Right now Whitman College is at the top of my list. I am a junior in high school, 3.8 UW GPA, 4.3 W GPA, decent extra curriculars and 100+ volunteer hours. The rural setting and strong biology program really appeal to me, as well as the outstanding outdoors program. However I do have some concerns. Is there a strong lack of diversity (just a bunch of rich entitled white kids)? I have heard that this can be the case at private schools. And also, money is a huge limiting factor, and Whitman’s sticker price is extremely far and above my price range. How good is the financial aid? Also, any general information on the social atmosphere, academics, the town of Walla Walla, the Semester in the West Program, etc is appreciated! Thanks 
markowpolo, I’ve hoped that a current student would show up to answer your questions, but they don’t plug into CC very often. Here is a link to an older thread that addresses some of your questions: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/whitman-college/1480265-current-sophomore-if-anyone-has-any-questions-id-love-to-answer-them.html#latest
I must admit that your question about diversity followed by the characterization, “just a bunch of rich entitled white kids”, made me pause. Yes, Whitman has mostly white students and has students from affluent families, as many other liberal arts colleges do, and there are historical reasons for that. The liberal arts educational model is pretty specific, here is a good description I found:
"What makes a liberal arts college is the philosophy of education. That’s all. A liberal arts college believes that the purpose of education is to make you a well educated and well rounded citizen. To that end, they tend to require a common core of general education courses of all students.
Liberal arts colleges tend to offer bachelor’s degrees and maybe a few master’s (usually in education). They don’t offer as many graduate degrees as do the research universities. Because that’s not their purpose - their purpose is to pass on knowledge. They tend to be much smaller than the regional master’s or research universities. Classes are smaller and are almost always taught by a professor and not a graduate assistant."
This means that liberal arts colleges are expensive to operate because they can’t save money by paying graduate students to teach the undergraduates, and they have to maintain high quality programs with the tuition dollars of a small number of students and a relatively small pool of alumni donors. This pushes up the tuition bill, often to levels that shut out those with lower incomes, and in this country there is still a tendency for the affluent to be white. Many liberal arts schools, including Whitman, have seen the value of bringing more racial and socioeconomic diversity to their campuses and have set about trying to do so. Whitman has, in fact, worked pretty hard to accomplish it. They launched a fund raising campaign that has gone on for several years, one of the objectives is to fund more low income students and students of color, so now is probably a very good time to apply for need based financial aid. We could have never afforded to send our son there without the generous merit aid he received.
I think Whitman suffers in this regard because of it’s location. Lower income students not only have to consider tuition costs, but travel costs as well. While Whitman is in a great location, it’s not near a transportation hub, so a trip there can involve multiple legs to the journey, adding to the cost of attendance. Low cost methods can be found (like taking buses or hitching rides with classmates who drive and live near hubs), but these ways often aren’t evident at first.
The word in your description that keeps bothering me is “entitled”. I can’t think of any of my son’s friends who would fit that description, maybe he just didn’t hang around with people who felt that way. The Whitties I know are quick to help others out, are concerned with the state of the planet and the human race, and are genuinely nice.
I didn’t mean my comment to be offensive toward Whitties, sorry if it came off that way! Just as a generalization I have heard from friends and teachers that private schools can seem to attract that certain demographic. Thank you for your insight!
Your question was legitimate and thought provoking. When my son was searching for colleges he gravitated to the small LACs because of the whole educational philosophy, the small classes and the close-knit communities. We live in a rural area and aren’t wealthy, but we are white. He found several where he felt he would not fit in and, interestingly, sometimes it was because the students seemed very status conscious, and sometimes it was because they were (what my son considered to be) too little or too overly academically competitive. Each of the small private schools has its own personality, your friends and teachers may be limiting your horizons by making sweeping generalizations. Some of the higher ranked LACS have the most diversity because their huge endowments allow them to offer more need based aid and several of them are generous with it. You’re wise to be asking these questions. Get in touch with one of Whitman’s admission representatives, they are really helpful and can answer many of your questions.They are also very interested in increasing campus diversity.
I am planning a visit this summer to Whitman and am confident it will give me a better feel for the small LAC environment, considering I have never visited one before. Thank you for your in depth and thoughtful responses!
You’re welcome, markowpolo. I’m glad to hear that you’ll be able to visit. When we were looking for schools I read a great book that made a very good case for finding a college that fits YOU, and how to do that, I highly recommend “Looking Beyond the Ivy League” by Loren Pope. Good luck with your college search!
I have to say, visiting Whitman in the summer won’t give you a feel for its true environment. There are no summer courses, so most students leave town. It’s a beautiful campus, but it’s very, very quiet in the summer.
I’m an alumna, and I have one kid there now, and another heading there in the fall. We are not at all a well-off family, but none of us has felt out of place. I think many students are from privileged backgrounds–at least according to PNW and CA standards–but don’t really exhibit the sort of entitled attitudes you might find elsewhere. There aren’t many ways to exhibit that attitude: all first- and second-year students live in dorms with board plans, there is no need for a car on campus, there aren’t many expensive activities to engage in or places to spend money.
We love the school but know that it is not right for everyone.
I’ll try to answer any other questions you might have (and can ask the kid in residence currently).
I want to echo what @KnearSeattle said about a summer visit not being very helpful. When we visited Whitman, it was the students, the classes, the professors and the general vibe that made my daughter really like the college. In the summer, without the students, it’s just another (albeit very pretty) college campus. I realize you may not be able to visit during the year, but if you can I suggest it. Also, meeting the students may help to answer your questions better than we here can.
Thank you both for your responses! I would love to try and visit during the school year, but with my parents work schedule and sports its not entirely possible
My kid walks to the co-op market in town with his bros and buys food, and cooks it up in their house/apartment. He feels safe jogging in town at night for the most part, although some areas should be avoided. There are occasional petty thieving events because people don’t lock things up. Party atmosphere is chill and amiable. The school work can be white-knuckle intense at times but the brothers band together. A lot of gorging on dining service offerings due to homesickness, and also much dining out with classmates in local restaurants. A lovely group of classmates, indeed, these Whitties. The only major drawback is it can be really difficult to travel to if you live outside the PNW/West Coast.
Hey dude I’m currently in my second year here at Whitman and I’ll try to give you a completely unbiased report on it
Academically I think you’re fine as long as your sat or act is about a 1800 or 27
As for diversity, ethnic wise it’s better than most with there actually being a large population of Asians but like any other liberal art school the majority of students are white
Socioeconomic status wise there is close to no diversity… As someone who relies on need based financial aid this is big for me as most kids I talk to come from a rich family and private schools where as I come from a poor family and a dangerous public school… Needless to say it was hard to relate to people… I’m actually still too embarrassed to tell people about my financial issues…
The party scene is crazy… If you don’t like partying your freshman year, you will be left in the cold
This being said 99% of the people here love it and it’s considered one of the happiest colleges in the nation.
School wise, the science department is incredible and you will get your money’s worth with the quality of professors.
Beware encounters though. It’s a required general Ed class everyone has to take NO MATTER WHAT… There’s no testing out of it and it’s a pain in the neck
However, it is also quite eye opening and good for getting an open mind to things.
MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Financial aid is okay, you can probably talk your way into just enough money to attend… For the first year
After that first year, the tuition rises and your scholarship goes down… Not very much, but not very little either… the problem with financial aid is that they do it year to year instead of giving you a set amount for 4 years
This could either be really bad or really good… Most people I’ve spoken to have had it bad though…
Anyways… Tl;dr
Your academics are fine to get in
Ethnic diversity= 7/10
Socioeconomic diversity= 2/10
Academic experience= 9/10
Social aspect= either 10/10 or 1/10 there’s no in between
(Most likely 10/10 tho)
Financial aid= 5.5/10
Ugradstdnt, Your post underscores the weaknesses in the current methods of funding college educations, especially in private institutions. While I know that Whitman has been working very hard to increase it’s endowment, with one of the expressed purposes being to increase socioeconomic diversity, it still depends on tuition dollars to operate, so there are plenty of people attending whose parents can pay full tuition. Judging from my son’s experience (we are low/middle income and rural) there are probably more people in your situation than you realize. Please don’t be embarrassed and try not to psyche yourself out. You are there because Whitman feels confident that you can succeed there, and it sounds to me like you are. You are as intelligent as all the other Whitties, and that’s the most important part. If you’re honest and upfront about you financial constraints, I think you’ll find your classmates being more sensitive to your situation, give them the opportunity to broaden their horizons too.
The only thing that I’d like to comment further on is your assessment of “scholarship” money. What you’re referring to are need based grants, and their size is reevaluated by the school after reviewing the FAFSA and CSS profiles your family fills out each year. So that means any changes in family income will create a change in the assessment of need, and yes, it is infuriating and nerve racking, and another aspect of college tuition that can penalize and discourage attendance by lower income students. This is the system used widely by many institutions. Im listening attentively to all the presidential candidates plans for reducing tuitions and the debt burdens that students endure, all college students should become engaged in this conversation and vote!
Just to clarify, merit scholarships are different. They are awarded to students based on academic achievement, or some other accomplishment that the college values. Their value is set and remains the same for all four years in most cases.
I hope you have a great sophomore year, and thanks for your candid assessment.
Just a quick rebuttal to the “party scene” comments that Ugradstnt brings up. My daughter is a junior at Whitman and loves it there, but she has never been into the crazy party scene. From what I hear it is mostly driven by the fraternities. She tried going to a couple of the frat parties as a freshman, but didn’t really enjoy them much. She has made really good friends with whom she has dinners, goes to concerts, goes hiking and camping and occasionally parties. She seems incredibly busy all the time. There are plenty of kids who prefer activities not related to the weekend party scene and they seem to have a great time as well. Plus there is a lot of studying that gets in the way of too much frivolity
tleibman, I appreciate your comments. My daughter toured Whitman yesterday and fell in love with it! We live in the Northeast, so this was a big trip. She hasn’t been interested in colleges with a big Greek scene, so I was wondering how this would work out. She would rather be backpacking! Your comments were very reassuring.
tliebman’s post is reassuring!
sailingdad, the Greeks do a lot of philanthropy on campus and in Walla Walla, so there is a useful purpose for them. There are parties at the frats on weekends, but all the frat houses are on one corner, a corner that can easily be avoided on a Saturday night. As tliebman said, there are plenty of people who do avoid them. My son did join a fraternity and probably killed a few brain cells, but he also held some terrific leadership positions. By junior year, he too stopped going to the parties. He confessed that the house leadership avoided having the national overseers visit because nobody could remember what rites and rituals were suppose to be performed, I just love that. There was also a big rivalry between the houses for which had the highest cumulative GPA each semester.
Forgive me, tleibman, I switch my i’s an e’s all over the place. Spellcheck wasn’t watching over me this time.