Puget Sound, Willamette, Lewis and Clark

<p>All 3 are on D's list-haven't visited- can anyone share preferences or pros and cons of any one of the schools, positive, negative experiences. They all sound interesting on paper and visits are planned for the future. Thanks for any input.</p>

<p>We meet again Arizonamom! :) We'll be visiting Willamette and L&C over the weekend of January 20-23. Will let you know how it goes if that's not too late for you.</p>

<p>Can't wait to hear about your visits. You write great reviews and I always enjoy reading them. Some day I expect to read your guide book! She was accepted to Willamette already with a great merit award. They have had a couple of students call and chat with her, a great rep for our area and a call from the coach. Actually all of the 3 have been very pleasant and interactive.</p>

<p>Carolyn -</p>

<p>For your visit to Willamette: best pizza in Salem = Pietro's just off 1-5 on the Market Street exit, just west of the freeway. I recommend the Barmaid's Special w/mushrooms.</p>

<p>ArizonaMom -</p>

<p>I can't tell you all that much about Willamette, but I can tell you anything you want to know about the town of Salem. Used to live there.</p>

<p>Arizonamom - That's terrific news about Willamette!!! Tell her congratulations. Willamette is a great school - I know a long time faculty member there (in bio) and have heard very good things about it. Email me if you want to chat privately.</p>

<p>Coureur - Thanks for the Pizza tip. Since I will be travelling with two teenage girls, Pizza should hit the spot!</p>

<p>We visited all 3 and son is currently a freshman at Lewis and Clark. All three have a lot in common, but they also are different "flavors". </p>

<p>UPS is located at the top of a hill in Tacoma. It is in a residential area and the campus struck me as rather small but had a nice feel to it. There wasn't really anything that stood out for either me or my son. They do have an interesting housing option. The school owns about 60 houses. Groups of 4 students can apply for a house, but they have to have a theme of some kind and then offer something to the rest of the student population. For example, the Japan House hosted a Japanese night with food and music - that sort of thing. The students we saw walking around seemed friendly and "normal". Pretty much a white middle class population. Son visited an upper level class and an intro class and enjoyed the experience. The buildings seemed in nice shape with a good mixture of older and newer ones. Science labs, my son's interest area, were also up to date. He did not do an overnight although that option was available. My hubby is on the academic staff of a major research university and knows a chemistry grad student from UPS. He speaks very highly of the school. Hubby says student was very prepared for grad school.</p>

<p>The other 2 schools were on spring break when we visited so they were pretty empty. </p>

<p>Willamette is located in downtown Salem, right across the street from the state capitol. The campus is nice sized and has a stream running through it where students are traditionally thrown in on their birthdays. The campus also has a nice mixture of older and newer buildings, very nicely landscaped. Science labs here, are also very up to date. My sense is that students at Willamette are more into sports than at the other 2 schools. They seemed to have very nice sports facilities for a smaller school. The frat scene also has its biggest presence here of the 3 schools. </p>

<p>Lewis & Clark is located in an upper end residential area of Portland. The campus was originally a manor that was donated for a school. The admissions office is located in the manor house and all of the gardens and landscaping were left in tact. The campus is the most beautiful of the 3, built on the top and side of hill overlooking Portland and bordering a state park. There are several new buildings on the campus. Since it is in a residential area, there are no stores, or hang outs near by but they run a free shuttle downtown every hour. There are no fraternities. Sports are available, but I don't know how much they are supported by the students. L & C also has the most visible and active study abroad program of the 3 with about 2/3's of the students studying abroad at some point. </p>

<p>My sense is that students can get a fine education at any of these schools. Willamette is more sports - frat oriented, L & C more alternative, and I didn't really get a feel for identifying UPS. Ultimately, my son chose L & C for several reasons: 1) He is very much into outdoor activities and L & C had the most active Outdoor program called College Outdoors. They even have a full time person on staff to help run the program and train students in various skills needed for outdoor activities. 2) He liked the study abroad options that were available and is hoping to spend 2nd semester junior year in Australia and New Zealand studying the flora and fauna there. This progam also includes study of the Great Barrier Reef. 3) L & C gave him the best package of the 3 schools. </p>

<p>He has been very happy with his choice and has no regrets. He also reports that the other freshman he knows are also very pleased and he doesn't hear anyone complain about much of anything beyond the weather. Hope this helps! Enjoy your visits.</p>

<p>Where we are (almost local), folks tend to choose Pacific Lutheran over UPS. It's cheaper, and has more sports, but also because in many areas the faculty and facilities are considered superior. Both of my kids have done musical things at both schools, and found that to be the case. UPS is in a relatively upscale neighborhood (yes, Tacoma has them), but it is really a suburb of nowhere (though it is only 40 minutes to Seattle by car.) Most students tend to be from out-of-state, and relatively well-heeled, as financial aid is rather iffy. Very undiverse (like 2% African American, 3% Hispanic, 1% International). Freshman dorms are beautiful. They hoped at one time to be the Harvard of the Pacific Northwest, but things didn't turn out as planned. Good facilities, though. Lots of alcohol.</p>

<p>The feedback my S has gotten on UPS, from two kids he knows, was not very positive, but keep in mind this is third hand and anecdotal. First was a male who attended freshman year in 2002-03. He left after a year and transferred to U of Denver, where he is quite happy. Said nothing was happening in Tacoma, most kids left on the weekends, and that there was little to do on campus. The second was a young woman who attended as a freshman in 2003-2004. She never really made friends, perhaps because she was among those who typically left for the weekend. She also left after one year. To be fair, she was turned down by her ED choice (Whitman) and I think that UPS was never a school she was that enthusiastic about. I would suggest you ask specifically about what there is to do on campus, whether kids like/go into Tacoma, and whether it really empties out for weekends.</p>

<p>L & C is quite close to a wonderful park full of hiking trails. The campus is beautiful in a Northwest kind of way. Portland is a great town, and while L & C is in the burbs, it is just 10 minutes from downtown - a little more with traffic.</p>

<p>One thing to keep in mind about UPS is that housing is only guaranteed for the first two years. I have read they are planning to build more dorms but most kids seem to move out into apartments after sophomore year.</p>

<p>Wow as usual thank you for all the useful info. So far she only has an early action acceptance to Willamette and will hear about the others in April I believe so we will have time to visit. It is great to collect info in the meantime. Lewis and Clark sounds very interesting . The aid/merit will make an impact as well. I noticed Carolyn that you weren't visiting UPS only the other two. Is that because of some of the feedback above being typical.</p>

<p>arizonamom - I'm an Arizona mom also with a D who is applying to Lewis and Clark and Puget Sound! I'll be looking forward to Carolyn's report as well. I have an aquaintance whose daughter graduated from UPS a couple of years ago and now is living in Tacoma. She had a positive experience and especially raved about the professors--their expertise and their accessibility.<br>
Do you think our daughters could adapt to the weather? When it rains here, it is the lead story on the nightly news!</p>

<p>rbinaz
I am already sick of the weather frankly and it will be like this only icier till April. Kids can be more adaptable, but it does get fairly dreary. It was interesting to me however that my daughter didn't apply to any place sunnier, everything was in OR or WA and the western side of the mountains at that.
Some kids like the rain though even if ( especially?)they grew up in the desert.</p>

<p>Arizonamom - We aren't looking at UPS because of the housing question. Daughter wants a school with a high percentage of on-campus residents. But I think it's a great school.</p>

<p>My SoCal daughter would much prefer rain over snow. We don't get much of either around here. : )</p>

<p>Carolyn,</p>

<p>My SoCal daughter also loves the rain and applied to Lewis & Clark, Willamette, University of Oregon (where she has been accepted) and University of Washington just for the rain, I think! I will be interested in your opinions of Lewis & Clark and Willamette also because we won't be visiting until probably March.</p>

<p>momofonly -- I'm actually interested in applying to schools in Oregon precisely because of the weather! I use to live in Washington, but I moved to Arizona while I was in elementary school and have been here ever since. I think I love the rain... but then again I like a place with a nice blend of sun and rain. I guess I lived in the two extremes, with Washington being VERY rainy and Arizona being way too sunny. =/ Would Oregon be a nice blend, or is it still very rainy?</p>

<p>How is Reed college? I heard it is a very nice college for biology.</p>

<p>Portland has more extreme weather than Seattle, I rode the train from Seattle ( slushy rain) last Feb, b ut by the time I was walking around in Portland I was in my shirtsleeves.
My daughter is a bio major at Reed and she likes it very much, it is one of their biggest departments ( which is still rahter small)</p>

<p>emeraldkity4 - Does your daughter have an e-mail so I can ask her a few questions about Reed?</p>

<p>I will ask her but you can also get questions answered by checking the memories section of livejournal as well.
<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/community/reedlj/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.livejournal.com/community/reedlj/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I do worry about the rain but it is definitely better than snow for an Arizonian and if you have the mentality that you just do what you would do anyways and ignore the rain- bring dry clothes along to change into then you will do fine. I wonder how many students are that concerned about it and how it affects them. So far it has not seemed to be mentioned much, but maybe that is because those students that is really bothers just go elsewhere. Just how much does it rain ie part of most days, every other, all day for weeks?</p>

<p>first i want to air some misconceptions about Willamette, for I am now a freshman here. Willamette students care about sports just as much or as little as the other schools you mentioned. There is a high number of kids who love running, lifting, and doing intramurals, but besides that there is not much enthusiasm for organized sports. Second of all, in no way is the social aspect here ruled by Fraternities. They fit in really well and are not you're stereotypical frats. Only one out of five even lets alcohol in their house.
-Salem is not all that its advertised to be.
-great opportunities for internships (i have one for next semester)
-professors care about students and how they do
-very small classes</p>

<p>...Also i disagree with people picking plu over ups. I visited both and ups has vastly superior facilities, academics, and a far more attractive campus in a fairly nice area of tacoma. plu is in a bad area, campus is ugly, and academics are sub par</p>