STUCK: Willamette or U Redlands?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi everyone. I am an senior in high school from the Bay Area who has been admitted to both Willamette U in Salem, Orgeon, and U Redlands, in Redlands, CA (SoCal). These schools are run very similarly (small student body, small student to teacher ratio) but their location/weather/student body are very different. I visited both schools and fell equally in love............I just don't know what to do, and no adults or fellow students have provided any good advice to me!</p>

<p>I want to major in Political Science, and I want to go to law school. I think I want to transfer to USC or NYU after my sophomore year, but we will see. I got a little bit more merit aid at Redlands than Willamette, but Willamette has a better average ranking....almost 100 higher on the Forbes list of schools than Redlands.
I found that Redlands students were much more laid-back and less hipster than Willamette. But...Willamette has a wonderful polisci program, and is across the street from State buildings where students get internships. But it's so cold in Oregon!</p>

<p>Any advice at all would be great. I love honest POVs so pros and cons both welcome. thanks.</p>

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<p>Also- I have talked to students from my school who are admitted at both WU and UR, and they all have a lot of pride for their schools. Talk about, CONFLICTED!! 8-| </p>

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<p>I don’t know how to help you with that, but Redlands has a semester in DC program.</p>

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<p>While Redlands is definitely warmer Salem OR has similar temps as the Bay area (though colder in the winter dead of night). I know graduates of both schools and am familiar with both locations. My personal choice would be Willamette. </p>

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<p>Erin’s Dad: Salem has similar temperatures to the Bay Area, really! I am not sure of if it actually rains that much there or if it’s just overcast.
Still not sure which to pick.</p>

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<p>Any help is appreciated!! </p>

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<p>My husband and I went to Willamette (and he graduated from the law school) and know many people who have had great experiences at Redlands as well. Because of Willamette’s law school and across-the-street access to the Supreme Court, the state capitol, and the attorney general’s office, there are many, many benefits for anyone considering the legal profession. I liked the fact that pre-law students majored in philosophy, economics, music, politics, rhetoric…and did not narrow themselves too soon. It does not get very cold (some winters it snows once or twice), but it’s fun and beautiful when it does :slight_smile: <a href=“https://willamette.edu/dept/comm/wu_media/wallpaper/waller_snow_1920x1080.jpg”>https://willamette.edu/dept/comm/wu_media/wallpaper/waller_snow_1920x1080.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks @meabea I really really appreciate your feedback! Did you ever feel isolated at Willamette? I am from San Francisco so I am used to being in a city, and I guess I’m afraid of being in a bubble. Also, from what you remember, was it easy to get an internship at the capitol/other facilities, or was it highly competitive? I guess another concern of mine is that I keep thinking I’ll be able to get an internship no problem, when really, all the politics majors may be fighting for one spot…</p>

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<p>Any Redlands alum able to speak about their experiences?</p>

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<p>It isn’t bad being in a bubble. It creates an active campus community. And you are already used to a city so you will get a different experience. My daughter is from SF too and did go to school in a small city but her college on the hill was quite a bubble itself which was great. I’d go to Willamette. You can work in the city in the summers if you want. Redlands is no prize location itself.</p>

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<p>@BrownParent‌ Thanks! For redlands I figured I could always drive to Los Angeles for internship availability. I think one of my concerns is simply, is it better to go to Willamette to get internship experience and what not (if possible at all) and then transfer to USC/NYU, or get [tentatively] better grades at Redlands and then transfer with a [tentatively…] higher GPA? Rather rhetorical, but general advice would be nice.</p>

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<p>I am all for going for the best education and letting the chips fall where they may. Maybe an exception for pre-medical students where biology is biology. But other than that case, I am all for the best situation for yourself academically, given the money working out okay. Give your brain the best workout it can handle. And you might not want to transfer. You should be well positioned for law school there. (However in your Jr year, please do yourself a favor and investigate prospects for going into debt for that.)</p>

<p>You could not drive to LA for an internship it is too far. You could drive for interviews. But you would have to relocate for internships. I guess it would be easier to arrange. But it will be hard to get an internship after freshman year. So if you are transferring what is the point?</p>

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<p>@BrownParent‌ Ah I see. While the reasoning may be because I received slightly more merit at Redlands, my parents (who are paying for my tuition and I thank my lucky stars) for some reason are biased against WU. They do not necessarily see WU as a much better school than UoR–but then again, maybe just because they want to save a tiny bit of money. I keep alternating between your perspective of best edu possible, and a perspective consisting more of “go-where-I-think-I-will-thrive-socially”.</p>

<p>I am definitely not keen on staying at such a small school (either WU or UoR) for 4 years–I know that after 2, I will become really tired of it all. NYU and USC were my dream schools this year but my high school is extremely competitive and I just couldn’t sustain the GPA I wanted/needed to get into them throughout high school, but I do think I will ultimately become more satisfied with both my quality of education and environments if and when I transfer.</p>

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<p>Ok whatever then. Why’d you ask? Seriously I have a cousins kid at Redlands and I hear he is liking it. You didn’t go to Lowell did you?</p>

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<p>@BrownParent‌ I see. No, I go to a high school in the Silicon Valley.</p>

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<p>Willamette is an hour and a half train ride from Portland which is IMO a far superior city to SF and near a pretty quaint part of Salem. You’ll have the option of escaping to Portland for the day but will spend most of your time in a college community.</p>

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<p>Bumping just to see if there’s any U Redlands reviews</p>

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<p>I never heard of anyone at Willamette who was unable to get a desirable internship. The ratio of legislators at the Capitol to students across the street who want internships is high, and that doesn’t count other agencies, etc. I don’t remember competitiveness among students, and have not heard of it from more recent grads; the resources and opportunities are there for everyone, and Northwesterners are generally not interested in pretensions or status-seeking; showing off about brains or money or family connections can annoy people here. The coast, the ski runs and Portland’s music and food scene are all within an hour to 90 minutes, when you’re ready to leave the bubble. But the art building may have a ghost violinist, or so they say :)</p>

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<p>Willamette is stronger academically than URedlands and offers more opportunities for your major.
Beware that transfers don’t really get financial aid beside the federal loans and, sometimes, the scraps leftover from the freshmen in terms of grants. (Merit may not even be available and, when it is, it typically is half what is offfered freshmen, at best.)
If the schools seem too small to you, investigate the possibility to study “away” (in an American city, for instance the DC semester) for one semester and to study abroad for one semester for your chosen major (ie., any program linking political science and language study in another country, for instance?) If you spend Spring sophomore year plus one semester junior year away from campus, senior year will come very fast, especially with job hunting etc.</p>

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<p>Hi all,
Thanks so much for the advice. Some people requested that I do a follow-up with what I decided on and how I came to my choice. After begging for advice on this thread, nagging current college students who go to both schools, and asking my friends about their thoughts, I decided it would be best to ask an adult. I first spoke to one of my teachers at school who I trust and call a dear friend. He believed both schools would be a good fit, but since he had gone to law school (Stanford, nonetheless) he advised that Willamette was a better choice for the path I have in mind, which is to pursue a career in corporate law. Something he also mentioned was that if you have the drive to be successful, you will be successful no matter where you go–it’s just a matter of how well you take on opportunities at hand. That really stuck with me. We then joked around and actually flipped coins, and I was supposed to “call out” whichever school I felt I wanted to go to, deep down. Of course, this strategy didn’t work, haha!
That same evening I called my college counselor who helped me fill out my college applications/supplemental essays/etc. I told him about my plan to transfer to USC or NYU sophomore to junior year, and his advice was to go to Redlands for the “conceivably” better GPA, since I will be more focused on my studies if I’m not competing for a spot in an internship. The more I spoke to him, the more I realized how biased I was being towards Redlands, but hadn’t realize it all along. Everyone who I spoke to about college recommended Willamette because it is a [slightly] better/more recognizable school, but the truth is (or so I think it is) I just wanted someone to talk me out of it and justify Redlands, which my college counselor did.
After speaking to my counselor, I started thinking a lot about picking a school (Of course, this was on April 29th, so I was obviously already thinking a lot about picking!) I browsed the admit pages for both schools on Facebook and the more I looked at Willamette’s, the less interested I was in the student body. Three students from my current high school are planning on attending Willamette. They are wonderful and interesting people, but I started to think to myself: I’ve gone to school with these three students for four years, some of which had been in classes with me before, and yet I’ve never been friends with any of them. I am a relatively outgoing and friendly person, so it struck me as odd. If the student body at WU is truly made up of students similar to these, then I figured I would be miserable. The Redlands page, however, was filled with people who had the same interests as me, who had similar personalities to me, and it’s kind of unexplainable, but I knew in that moment that Redlands was where I wanted to go. Another aspect that played a tiny role in picking a college was the weather in my area. A few Fridays ago, it was pouring rain, and I kept tricking myself into thinking that if I had to live under these conditions that I would be okay with it–especially with the fact that there was a drought this year, I forgot if I even liked rain. I realized I don’t, at all. The following week, it was super hot, around 85-90 degrees, and I absolutely loved it.
I thought that after “committing” to a college that I would maybe regret not going to the alternative school, but everyone told me that wouldn’t, and to my surprise, it didn’t at all. I do believe that WU is a wonderful, talent-filled school, but it is simply not for me, and I am pleased to say I am extremely happy and satisfied with my choice. I think it is also worth noting that I talked to three Redlands admits in the group who were also contemplating WU or Redlands, and the fact that we all picked the same school kind of tells me that I made the right choice, for some reason. Either way, nothing could persuade me to change my mind.</p>

<p>I do appreciate the help from everyone in this thread, and I hope that if a conflicted student is reading this thread, that my story helps you as well. Thank you so much! Can’t wait to be a Class of 2018 Bulldog!</p>