This thread is pretty quiet, so I wanted to add an update on my daughter’s experience at Puget Sound. Here’s the post from last spring where I summarized my daughter’s background, college application results, and reasons for choosing Puget Sound:
One semester in, she is very happy at Puget Sound. The week-long orientation in August was excellent. Students chose a 3-day option as part of orientation; my daughter chose a backpacking trip and had a lot of fun and made some great friends.
Her classes were good. Three were excellent and one was fine. All her classes were small (10-24 students) and she got to know the professors very well. Her chemistry and biology classes were great and both professors invited her to get involved with their research.
She has a faculty advisor (her chemistry prof) and a student advisor, and she met with both before registering for the spring semester. The freshmen register last, but she was able to get a good schedule for the spring; she got all the classes she wanted, just not at all her preferred times. (8am chem instead of 10am, etc.)
She is in the wind ensemble this year and loves it; she may add orchestra next year too, but wanted to start with just one ensemble. She has a music scholarship, so she also gets a private lesson each week. She worked on a solo with her private teacher that she then performed in front of a jury at the end of the term, which was a great experience. Puget Sound has an excellent music program, both choral and instrumental, and she has enjoyed going to a wide range of performances throughout the semester. These performances are broadcast live, so we (and all her grandparents!) were able to watch her two wind ensemble performances as they were happening.
She went on a few trips with the outdoor program and hopes to do more in the spring. There seem to be trips almost every weekend.
I said in my post last spring that my daughter was looking for a school that would challenge, engage and support her academically but leave her enough time to play music and enjoy college life. Puget Sound is meeting those goals so far!
