Oregon college trip report

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi all - we just came back from a whirlwind trip to Oregon where we visited four colleges: Lewis & Clark, University of Portland, Willamette and Linfield.</p>

<p>Before I go into details about the various visits, let me remind everyone that I was travelling with my daughter and her best friend. They have two very different personalities in many ways. My daughter is quirky, artistic, and is chomping at the rules at bit at her Catholic high school. She wants something very different for her college experience. She has a very diverse group of friends - conservative, liberal, artsy, brainy. She is fairly conservative in terms of her sense of right and wrong. Her potential majors include history, art, and psychology/sociology. She is now thinking of social work as a possible career - actually, I think that would be a perfect fit for her and her personality. Other schools on her list include Goucher, Earlham and Beloit.</p>

<p>Her friend is much more conservative and fairly religious. If she goes to school outside of California, she would like to go to a Catholic college. She has a great sense of humor and is fairly tolerant of my daughter's eccentricities. She wants to be an elementary school teacher. She and my daughter seem to thrive on their differences.</p>

<p>This background is important because it really came into play on several of the visits. One other note of importance - my daughter absolutely adored Portland and the surrounding area. I think she was also happy with the two hour plane flight!</p>

<p>So, I will do the trip reports one by one in the next few posts.</p>

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<p>Lewis & Clark</p>

<p>The minute we walked onto L&C's beautiful campus, my daughter's friend looked at her and said "I could SO see you here!" LC has 1800 students. A law school and graduate school of education are part of the school but both are on their own adjoining campuses so undergrads don't come into contact with the grads. All undergrad classes are taught by full professors.</p>

<p>L&C's campus is very different than most colleges. The land it sits on was a former estate which was donated to the school about 30 years ago. In the center sits a fabulous, castle-like tudor style mansion. Surrounding the mansion are the estate's gardens and thick pine woods. One one side of the "mansion/garden" are the dorms and student center. On the other, are the classroom buildings and library. You can not see one side from the other - getting from the dorms to the classroom side you walk through the woods (over a bridge crossing a lush ravine) or through the estate gardens. On the academic side, there is no "quad" in the traditional sense - the buildings are lined up on either side of a road. The walkways throughout campus are cobblestone. The mansion gives the school a feeling of age even though all of the buildings are fairly new and rather modern in feel.</p>

<p>L&C is about 20 minutes from downtown Portland but on campus it feels as though you are a million miles away in a primeval forest. The immediate area is residential and very upscale --- houses on huge lots with more forest. The school runs regular buses to a small local shopping center and on into portland. Based on the size of the buses we saw leaving campus, many students take advantage of this service to enjoy the city.</p>

<p>Academically, LC has some very interesting and strong programs. Particular strengths are the sciences (especially enviro. science and bio), international affairs (a wonderful program), English (good creative writing options), and the social sciences. Languages are also strong for a small school - five are taught regularly including chinese, japanese, russian, french, german, spanish. The art program is very strong and has its own building. There is also an art gallery on campus. </p>

<p>The focus at LC is on global education --- the school runs approximately 20 study abroad programs annually, all led by LC faculty. On average, about 65-70% of students study abroad at least once. (This is something my daughter wants very much). Students have to take three semesters of a language plus meet global studies requirements (either through study abroad or through taking classes on campus). A large chunk of offered classes have a "Global" context of one sort or another. Additionally, all freshman take a two semester "Inventing America" symposium that focuses on U.S. history, political thought and culture. </p>

<p>The school has about 100 international students (according to the adcom, used to be higher but Visa restrictions have had an effect since 9/11). LC also has a large proportion of what they call "TCK's" for Third Culture Kids - students who are American citizens but have grown up overseas for one reason or another. (Cheers, I thought of you).</p>

<p>Dorms are mainly doubles with a new apartment style dorm for upperclass students. Several of the dorms have co-ed bathrooms.</p>

<p>Probably the reason my daughter's friend said she could see her at LC, however, was the student body. It is definitely "quirky" --- just watching the variety of clothing, piercings and hair styles in the student cafeteria was entertaining. We saw many students who looked like they had rummaged through my daughter's closet as well as many who were more "out there" Daughter loved it. (Mom admittedly had a momentary pause at some of the more outlandish costumes). Eavesdropping on conversations, I also got the feeling that students are academically engaged and rather intellectual.</p>

<p>We had a lot of opportunity to talk to students on campus - they seemed very friendly and willing to share their thoughts with a prospie. They also seemed very accepting and welcoming of differences. My daughter was really happy when she sat down at a table in the cafeteria and two students immediately asked if they could share her table. General consensus was that for the right person LC was a "terrific" place - lots of faculty interaction, lots of stimulating classes. Hanging out with friends and going into Portland were the two main past times mentioned. Several students however pointed out that the academics are quite strenuous and studying was pretty time consuming (the library is open 24 hours a day). The 40/60 male female ratio keeps relationships low key or non-existent, according to students. </p>

<p>LC has a reputation as being a "pot head" school so daughter asked several of the students about that -- all agreed that pot is definitely there, as is drinking, but that there wasn't pressure to do either. Again, the students we asked mentioned that LC students tend to be pretty laid back and accept differences.</p>

<p>Overall, my daughter LOVED LC. Unfortunately, it is a definite reach for her - median SAT scores are 1260-1380, average GPA is 3.6-3.8. However, when she talked to the adcom, she was very familiar with daughter's high school and said that a slightly lower GPA from that school would be viewed favorably, so maybe it is not entirely out of reach. Percentage accepted last year was 65% but that number is expected to drop this year due to a rise in applications. There's an EA (non binding) option but the adcom stressed that numbers for accepted students during EA tend to be the same or even slightly above for EA students. </p>

<p>Lewis & Clark is the type of school that's not for everyone. Preppy types would probably run for the hills. But, for the right type of person - someone who is intense about their interests, interested in studying abroad, liberal, and looking for a campus where how you look isn't important, LC would be a good fit. As I said, my daughter LOVED Lewis & Clark.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much, Carolyn, for the detailed "take" on Lewis & Clark. I have printed it out for my daughter as she has also applied there and am anxiously awaiting your review of Willamette (another one my D applied to).</p>

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<p>The University of Portland</p>

<p>The University of Portland lies on the opposite side of Portland from Lewis & Clark and, in many ways, it is also the polar opposite of LC. The campus sits on a bluff overlooking the Willamette River. It's a very pretty campus, with lots of large sequoias and other trees. The buildings are all red brick, some date to the late 1800's, some are newer. The surrounding neighborhood is comprised of middle class houses - seemed like a nice neighborhood. A city bus line runs to downtown from out in front of the campus. </p>

<p>The feeling all three of us had at UP was - friendly! The students all seemed extremely happy, none of the seriousness we'd seen at LC. Lots of students playing frisbee and other games out on the lawns, whereas at LC there were more groups of students sitting around talking. Our high school is something of a feeder school for UP - when we arrived in the admissions office both the director of admissions and the admissions counselor for our high school came out to greet us personally. A senior from our school had just left the office - he'd been accepted and was there for a visit.
When our daughter showed the adcom her transcript, he was very excited and enthusiastic --- of course he didn't say so, but the definite feeling was he was ready to offer admissions right there on the spot. UP would be a definite safety for our daughter in terms of grades and test scores. She would also qualify for some merit money. There are 2200 undergrads.</p>

<p>UP has some very strong professional programs -- they have an engineering school, a business school, and a nursing/pre-health career school. They have a cadevar lab, rare for a school this size. They also have an excellent education program. A plus for my D. is they offer an undergraduate degree in social work and it is a fairly large and established program. The history and psychology departments sounded decent. A downside is there is no art major - but studio art classes are offered each semester. </p>

<p>We liked the feel of the dorms at UP in particular - they seemed very close knit with lots of special activities and inter-dorm competitions. We noticed that many of the doors in the dorm we visited were unlocked (our tour guide brought us into several) or the doors were all open. There is an all-male dorm, several all-female dorms and a few co-ed dorms. There is an opposite sex curfew of 12:00 p.m. No coed bathrooms here. </p>

<p>UP is a Catholic school but only 50% of students are Catholic. There is a church on campus where mass is offered daily but no requirements for attendance. Students are required to take three religion classes - one a comparative religion class, one a Catholic bible class, one of their choosing. Priests do reside in each dorm but according to our tour guides they are more there for counseling than to interfere with daily life.</p>

<p>Students seemed clean cut but casual in dress (lots of jeans and tee shirts) - a few girls were dressed up a bit more but overall it seemed pretty casual. When we asked about drinking and drugs, the tour guides said there was drinking like at all campuses but they both seemed totally and genuinely confused by the question about drugs --- and they both said they hadn't heard of drugs on campus. It just seemed like a very happy place.</p>

<p>Both my daughter and her friend liked UP. It reminded them of the feel of their high school - very safe, very nuturing. Daughter said that if she doesn't find a safety she likes better, she will apply. She said she could be happy there, even if it doesn't have a very high :quirky: factor.</p>

<p>Median SATs are 1100, 80% acceptance rate.</p>

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<p>Carolyn- your description of Lewis and Clark sounds just as I had imagined. I thought and still think my D would have loved it. I couldn't get her to apply. She couldn't get over that the size of the student body was smaller then her high school.</p>

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<p>Willamette</p>

<p>Willamette was a surprise. In my mind, based on the school's literature, I had expected a larger campus. The campus is very compact and surrounded by city streets on four sides. There is a mix of older buildings and newer buildings. All are red bricks. Didn't have the same foresty feel as LC or even UP. There is a pretty stream running through the center of campus with some lawn areas around it where students hang out on sunny days. A railway runs along one edge of campus and it was hard to ignore the sounds of freight trains running by, although our tour guide assured us that it is easy to get used to (A group of dorms lies right next to the tracks and I wondered if I could sleep through the whistles and train noises but I am a light sleeper)</p>

<p>What we saw of the city of Salem wasn't thrilling --- it's not a bad little city, but not a college town by any stretch of the imagination. Although the school's literature says it's 45 minutes from Portland, I'd say you'd need a good hour or more to get from the Portland airport to campus.</p>

<p>Willamette is particularly strong in biology, chemistry and political science (the Oregon state capital is literally right across the street with loads of internship opportunities). The science building seemed pretty well equipped from what I can see but we didn't get to see the inside of any other classroom buildings. There are 1600 undergrads.</p>

<p>According to my daughter and her friend, students were more preppy here --- lots of kids walking around in groups and lots of kids jogging. There are several fraternities and sororities on campus. Our tour guide said about 30% are involved but most social life (parties, special events, etc.) is somehow tied to the Greek system. Parties are open to the entire campus said the tour guide. We did see groups with greek tee shirts and sweatshirts walking around. The fraternities are actually housed in the dorms, the sororities have their own houses on campus.Unfortunately, this was an immediate turn off for both my daughter and her friend. True or not, they both got the feeling that the campus was cliquey - not sure why they came up with that idea as I didn't see it! My feeling was that it was a nice campus with more conservative, athletic types.</p>

<p>I had to laugh at the stereotypes students at the schools we visited had about the other schools. At LC, one girl told us that the male-female ratio wasn't all that bad because there were other schools in portland so you could meet people of the opposite sex -- but then she noted that "You probably wouldn't want to date someone from Reed, they're pretty out there." ATWillamette, the tour guide noted that the library closed at 12 pm during the week then mentioned that LC's library was open 24-hours a day and joked that "the last case of scurvy in the U.S. was a Lewis & Clark student who spent weeks in the library. Those people are intense about studying!"</p>

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<p>Linfield College</p>

<p>Linfield is a small (1800 students), less selective college (89% admit rate) in a cute little historic town. Strong programs in education, business and communications. The campus was very pretty - lots of trees, beautiful brick buildings that had an historic and "back east" type of feel. You could walk from campus to downtown McMinnville which had a theater, lots of coffee houses, shops, some restaurants. It's associated with the Baptist church.</p>

<p>While both kids liked the way Linfield looked, they were simply too tired to take another tour. So, we just drove around the campus. STudents seemed pretty middle of the road, from what we can see.</p>

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<p>Carolyn,</p>

<p>I had ordered the Collegiate Choice video for Willamette and those trains drove me crazy just watching the video so I can only imagine what it's like actually being there. So you have no idea why your D and her friend thought it was cliquey?</p>

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<p>Mom60 - Lewis & Clark seemed like the perfect size to me. This was noted by all of the students we talked to --- they all said that it's small enough that you get lots of personal attention, but not so small that you know everyone and everyone's business.</p>

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<p>Thank you Carolyn! These are so helpful!</p>

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<p>Momofonly - It's funny but I didn't notice the trains on the video at all so that was a surprise. I think they thought it was cliquey for this reason: we ate in the cafeterias of all three schools. At Lewis & Clark people just plunked themselves down at our table and started talking to us; At U of Portland, when we ate in the cafeteria, the other students smiled at us and said hello (but no one sat with us; at Willamette, when we walked into the cafeteria, it was like we had "Dumb Prospective Students" written on our foreheads - there was definitely lots of staring, a little giggling, etc. as we walked by --- even I noticed it and the two girls definitely noticed it. The kids at Willamette were walking around in groups that seemed like they were having a good time but the sense was that they definitely noticed someone new on campus. Different kids might have a different view from my daughter and her friend!!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the review, Carolyn! We are planning a train trip to Portland during spring break and had L&C on the itinerary... and, now, UP! This is for D2...</p>

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<p>LOL...sounds like it was a little high-schoolish...which my D DEFINITELY wouldn't like. She doesn't like cliquey and she doesn't like preppy. (Sometimes I'm not sure if she actually likes anything and I think we are narrowing down the schools based more on what she DOESN'T like!) </p>

<p>Thanks again for the in-depth reports!</p>

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<p>Momofonly- the more I read about your D the more she reminds me of mine.</p>

<p>Years ago when I went to Cal Poly in SLO I lived in a tiny house that had been made into even smaller apartments. The railroad track was right on the other side of the backyard fence. The trains would go by in the middle of the night and the whole house would shake. After about a week I slept right through it.</p>

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<p>Mom60 - My husband once lived directly under the flight path for the San Diego airport. I guess, given a choice, I'd take trains over planes any day! :)</p>

<p>Archermom - Do stop by U of Portland. I was very impressed. Felt like the type of school you'd feel GOOD about sending your kids to. My daughter surprised me by saying she could be happy there --- it's very different from the other schools on her list. </p>

<p>It is so hard---I know that schools like LC, Earlham, Goucher would be good fits from my daughter's perspective, but as a MOM, it is so tempting to tell her she has to go somewhere "safe" like UP. It's scary to think of her going somewhere with co-ed bathrooms! Peeking into one and seeing a boy getting out of the shower made this mom's heart go bump. But I could see her loving L&C and I do know that she is ready to spread her wings. I guess it must be part of the process of letting go. Memo to self: you are not the one who will be going to these schools, your daughter is!</p>

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<p>Carolyn! so much fun to read your takes on my neighborhood schools! I was actually thinking about you when we were in Portland on Friday because I thought you were coming up here around now. It's only fair to warn you that the weather you saw was record-breakingly nice! More like spring than a typical patch of January. Just so you know.</p>

<p>I really thought all your observations were dead on target. Now you can get a hint of how different my twins are when I tell you that the D loved L&C and ended up at Smith while the S was appalled at the quirkiness of the L&C kids and is quite happy at U of P. Maybe you even saw him! Yes, the friendliness of the place was what impressed us the first time we walked around with him there. The absence of irony is quite refreshing! </p>

<p>We were there on Friday, putting D on the plane to Smith and then celebrating their mutual birthday with S and a couple of U of P friends. Portland with Mt. Hood glowing pink as we came over the St. Johns bridge was spectacular--that's when I thought of you and thought how nice all this would look to somebody on a tour!</p>

<p>One nit-picky detail-- the mansion grounds at L&C were given much longer ago than 30 years. I was so tickled that you even mentioned that bridge over the ravine, because I have cherished memories of that, and of the whole formal garden area. Hint: it's very romantic. I only regret studying so hard and not goofing off more! And I love your story about people sitting down at your table because that's exactly how I met my husband, by bolding sitting across from him at a table in the L & C diningroom, trying to stare him down the whole meal and then, finally, saying in exasperation, "Why won't you look at me?" Ah, our first exchange! Anyway, the boy-girl ratio was a bit skewed back then too. Or least if it wasn't, you had to be smarter to get in as a female. </p>

<p>Well, sounds like you had a good trip and I didn't see any red flags in your posts that made me think you were in error about anything.</p>

<p>Have fun sorting it out! If you don't see posts from me for awhile it's because we've flown off to be incommunicado, not because I'm not following your story!</p>

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<p>Mom60 and Carolyn - I think that's the beauty of youth...you can just put up with anything and it really doesn't bother you. </p>

<p>Mom60 - That's interesting about our D's. Mine is in an extremely negative phase right now...she told me the other day that my main problem is that I'm just too happy :) How's your D doing?</p>

18

<p>Carolyn, another thought re the dorms at U of P. They may have been unlocked, but security is uber-tight. Ridiculousy tight. The minute you walk in, obviously looking like nothing other than what you are, a couple of parents, you are stopped and required to sign in, show ID and then your kid's room is phoned and he or she has to come fetch you! It's actually kind of funny, but it's better than feeling it's lax. And yeah, I like them not having co-ed bathrooms.</p>

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<p>Enjoyingthis - Shhhh! Don't tell my daughter about the weather. She actually was bundled up on Friday and COMPLAINING about the cold. She will DIE in the midwest. :)
Thanks for the correction on the mansion - it was the most beautiful house I've ever been in!</p>

<p>I did think of both your daughter and son while visiting. I - and several other people who know her and who are familiar with Smith - think she would LOVE Smith if she could get over the Y Chromosone thing. But it tells you something about her that she said she could live with and be happy at UP. I think, however, that she would feel like the "odd duck" at UP whereas she admitted that at LC she'd probably be one of the more conservative types. She cherishes the fact that she is viewed as the "odd duck" at her very conservative high school - she is the one who "customizes" her school uniform to the very edge of dress code violations.</p>

<p>One thing I also noticed: bumper stickers in the window at LC were all Kerry stickers, at UP, all Bush. LOL! </p>

<p>But, I must say, I'm ready to retire to Portland. I loved the LAke Oswego area below L&C --- and I KNOW that my daughter is going to live there someday, no matter where she goes to school. It seemed to fit her perfectly - liberal with just a touch of conservatism thrown in the mix too.</p>

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<p>well the UP dorms weren't always like that unfortunately <a href="http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=2731%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=2731&lt;/a>
but while I have stayed very close to U of P I haven't looked around, your descriptions make me want to take a clser look!</p>