<p>My DD, my wife and I will be making a trip up to the Pacific Northwest to check out colleges in that area. We will be making two major stops - Portland and Seattle and I wanted to check with the experts here on CC to see if we are missing anything obvious.</p>
<p>A little background on DD - she is a Junior this year with excellent grades and decent ECs. SATs and the like will come this year. She is looking for a smaller, LA type college preferably on the west coast as we live in central California. She is likely to major in the Humanities.</p>
<p>So far on the list we have:</p>
<p>Portland area:</p>
<p>University of Portland
Lewis and Clark
Linfield
Willamette</p>
<p>Seattle Area:</p>
<p>Puget Sound
Seattle Pacific</p>
<p>Any others we should check out? Any thoughts on this list?</p>
<p>Whitman in Walla Walla, if she can bear to be in a small, remote town. Not very close to Portland or Seattle but highly regarded. You'd have to make a triangle instead of a straight line, but in terms of academics, some put it ahead of those on your list.</p>
<p>You are generous in your definition of "Portland Area." Linfield is about 35 miles from Portland and Willamette is nearly 50 miles from Portland.</p>
<p>Whitman is definitely worth visiting. It is the most competitive out of the entire bunch despite its remote location. If your D is into outdoors and skiing, that could be the place for her.
(Just be careful when you say D wants to stay on the West Coast. Mine was saying the same thing all along, and where did she end up?)</p>
<p>It is a generous definition of area isn't it :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses thus far - Whitman had shown up on the first list but we had dropped it off for now since Walla Walla is at best a 5 hour drive - a little far for even my most generous definition of area :) We will add it back in for now and reconsider the logistics.</p>
<p>Western Washington was not on the list - I'll have DD check it out... Since my brother just moved to Bellingham that certainly is intriguing...</p>
<p>scualum, I was originally going to respond to your post on the "class of 2010" thread, then I noticed this one. As I read your post in the other thread, although you didn't mention it there, I also thought that, given your D's parameters, Whitman sounded like a great school to check out. Good luck with the road trip.</p>
<p>DDs and I made the trip as far as Oregon over last spring break. Suggest checking out the Mc Minnamon (sp) hotel for a rooftop meal in MicMinnville. Enjoyed the Old Spaghetti Factory in Salem and don't miss Powells in Portland! The girls were calling the dining shots so we ate ar Joe's Crab Shack just over the bridge so that was the only Washington visit we made.</p>
<p>Agree with all on Whitman. I don't think the fact that it's a long drive ought to deter you. If it turns out to be just the right place, then it will have been worth it. If not, you all had a trip out to a part of the Northwest you haven't visited before. It's a small town, but a very charming area.</p>
<p>Reed is in Portland Ore. You get a superb education there, much like that at the University of Chicago. It might be a perfect college for a Humanities major, but it IS demanding.</p>
<p>Reed sometimes shares students with Lewis & Clark- Reed is in SE Portland- L & C otherside of river.
Very rigorous school but very good reputation w humanities.</p>
<p>I graduated from Linfield in '07 if you guys have any specific questions about the school or city after you've visited. My sister is a junior at Willamette. There are also two schools in the Tacoma area, Pacific Lutheran University, and University of Puget Sound. They're not too far off of I-5 as you're going north to Seattle.</p>
<p>I second the recommendation to take a good look at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in Tacoma. Lovely campus, strong LAC, and she might be offered a nice merit package there. Agree with Son of Opie, UPS is easy to find off of I-5.</p>
<p>Another vote for you to take a look at Whitman. I just checked the Alaska Air website to see whether there are flights from Seattle to Walla Walla, and there are -- but, boy, they're not cheap! Depending on the time of year, the drive to Walla Wall could be beautiful, though.</p>
<p>St. Martin's in Olympia and Seattle U. in Seattle aren't on your list. The Evergreen State U. is also in Olympia and is very "alternative" so if she is interested in that it's right on I-5. </p>
<p>WWU is largish if she wants small LAC; I'd recommend Whitman. Walla Walla is very close to the Oregon border so it's probably easier to sidetrack by heading east out of Portland on I-84.</p>
<p>Reed is a great college for the right person. Seattle U and WWU, both good schools, are not really LAC-ish. Getting from Linfield and Willamette to Portland is not that hard, and both of these schools have great merit aid.</p>
<p>My daughter went to Reed. It is an excellent school but not for those not academically inclined. However, since you're going to be in Portland, it's probably worth a driveby. </p>
<p>I'm afraid I don't think much of UPS. Tacoma is kind of obnoxious (especially compared to Portland) and worse, none of the students I know who went there (four or five) managed to actually graduate. They all had nitpicking difficulties of the kind that other schools work out--flunked one course and were told to take a year off, that kind of thing.</p>
<p>I think Western WA University is excellent. Many members of my son's group of friends went there--they all graduated on time and got good jobs, too.</p>