I had started a thread before and I got some great honest advice so here I go again as my D is struggling with making a decision and it is the week to decide! She has narrowed it down to UW Seattle (amazing environmental studies program, resources, money, research- but big) vs the honors college at Univ of Oregon (in-state, smaller feel so easier emotionally as she is coming from a small high school). Univ of Washington is academically superior, however, nothing is perfect and it is an urban big city and there is competition to get into internships and even classes, although not in the environmental field as much- I see her juggling these parameters in her head. This process is really making me self reflect on how much of all this is parental pressure and trying to find peace in having raised my kids as good humans. I thank you in advance for all your feedback and wisdom.
What is UO?
Univ of Oregon
Most high schools are not well known.
It’s a low paying field so I’d go for fit. UW is a much larger school. And then UO has Honors which can help shrink it even more and it’s already 35 or 40% smaller than UW.
And the area around school is much more chill in Eugene than UW.
Unless she wants the big time and big city, I’d go UO.
UW is a wonderful school, has lots of great research, and may be ranked higher, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that her education will be academically superior. One way to evaluate this might be to look closely at what her 4 year plan would look like at each school.
You can map out the curriculum in her major at each school. Then look in the class schedule for details on how large the classes are, which professors are teaching them, whether they tend to fill up (making it difficult to get desired classes). For UW, you can also look at average grades through DawgPath. For UO, you can also look at which classes are available through the Honors college.
You can also spend time on each school’s web site looking at research that is being done at each school, and try to evaluate how accessible that research will be to an undergraduate.
My son was weighing UW vs Oregon State Honors. After we did this curriculum analysis, he rated OSU honors higher academically (for his purposes!) than the same program at UW, due to more flexibility, smaller class sizes, good teachers, less anticipated difficulty getting classes. It also seemed that he would have more access to research and clubs at OSU.
He also didn’t like how students at UW told us that it’s common practice to take classes at the local community college because many first year and some second year science / math classes at UW are “weedout” classes. This didn’t strike him as academically superior or really worth the extra $$ he would be paying for UW. It may be different in your daughter’s major, though.
Thank you for that very helpful insight and how very interesting as I was just reading an email my daughter shared from a UW student who also recommended exactly what you just said- about taking the core classes at a local community college. I really appreciate your thoughts!
I would consider CHC+UO to be better for undergraduate education in Environmental Studies. UW would be a good choice for grad school 
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