<p>I do know that PLU is a school that offers merit aid to National Merit Finalists, if that applies.</p>
<p>We have a friend who is in her 2nd year at Seattle Pacific. She loves everything about it. Lots to do on the weekend that doesn't include drinking. I would describe this girl as a strong christian but not overly conservative. </p>
<p>My son is considering the PNW as well. I had heard that Linfield was conservative, is that correct?</p>
<p>SPU is affiliated with our church (Free Methodist -- just like regular Methodists with fewer calories), so I know a number of folks that have gone there. They all loved it. If they had a bigger engineeering program my son would be applying there.</p>
<p>D is also a freshman at Willamette. Aside from missing friends at home (we live in the southwest) she has adjusted quite well. The weather is another issue for someone from the desert. Her roommate is from Japan (seems to be something Willamette does - putting first year freshman with Japanese students from TIUA) which didn't work out so great, but she has made lots of friends and I can see how much she has grown even thought she's 1600 miles away. She just wrote back about a hunger banquet that was held there. Very moving from what she reported. There always seems to be something going on and Salem is a great city. Oh, yeah, the train is noisy, too</p>
<p>If you aren't from seattle, Seattle U. is a Jesuit school and v. underrated if the quality of the grads we deal with is representative. Gonzaga in Spokane is also excellent--another Jesuit school.</p>
<p>My mom went to University of Portland a long time ago and every year she values her experience there more--to the point that she's bugging my daughter to go there. Mom is not Catholic at all and in fact is a little suspicious of the Catholics, but she thought UP was terrific.</p>
<p>I know one recent grad and one current student at UPS and both have only positive things to say about the school. I would like to also recommend looking into Gonzaga, especially if you S is not looking for left leaning schools. Another school to consider is Carroll College (strong in the sciences) in Montana. They give a lot of merit $$ to bright students. The D of a friend went to Carroll because it was cheaper than paying in-state tuition at UW. Ds 3rd grade teachers daughter just graduated from Whitworth and is now in law school at Gonzaga. She absolutely loved Whitworth.</p>
<p>Re: the suggestions of Gonzaga and Seattle U - what we've been told by other parents is that most aid at these schools is reserved for Catholic students. Is that true? Is there a way to tell? When you read the published "average aid" there's no way to know about the religious backround of the recipient....</p>
<p>Catholic schools, especially Jesuit schools, are heavily oriented toward social justice and so aid based on genuine need is the focus. There may be some gapping for middle income students in favor of the truly needy.</p>
<p>Mom was a divorced housewife living on child support and University of Portland got her through a nursing degree. They are not Jesuit, but you get the idea.</p>
<p>The way it was expressed to me by some catholic parents is that "a great scholarship is payback for all that catholic school tuition we've been paying all these years".
Being a public school protestant, I have no way of judging the truth of the statement, but it made my S very reluctant to apply, as financial aid is an important consideration in his final choice.</p>
<p>I just don't think that's true. Maybe they get aid because they have not been saving all those years due to paying tuition, and because the aid formulas take into account private school tuition for younger kids.</p>
<p>If you have two or three kids in Catholic high school and one goes to college, your contribution factors in the fact that you have tuition obligations to the youngers, so it's kind of like having multiple kids in college. </p>
<p>If you have genuine need, you'll get aid. Some schools do not meet 100% of demonstrated need, so if that is a concern you need to look at each school's website to see what their "average percentage of need met" figure looks like.</p>
<p>I also have heard anecdotes about kids with high test scores and grades getting merit aid. When we went to the Santa Clara presentation, they discussed some of their merit awards.</p>
<p>The girl I know at Gonzaga is on aid, but she went to public high school ( although as her family is Hispanic- I will make an assumption she is Catholic someplace)
She does really like it though</p>
<p>I really like hearing more about the Northwest colleges.
Since so many kids from both Ds high schools ended up on the east coast or even in the midwest or south, living in Seattle- it seems like many automatically discount attending less than 500 miles from home.</p>
<p>And while I appreciate that perspective- and I agree college is a time to get a new perspective- I also don't think you have to go 3000 miles to do so.</p>
<p>"My son is considering the PNW as well. I had heard that Linfield was conservative, is that correct? "</p>
<p>I would say no more or less than most other college campus in America. They do have some conservative kids, but they also have some liberal kids to balance out the school internet forum. </p>
<p>Mine has loved just about every minute of his college experience there. He has been able to take part in many different things. Some of these things we never had an idea he'd be involved in. I think the big advantage to Linfield is because of it's size there's alot of oportunity to try different things. They are good about encouraging students to enjoy everything they have to offer.</p>
<p>I don't know about Gonzaga, but my D listed "none" under religious preference on her U of Portland application and was offered $14,000 per year merit aid for next year. Now she regrets refusing to get out of the car when we visited.</p>
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Now she regrets refusing to get out of the car when we visited.
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<p>Hah! It's not just boys who are clueless!</p>
<p>We visited both UPS and PLU. My son vastly preferred UPS. The neighborhood surrounding UPS was much nicer than the neighborhood around PLU. The dorms, library, and music practice rooms appeared to have been more recently updated and in better repair. The student union building at UPS also was much nicer. We had meals at both schools, and even I thought the food at UPS was better (food isn't a deal breaker, but to him, it means a lot). He also liked that the UPS students were from a broader geographic area (we're not from Washington), he was more impressed with the classes he sat in on, and was very impressed with the music program.</p>