Regular Decision

Colleges and Universities A-Z Whitman College
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<p>This forum seems like a great opportunity for candid and informed feedback so I thought I’d try my luck here. </p>

<p>My S got accepted to Whitman and we are struggling with how to ‘help’ him find the tools make an informed choice. He has taken an unconventional route of being admitted to Whitman (great liberal arts school) and Cal Poly and Santa Clara schools where he has been accepted for direct admit to their Bioengineering programs. </p>

<p>Now the obvious suggestion would be - does he want to go into engineering or some other science field? That would either encourage or negate Whitman. Unfortunately, this won’t help in his case as I’m convinced he’s just not sure. </p>

<p>What would you all recommend if this were your child?</p>

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<p>First of all, congratulations to your S for having such a high quality dilemma, all three are great schools. Our S really had no idea what he wanted to study, although he kept saying Environmental Studies, thus a liberal arts college seemed like an ideal way to find out. He’s investigated several academic areas and has fallen in love with geology, nobody saw that coming. </p>

<p>I’d say that to go to Cal Poly (I’m assuming SLO) your son should be pretty darn sure he wants bioengineering because it’s REALLY difficult to change majors there. I imagine it would be easier to change at Santa Clara if he wanted to. At Whitman he’d major in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology (BBMB) which I understand is a strong department, at least according to my S. I’m not quite sure how BBMB and bioengineering are alike and/or different.</p>

<p>Certainly, the life at Santa Clara and Whitman would be quite different experiences. We have friends whose twin daughters attend Santa Clara, and are having good experiences, but a lot of people leave the campus on weekends. Santa Cruz and San Francisco are frequent destinations, and many students are from the Bay Area and they go home a lot. That can be a plus or a minus. At Whitman people are around campus and the immediate area all the time so a very close knit camaraderie develops. Walla Walla is great little town and you can walk or ride a bike to do whatever you need to do. There is all kinds of shopping within walking distance.</p>

<p>There are kids who truly know exactly what they want to study right out of the gate, and if he’s really sure bioengineering is it, then Cal Poly may well be the best choice. But if there’s any doubt and he’d like a little room to try a few things out then I’d suggest one of the other two. Has he visited all of them?</p>

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<p>I am an international student. When I email the admission officer, the notification will be earliest this week. But I see that many of you have got decision. Don’t they notify at the same time? I am really worried and they did not provide me username and password to log in portal address.</p>

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<p>Thank you bopambo. The difficulty transferring majors led us to our advice as well with regards to Cal Poly, so I think that one may be out. We were also concerned that the size of the school would not be a good fit and the potential impact that budget cuts would have on public education. </p>

<p>You do bring out excellent points with regards to weekends that we hadn’t considered. Quite frankly, we visited Whitman last year (sadly, school was out) but he loved the town and enjoyed the people on campus that he did meet.</p>

<p>On a related note, is it true that most students are pre-med/pre-law at Whitman? Any personal experiences with the 3-2 engineering program?</p>

<p>We are planning visits and have Whitman on our calendar for the 14th then San Jose on the 15th. I suspect that a deeper dive will provide him better insight.</p>

<p>Thank you again for your feedback!</p>

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<p>Collegemomnewbie: Well, I imagine some people want to be doctors and lawyers but it is a liberal arts college so there aren’t preprofessional tracks. If you want to be a doctor, then you’d probably stay with biology, but from what I understand you can have any kind undergraduate degree and get into medical school. I did see Whitman’s accelerated law program with Columbia, and there are 3-2 programs in engineering and computer science, but we have no personal experience with them. Anecdotally, I’ve read posters who say that there have been students who were happy and successful with that option.</p>

<p>To say that most students are pre-med or pre-law isn’t accurate, there’s a very healthy mix of majors and aspirations. That’s probably another big difference between Whitman and Santa Clara, Santa Clara is much more preprofessional. Whitman is a true liberal arts college where the goal is to teach students to love academic exploration, to think critically and to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing. To that end, classes are small and professors are very accessible. </p>

<p>I’m really glad that you’ll get to take another look at Whitman while the students are on campus, any chance he can spend the night? Whitman’s greatest attribute are the people, they are a wonderful mix of bright talented students and professors who have a zest for life and create lasting bonds with each other. An accepted students’ day will be good, but an overnight in a dorm would be even better.</p>

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<p>Accepted! Congrats to all.</p>

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<p>Congratulations musisat, have you gone to Whitman College Class of 2016 on facebook? That’s where all the accepted students are hanging out. </p>

<p>Collegemomnewbie: I just saw that overnights aren’t an option for accepted students day, sorry to have tried to lead you astray. Sounds like a great event though. Best wishes.</p>

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<p>My daughter did the 3-2 Engineering program at Whitman. She is at Columbia University now.</p>

<p>There is detailed information on the Whitman website about the 3-2 program. The Columbia website information on their 3-2 was invaluable and very specific. You must follow this exactly.</p>

<p>Some additional information that may be helpful;</p>

<p>You have to be committed to the 3-2 program from the start in order to complete the requirements in 3 years. </p>

<p>You really do need to maintain the 3.0 average. It’s very specific for Columbia. Two separate minimum GPA’s are required …3.0 on required math and physics courses and 3.0 overall.</p>

<p>There is a dedicated 3-2 adviser at Whitman who will help review your class selection to be sure you’re on track. You really need to plan ahead. My daughter planned all three years before she selected her first semester courses. She stuck to the plan and completed all the requirements. </p>

<p>My daughter had to have a different advisor because she was a varsity athlete, but the 3-2 advisor was available to her as well.</p>

<p>There isn’t much discretion in course selection…really only the liberal arts courses.</p>

<p>My daughter was lucky to have 4 AP courses credited at Whitman…big help for completing the requirements. </p>

<p>The Whitman 3-2 advisor told my daughter that Columbia admissions people tell him that they like the Whitman kids…that the Whitman kids have been very well prepared and are successful at Columbia. My daughter’s experience backs this up.</p>

<p>Columbia is very specific…only takes kids into engineering…no physics majors for example. </p>

<p>Whitman says they have 3-2 Engineering programs with Caltech, Columbia, University of Washington, Washington University in St. Louis, and Duke. I couldn’t find anything on Duke’s website about the program and when my daughter inquired about University of Washington, she was told that no one has applied in so long they weren’t totally sure of the exact requirements. The advisor also said he couldn’t recall anyone applying to Caltech in a long time either. </p>

<p>I got the feeling that almost all the engineering kids are going to Columbia.</p>

<p>There was an informational session on the 3-2 engineering program during orientation week for entering freshmen. It was useful, but not comprehensive. They actually had 2 sessions back to back and about 60 entering freshmen attended. In the end three kids in that class finished the 3-2 program…all three are at Columbia. The advisor said that about three each year is the typical number of kids who complete the 3-2 program.</p>

<p>My daughter is a skier, so Duke, Caltech, and Washington University in St. Louis weren’t ever really in her plan.</p>

<p>She will receive 2 degrees. A BA from Whitman and a BS from Columbia. Whitman lets the kids walk with their choice of graduating class. 3 choices…After the 3rd year, with their incoming freshmen class, or after they finish at Columbia. They only actually get the degree after they finish their 2 years at Columbia. My daughter is walking this spring with her incoming class at Whitman.</p>

<p>She chose Whitman and the 3-2 program because she knew she wanted to be an engineer and Whitman’s ski team competed at the Division I level. There aren’t many, if any, good engineering schools that have that level of competition.</p>

<p>She had a great three years at Whitman and was torn about leaving her friends for senior year, but she has made good friends at Columbia this year and is very happy there. She is lucky to have two very different college experiences…small school in a remote small city and medium size college in New York City. </p>

<p>As a parent, I really liked Walla Walla and Whitman. The kids I got to know were down to earth, friendly, polite, and kind.</p>