Idaho (WUE) HS 2022 grad. Prefers small to mid-size; at least 3k students. Psych major, wants good outdoor access (hiked 200 mi summer ‘20), school w/great sports fans/school spirit, and not over her head academically. Stats: 4.151 WGPA, SAT 1300, ACT 28, 7 APS and 30+ credits dual enrollment w/cum 4.0 GPA on those, lots of extra-curriculars (sports, clubs, community service). She could have done better testing, but busy and at this point it is what it is. She’s not shooting for Ivy, et al. so figure the scores will keep her at a Uni commensurate with her actual self. Considering WA:Gonzaga, UPS, PLU; OR:OSU, UO; MT:MSU; CA: SCU, Chapman, Chico State; AZ: UA (good merit, but big and kind of Urban); Outlier: Wake Forest
Don’t know yet if she can get WUE at OSU or MSU due to test scores; they are both very WUE selective. Already applied to EA to many of these. Would love other suggestions in the region or beyond that fit her profile. TIA!
Miami Ohio will probably meet your requirements and gives good merit will be over 25K but price is guaranteed for 4 years.
Best case probably looking 30k a year
I teach HS in the Vancouver WA area and have one daughter in her freshman year at UW-Seattle and the other who is a HS sophomore. We’ve been through this.
For PNW private schools I suggest you add Whitman and Lewis & Clark to your list. Both are exceedingly outdoorsy and small/intimate. Yes Lewis & Clark is in Portland, but in a residential corner of the city away from most of the distractions. Whitman is a real gem and would be MUCH higher rated and more popular if it were in a more urban location. I have never met a Whitman grad who had anything bad to say about the place and I was impressed when we went out to visit last year.
The popular WUE schools for students in my somewhat upscale suburban WA school are Montana State, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, and Humboldt State. At least judging from the past couple of years. Montana State is probably the most popular. I’m not sure why. Probably a combination of location and promotion. My daughter got a TON of stuff from them even though she never showed any interest so they are very aggressive recruiters. Humboldt State is pretty STEM and the state is exploring making it the 3rd Cal Poly campus so they are thinking of investing more in the place. Humboldt State Foresees Significant Enrollment Increase as Cal Poly Humboldt | News Blog
I would also take a look at Western Washington in Bellingham. It is the classic college town and campus and something of a hidden gem. I don’t know how “sporty” it is as they dropped football some years ago but they do have other sports. And, although it isn’t WUE, you might take a look at University of Victoria and UBC up in Canada just for kicks. If the border opens and you do a west coast college visit road trip those schools aren’t far off the path. Only about an hour or two from Bellingham and a fun visit. You’d be paying international tuition, but with the exchange rate it will come out cheaper than out of state tuition at most out of state public schools in the US.
I second Western Washington University. Very underrated. The campus, right on the water, is beautiful.
There are a lot of conflicting pieces of information in your original post. For example, you have a desired size, but then schools that are many fold larger listed. You list wanting a school passionate about its sports, but then quite a few schools where sports won’t be a big factor. Which of the intangibles that you listed are sacrosanct?
I’d say look at Southern Oregon University and Humboldt State. I third Western Washington.
The schools that popped into mind first based on size and school spirit were Gonzaga, Cal Poly, and University of Oregon (which is bigger, but feels smaller). Maybe University of San Diego. (Don’t know if any of those will be affordable.)
I think the liberal arts colleges will feel too small. I love Whitman and its outdoor program, but I am guessing your daughter wants something bigger. University of Puget Sound might be okay — just a tad bigger with grad programs and a more populated area — but, again, I wouldn’t call it mid-size.
Good luck!
Here in WA the population has grown tremendously in the past two decades. The state population has increased by about 1.7 million since the year 2000, yet the flagship UW-Seattle has barely expanded if at all.
Much of the spillover has gone to the new branch campuses UW-Bothell and UW-Tacoma, which are predominantly commuter schools of local interest. And WWU which is becoming increasingly popular as a backup or alternative to UW as it is the only other large public university in Puget Sound west of the Cascades. I expect it will continue to trend upwards. One reason why it may be lesser known outside of WA is because they lack of football team. It is the same reason why many folks on the east coast haven’t really even heard of UC-San Diego or UC-Irvine even though they are both world-class universities.
Central Washington is finding a niche for itself with a focus on 1st generation Hispanic students, and Eastern Washington is more the suburban public school for the Spokane area. But neither is a popular as WWU.
It is similar to what is happening in CA where the top Cal State schools like San Diego State and San Jose State are getting increasingly competitive from all the spillover from the UCs.
Of course there is also WSU which is just a stone’s throw from the ID state line.
I’m a big fan. My son is an alum. They won’t be within budget though. Cal Poly is not WUE for any major, offers very limited merit aid only to the very top students, and does not meet demonstrated need. Plan on CP being $45K +/-.
Colorado Mesa is a WUE school, division 2 sports (and pretty good at most of them), certainly has lots of outdoor activities. It’s bigger than you want at 25000, but much smaller than some you listed.
Not in the west but Ohio Wesleyan would wind up costing less than an in state University as they have a big auto scholarship at numbers which I believe are lower than your student’s.
My older D attends Western WA University and has had a good experience albeit I am frustrated by their COVID policies (all students required to be vaccinated with almost no classes in person).
Whoa, good to know about WWU. Have no issues w/Vax, but want to have classes. Thx!
Am hoping the policy will change. My D had a Professor say he was not holding classes in person because he has a child that is too young to be vaccinated.
I find it silly as if he was truly worried he could position himself away from students, require masks, leave doors/windows open etc (and all the students are vaccinated).
I’ll echo Chico (honors might interest her) and add Sonoma State is a smallish CSU that’s on the WUE list. that’s got a nice residential vibe. They also have an well respected honors program she’d probably qualify for.
My son LOVES Ft Lewis in Durango is a CO state public LAC on a mesa above an idyllic mountain town that feels private - small class sizes, accessible teachers, cohesive architecture and the campus is surrounded by hundreds of miles of public trails for hiking and mountain biking. They tier their WUE awards by GPA so, it would be well within your budget. Durango is a fun place to visit and its certainly worth a tour. Here’s a link to their virtual tour.
I’d also echo Southern Oregon as another smallish Wue school worth exploring.
I don’t think U of Oregon will be within budget. If you’re going to apply to Arizona, then it’s worth applying to Utah as well since they have WUE (not very selective) and are (much) more outdoorsy than Arizona. D loves Utah and spends lots of time backpacking, climbing and skiing. It’s easy to walk up into the Wasatch mountains right from campus, which they often do to watch sunset over the lake. And U New Mexico may be worth considering too?