<p>Reading thru many college road trip threads and gathering info with D1 but looking for specific info to touring these schools AND any other opinions/info on these schools would be greatly appreciated....am having a very hard time finding reviews or such on University of Portland and Pacific University (in Forest Grove) especially. </p>
<p>As far as we can tell from information gathered online is that all of these schools are 'rumored' to be quite good w/merit and financial aid and also sound like a good 'fit' for her.</p>
<p>A lot more out there about Willamette and Linfield and an older best friend of D1's is a freshman at Linfield and loves it. </p>
<p>Heading out (driving from northern WA state) in a couple weeks, planning 2 nights in Portland to allow for book splurge at Powells :). She lives and breathes books and the one time we visited Portland a few years ago I could not get her out of Powells for <em>five</em> hours! Told her not this time--college visits priority! (And that proximity to Powell's is NOT a decision maker for college choice or very good for her wallet :o) </p>
<p>Also--driving times between Portland-Forest Grove-McMinnville-Salem? Drving time between Salem-Portland?</p>
<p>collegemaw, that should be a very pleasant and do-able trip. I’ve only done Portland/McMinnville, but I believe the drive time for the segments you mentioned should be about 40 minutes mid-day. Salem-Portland more like an hour.</p>
<p>As for info, I can only comment on Linfield and would say the same as your D’s friend. It is very high on my D’s list. She recently won a bit more money at their scholarship day and they offered her work/study, something we weren’t expecting. U of P and Pac U sent quite a bit of literature but failed to capture my D’s interest.</p>
<p>That recent visit found us downtown at Powell’s, also, and imagine her delight when she found another branch at the airport! Passing time waiting for a flight was never so easy. Have a great trip.</p>
<p>We visited U of P and Pacific University with younger D.
I think there must be some northwest college threads with reviews.
She decided not to apply to either- not sure why, I really liked Pacific U, we also saw Lewis and Clark on that trip which she liked more, but decided not to apply, cause her sister also lives in Portland and she hoped to go farther away.
;)</p>
<p>For some reason Lewis and Clark is not on her radar, and I’ve heard it’s not well known for aid so not pushing it. </p>
<p>Meant to add we are staying 2 nights in Portland AND then 1 night each McMinnville and Salem or 2 nights in one of them in budget friendly lodging. We are not the most energetic of travelers and she’ll want to spend some time with friend at Linfield.</p>
<p>My son now attends Lewis and Clark and is really enjoying it. He transferred in however so can’t help you on the financial aid front.</p>
<p>Linfield simply has to be visited. I loved it - both of my kids applied there as a safety and both got generous aid packages - but neither wanted that small of a town.</p>
<p>From downtown Portland to Willamette in Salem is just under an hour on a weekend - I’ve made the drive multiple times. Loved Willamette as well - very pretty campus and very friendly students. We stayed in the Grand Phoenix every time we went there - roughly $100 a night for a suite like room with a bedroom and living rooom with a fold out sofa. </p>
<p>Have a great trip - feel free to PM with questions as I have visited with both kids as well as now visiting my son at L&C.</p>
<p>Lewis and Clark used to have great aid- cause they didn’t use the PROFILE- however, they do now.
My oldest attended Reed- which has good need based aid- but we had pretty high need at the time, so big grants. ( also a plus for Portland is that they have good public transportation, and she has lived there since graduating college in '06 and has been able to get away with just using a zipcar- although now a car would be good as she needs to go outside Portland proper)</p>
<p>Oh correction, we didn’t look at U of P, we looked at Portland State, big difference I imagine. :o ( I used to think UPenn was public too)
I hear U of P has really good aid. I have also heard that about Pacific-</p>
<p>I’m a Linfield alum and live in Portland, so feel free to email with questions. My son didn’t apply to Linfield because he wanted a larger town. He went with Willamette, Puget Sound, and Lewis & Clark. Your plan to go “Portland-Forest Grove-McMinnville-Salem” is a good one. Forest Grove is a distance from downtown Portland, probably 30 minutes in non-rush hour. It is quite rural out there. You might consider staying at McMenamin’s Grand Lodge in Forest Grove after your day in Portland. Then you could see Pacific and get to Linfield the same day. Then a stay in McMinnville, and on to Willamette the next day.</p>
<p>we visited and at least one of my DDs applied to UP, Linfield, and Willamette. We also visited Pacific but it wasn’t my kids’ cup of tea and they didn’t apply.</p>
<p>our driving times were in step w/ scualum’s we also stayed at the Grand Phoenix in Salem and it was fabulous!</p>
<p>Linfield gave the D who applied there a very generous merit award plus added on top of it need based aid which made it less than attending a CSU.</p>
<p>Willamette was even more generous with other D who had slightly better stats.</p>
<p>UP was not as generous but it remained on the table along with the other two schools until the end of April when both girls chose the same school closer to home (in CA)</p>
<p>PM me if you have any questions. Also check out the links at the bottom of the page, I have one about Linfield and the Willamette forum is fairly active.</p>
<p>I loved the Oregon schools and will be encouraging my S to look at them as well. Good Luck!</p>
<p>My son (current high school senior) was accepted at Pacific. He received a $10K merit award and was invited to the Pacesetters Scholarship Competition ($1000 for showing up, airfare reimbursed if you end up attending, plus the chance for additional merit money based on your score in the competition). He decided not to go to the competition because he’d already been accepted Early Action to a school that was a better fit for him. I don’t think Pacific is very well known outside of Oregon, as opposed to Willamette which has a national reputation (among those who know something about LACs).</p>
<p>Need to find Voodoo Donuts!!–have heard of it before. Could be dangerous however;).</p>
<p>wow, this trip is challenging as far as trying to figure out other family members’ schedules-D2 has state level soccer games at that time and then will need to get to Grandma’s in another town somehow and I also need to arrange help caring for critters since hubb has an insane schedule that week.</p>
<p>So far we are planning arriving in Portland Sunday lateish Sun afternoon after long drive and that will be our non college evening-hotel, supper, Powells. Altho I like ppl’s idea of driving the campus after dark, not sure if we’ll make that happen with U of P unfortunately. U of P has an ‘actual’ Visitation Day Monday which will be long but good to get us going. Then another night in Portland and I’m thinking (getting ready to make the phone calls) hopefully just a half day at Pacific in Forest Grove and then head down to Salem. Want more time at Willamette and Linfield than Pacific. Thinking now that Portland, Forest Grove (just half day), Salem afternoon and overnight and morning and then finish up with afternoon,overnight and most of day McMinnville because of friend and also a little less driving on way home. How does that plan sound?</p>
<p>D1 is not interested in doing interviews at this time-will that hurt anything?</p>
<p>Grand Phoenix sounds great but I am probably going to have to go lower $$, thankfully there are some good options in both Salem and McMinnville. Perusing TripAdvisor.
Was THRILLED with the rate we got in Portland, very close to Powells, MUCH lower than website and also parking fee cut in half!, don’t know if it’s the ‘college tour’ rate or what but a blessing for sure.</p>
<p>collegemaw, may I ask where you are staying? OK to PM me for privacy. We’re going to look at L&C, maybe UofP, Willamette, but pass on Linfield and Reed. Unless I can squeeze them in the afternoons!</p>
<p>I often use Priceline in Portland, cause I don’t need a car ( lots of times the hotels on Priceline are $25 a night for parking).
Lewis and Clark has a shuttle to pick up people downtown by Nordstroms for the tours- good thing, because everytime I have found L & C, I was lost looking for something else!
We also really like the RedLion by the convention center. It is right by the MAX and BURGERVILLE!!! ( oh so good & I don’t like hamburgers usually),
They are very nice- the rooms are largish, they have coffee/fridge in the rooms ( some hotels don’t) and they take pets.</p>
<p>We have stayed at the travelodge on Powell ( think it is something else now), but it has gone really downhill- although the kids love the Chinese restaurant next door.</p>
<p>We used to stay at the Mallory which was fantastic- they took pets- they loved our dog, the parking was free or like $5, they had superb dining room- the worst thing was the rooms were tiny. But not the Mallory anymore- it is called the Deluxe or something like that.</p>
<p>There is something- I think it is a Motel 6 on Powell where my H and I stayed last year ( my D borrowed our car while we were in Ca, then we flew back to Oregon to pick it up). It was cheap ( but not any cheaper than Priceline), & safe but very basic- but there is a great Mexican food trailer next door.</p>
<p>Also when I took D to see Pacific University, the traffic must have been light cause it didn’t seem like it took us more than 10 minutes to get there. It is much more rural, but I am used to Seattle, where you have to drive for * hours and hours* before you get away from the traffic/buildings</p>
<p>If you stay in Salem ask for the Willamette discount. It knocks a few bucks off the lowest room rate. Some hotels even let you type Willamette into the discount code.</p>
<p>Another option in Portland is to stay out by the airport - there is an Aloft and a Residence inn in a mall known as Cascade Station. From there, the light rail takes you into downtown portland in about 30 minutes. Easy drive to University of Portland - probably 15 minutes. Lewis and Clark is in the other corner of Portland so probably a 30 minute drive away… Most weekend nights are about $60.</p>
<p>For those whose kids do eventually end up in Portland, the Cascade Station area is where IKEA is - which you might want to visit to set up your kid’s room/apartment.</p>
<p>Our visits to these schools is a few years out of date, but FWIW, both D and I found Linfield to be the friendliest school she set foot on. Random girl in the class she visited walked out of class with her and started a conversation (spotted a visitor) - ended up giving D a quick tour of the bio department, walked across campus toward the dining hall and actually apologized for not having lunch together as she lived in one of the on-campus apartments and didn’t have a meal plan. Other students started conversations wherever she went. Her over-all feel, however, was “not that much different than high school”. Depending on your kid and your high school, that may be good or bad.<br>
It’s not a school with national recognition, OTOH, my friend’s son ('09 grad) got in to several good med schools in other parts of the country - currently doing fine (I was going to say “happy” but maybe that’s not how med students feel…) at a big-10 med school.</p>
<p>I am thinking the distances/times are not as long as I’d thought which is good, more college walking time etc.</p>
<p>Is it a big deal to not do interviews at this time? She is not interested in that yet.</p>
<p>LongPrime…we are really watching the $$ and any “extra” trip money will go to bookstores, meals-- and bakeries :). If hubb was able to go we’d definitely do the Museum, I’ve heard about it. But will stay away from the Woodburncompanystores!</p>
<p>On the map it makes more sense to do the Portland-Forest Grove-McMinnville-Salem but for a bit more time at Linfield we’ll probably do Portland-Forest Grove-Salem-McMinnville to finish with Linfield…should we just head back to I-5 from Forest Grove and then south to Salem or take the ‘scenic’ route that goes thru McMinnville even if we’re not stopping there that day?</p>
or what but a blessing for sure.</p>