<p>My DD just graduated from Berkeley and my other DD just finished a year at Whitworth, feel free to ask me any questions I can pass on to the girls or answer from my perspective. I can say that Whitworth DD is loving the small school experience and by the end of her first term she knew more professors well than the Berlkeley senior, who knew more profs well that many of her friends.</p>
<p>Somemom, Thanks I will probably have a few questions after the visit today. That is precisely why we are visiting here today. My S is starting Berkeley this fall, and my D has said she did not want to consider any of the UCs because she felt they were too big and impersonal.</p>
<p>Am posting the trip on a separate thread here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/741968-pacific-northwest-college-road-trip.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/741968-pacific-northwest-college-road-trip.html</a></p>
<p>wish us luck! :)</p>
<p>Whitman is an excellent school – and increasingly challenging to enter. It is a LONG way from the western WA schools mentioned (about five to six hours driving from Walla Walla to Olympia). </p>
<p>We have local teens who have been very happy at U Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran and at Seattle U. Evergreen either grabs a kid or not. They seem to know within an hour.</p>
<p>Funny you should say that about Evergreen and quick feelings about it. I almost immediately loved the place but my S regrettably did not, for reasons he can’t adequately explain. As to Willamette, he liked the campus but really disliked the feel of Salem. Had I driven directly to the campus instead of meandering down from Portland on a rural route and getting somewhat lost in a run-down part of town, I think things would have gone better. Tough to shake those initial gut feelings – he won’t let his go.</p>
<p>If there is anybody thinking big state school in the Pacific NW, I would weigh in that University of Oregon, which is not as highly ranked as University of Washington, and is in USNWR rankings more commonly lumped with Washington State, produces some really well educated and versatile people out of the liberal arts and business schools. </p>
<p>I hire and mentor many younger people and the UO grads are head and shoulders above UW and WSU in terms of writing, speaking, improvising. The UW grad is who you want to solve a technical problem or manage some really nasty Excel plug in–but the UO grad will present his data and persuade senior management on some course of action.</p>
<p>I do NOT know why this is true, but I have seen it over and over and several colleagues have done as well… One of my mentors has a theory (she is a Duck) that UO is such an obscure school the grads are willing to be versatile and generally join an organization at a fairly low level, so they learn the nuts and bolts of the business.</p>
<p>S might have considered the PNW, but a friend went there just recently on a family trip and suffered from severe allergies!! S is also ha allergies…never thought we’d have to consider that!</p>
<p>^ this was an unusually bad year for allergy sufferers in the PNW, not really typical I do not think.</p>
<p>Illinois Dad, </p>
<p>It is hard to shake that feeling. As the saying goes, “you only get one chance to make a first impression” It was the same way with my S on a college visit to Harvey Mudd, the guide started off on the wrong foot, and it was no go for my son from that point onward.</p>