviews are conducted by students. My D was scheduled to meet with a student, who asked questions from a prepared list and provided little feedback or insights. The interview lasted roughly 20 minutes and was a disappointment. I had stressed to D that colleges want to impress applicants as much as applicants want to impress colleges. This didn’t seem to be the case here. As a point of reference, this was not D’s first overnight or interview, and she did have a baseline for comparison.</p>
<p>Overall, I think she will apply (not ED) and that Whitman will be high on her list (top 2 or 3). But heading into the overnight, she had Whitman at the top of her short list. In her own words, the WoW! factor was missing. It was good, and when she thinks about her hosts, she might say very good, but she still wants to look some more.</p>
<p>Too bad about the lame interviewer; I guess I will note that I once bought a car I loved from a salesman I disliked and never had regrets–and I hope she will ultimately decide based on her experience with her hosts rather than admissions employees. In reality, they are in the “marketing” department (and didn’t do so well with her as a potential consumer)–but the real education happens elsewhere (in any school).</p>
<p>I hope that her hosts either got her into buildings she wanted to see or that she explored on her own because both the theater and the new gym are great. And if Whitman doesn’t fade from her interest, perhaps she should ask for an interview when admissions reps are in your area. They will definitely be the professional staff and interested in what she wants to know (or tell them) that didn’t happen in the onsite visit. </p>
<p>Neither of my kids found their interviewers inspiring either but other aspects of the place captured them and they are both very happy. We just returned from Family Weekend and I want to be a student again.</p>
<p>Mmaah – I would like to have her schedule another interview, this time with someone other than a student. If I’m being completely honest, there is a little bias working here. I was the one who suggested that my D look at Whitman. Our high school has some terrific things going for it, but college advising is not one of these things. When my oldest D, who was both Valedictorian and Athlete of the Year, chose Carleton, the guidance staff was confused. They had never heard of Carleton, and obviously didn’t know where it was located. We have had pretty much the same reaction with Whitman and Walla Walla with D2. So … I bought a mountain of books and references, from Loren Pope to Princeton Review, and helped D craft lists of colleges to look at. I certainly don’t want to press or advocate too hard for any school, because the decision is ultimately theirs, but when Whitman showed up at the top of D2’s list, I was excited. When I talked with D last night, Whitman was still firmly on her radar, and she is going to apply. If she is accepted, we will get her back to campus. Until then, we will try to arrange for a second interview.</p>
<p>There is a New England admissions rep ( I know upstate is not New England…but that will have to do for this purpose), Bruce Jones, and you can get an email link through the Whitman on the Road page of the admissions website. I’m reasonably sure he’d find a way to connect with her if you email him directly. </p>
<p>And I know what you mean about how hard it is not to advocate for parental favorites when it is for all good reasons something that needs to be their choice.Hang in there with the process.</p>
<p>treeman, we were disappointed when we did our tour as there was not nearly enough time to see everything and many of the buildings were locked, so our guide could not get us in to see things. They really should have things unlocked on days when they are doing tours even if they are on weekends. Parents and prospies want to see the inside of buildings.</p>
<p>My husband and I went on a second “self guided” tour and found ways into buildings that had been locked by waiting until we saw someone go in and asked if we could just peek around and they were very nice and let us in with them. The theatre is top-notch and so was the art building.(both were locked when we went on our formal tour)</p>
<p>I can attest that the new gym, climbing wall, pool and weight rooms are all top notch as my son got to see all those as he was there recruiting with one of the coaches, so he was privy to seeing everything like that. They have done a great job with their new construction and have top notch buildings.</p>
<p>I have a 1st year Whittie and couldn’t be happier. The administration, the professors, the coaches, the facilities. Top knotch. I feel like I always see what the locals see since I have a recruited athlete and have gone the insider route. No place I would rather have my boy be. And he is happy happy happy. Challenged, yes, but happy. </p>
<p>Psss. My next one has Whitman at the top of his list.</p>
<p>I’m sorry and surprised that the tour guides weren’t able to take you inside any building that you wanted to see (except dorms - safety and privacy of students is important). Mine kind of chalked UPS off her list when the tour didn’t even enter the library!
Glad you were able to get inside and see.</p>