Pacific Northwest college search lessons and experiences for D21

I never came back to thank you for this comment. Western Washington is on her list now. It checks many of her boxes. My daughter is only looking to apply to schools in California and the Pacific Northwest. She is a minority on several fronts and is looking for a place where she will not stand out like a sore thumb, especially if she is far from the comforts of home.

3 Likes

I appreciate this thread. Son (lgbtq) is looking for a prenursing program in pacific NW/OR/WA after finding out his grades would not be good enough to go into a direct entry nursing program. He was a great student until the covid year. HIs current ACT is 33 and his gpa is 2.9 unweighted and 3.4 weighted. Not considering any religious schools except Jesuit and Lutheran. We are in CA. Donā€™t care about greek life/sports. Do like diversity/theater, he is more of an introverted type.

Any specific schools you would rule in or out? We are planning a tour week next month.

1 Like

Not in CA/PNW, but St Olaf has nursing, no Greek life, Lutheran, and the big deal there is music rather than sports.
Even further away, York in PA would be a safety for him and direct entry. (Lots of direct entry programs in that region).

2 Likes

He might look at some of the health profession majors at Willamette University in Salem. Its campus is right next to a hospital (helpful for internships, etc.) and it offers theatre scholarships.

2 Likes

What about U Portland ? Very diverse student body + nursing. I know nothing about direct admit, but do know happy kids at the school. I know it is catholic - but the 2 kids I know are not catholic and both are Lgbtq. They said the catholic piece is very low key - in their opinion.

1 Like

Thank you! When I looked it looked like they had public health but not a pre nursing type of study area.

Thank you! Itā€™s on the list but way down there. Heā€™s actually trans and atheist, and doesnā€™t think he would feel supported and find his people at a catholic school.

It may not be as nursing-specific as what you are looking for, but Willamette claims the Exercise and Health Sciences major can satisfy pre-reqs for nursing programs:

https://willamette.edu/arts-sciences/catalog/overview/opportunities/healthcare/index.php

You might want to take a look at Linfield in McMinnville, OR. Wine country if that helpsā€¦

Pacific Lutheran University - near Seattle has a nursing program.

Seattle Pacific University - in Seattle has a nursing program.
Free Methodists.

Seattle University - in Seattle has a nursing program. Jesuit.

Seattle is pretty LGBTQ+ friendly so shouldnā€™t be a problem.
Check it them out.

1 Like

They are on the list!

Iā€™ve noticed how many nursing programs are at private religious colleges, a lot!

I thought Seattle Pacific was Christian, not Methodist. Iā€™m aware of the Pride Index, but itā€™s hard to know with the Catholic and Christian listed schools how religious they are. I feel pretty comfortable with Jesuit and Lutheran, but hard to know how this affects everything.

Thank you!

I figured that even if theyā€™re far away theyā€™re worth a try because theyā€™re reachable direct entry programs. Good luck, keep us updated :+1: as Iā€™m sure this thread will be of interest to many.

Our boys sound like they have a lot in common. Mine has a similar GPA and is musical/artsy and wants to pursue nursing or PA school. He plans to attend a SLAC so he can get smaller class sizes more individualized attention. Pretty much all the liberal arts colleges weā€™ve looked at in the PNW have pre-health advising, meaning they will help you with course selection, applications, internships and volunteer hours. So he really should be ok at any of those schools ā€” Whitman, Willamette, UPS, L&C, etc. My S is also planning to apply to a few SLACs with nursing school articulations (they are not in the PNW, though) where if you meet the requirements, you are an auto admit or preferred admit to their partner nursing school, some of which are extremely competitive for acceptance without the articulation. Seems like it could be a nice deal.

2 Likes

Donā€™t shortchange UOregon. It is a private-school experience, given all the money they raise from generous donors like Phil Knight, and the OOS students (mostly Californians who probably did not get into their UC of choice). The average GPA of this yearā€™s incoming class is 3.73, so UOregon is attracting excellent students. My daughter is a freshman this year, and our family is very impressed with the new dorms, great food, small-class freshman experiences, tutoring and other resources. I am familiar with most of the colleges in the PNW (Iā€™m a college professor here), and UO, in my opinion, provides one of the best all-around college experiences. Itā€™s a beautiful residential campus, and is located in a fantastic college town (Eugene), and has the fun of the Pac-12. With a student body of about 20,000, it may be the sweet-spot in size. College majors are not impacted, so with the exception of certain majors like architecture or product design that require additional admission materials, you can major in whatever you like, and be able to get into the classes you need so you can actually graduate in four years. I realize that its rankings are lower than UW, although itā€™s important to not put too much weight on rankings because they are somewhat arbitrary or based on criteria that may not be all that important to student experience. Overall, I think the PNW has some excellent schools to choose from, and UOregon is well positioned in this group.

5 Likes

By the way, I am NOT a professor at UOregon :slight_smile:

I just responded to your comment on a different thread. I wonder if you could comment on OSU and how it compares to U Oregon. OSU is a financial fit for our family whereas U Oregon is a bit of a reach, even with likely merit. We are in California.

I know you asked someone else, but the quick answer is that OU is the stateā€™s social sciences college, while OSU is the hard sciences college. For example, OU does not have an engineering program; but it has an alternative program that allows student takes physics for 3 years and then transfer to OSU to take engineering for another two years . . . the student ends up with a degree from each school. Might as well start at OSUā€™s engineering program in the first place. But, this is just a generalization. OU does have STEM and OSU does have the social sciences, but each school has its strengths. OU has very strong journalism and architecture programs, for example, while OSU has a great veterinary, marine sciences, forestry and engineering programs.

Also, the locations are quite different. OU is in a big town and that has many residents, businesses, and shops that have nothing to do with the school. OSU is located in the middle of farmland and in a small town which revolves around the campus. OSU has slightly more undergrad students than OU at roughly 25,000.

From California, you would fly into Eugene via Alaska Airlines. OU is right there in Eugene, while OSU is an hour north in Corvallis and requires a shuttle. You could also fly into Portland but itā€™s a 1.5-hour drive south to Corvallis, another 30 minutes to Eugene.

Both are gorgeous schools. Both have great academics. You canā€™t go wrong at either.

4 Likes

I really appreciate your input. My kid is undecided right now. She has considered at different times astronomy, music, political science, philosophy, geology. I think she needs to land somewhere with a wide range of options that are easily accessible.