<p>Some Western (California) schools : CSUF, SDSU, UCR (maybe), SFSU, basically the entire Cal State system minus Cal Poly SLO and Pomona.</p>
<p>These are just the publics. I am sure there are tons more if you search private universities as well.</p>
<p>Don’t know how exactly, but the CSU app is calculating my sons GPA as 3.57. I calculated his “UC GPA” as 3.01, and his school gave him “state GPA” of something like 3.3.</p>
<p>This thread has assembled an excellent list of schools. The title should read “within”</p>
<p>One of the things we have looked at is 6 year graduation rate. University of Montana is 44%, University of Idaho is 56%. Compare this to some privates like Gonzaga 81%, Pacific Lutheran 68%, and Linfield 69%. How do you interpret this? Is there a qualitative difference in the support and guidance available to students? Is it hard to get the needed courses (certainly an issue in the CA publics)? Or is it related to admitting students with lower testscores / GPAs and that this leads to a larger population not completing college in 6 years?</p>
<p>My son will be visiting schools early next year and the northwest publics seem like great schools with reasonable tuition located in a beautiful part of the country. I’m trying to understad all aspects so I can give him some useful advice.</p>
<p>Rhumbob,</p>
<p>The 6 year graduation rate is difficult to know. It could be advising and not getting classes, like what is happening at the state publics in California.</p>
<p>It can also be students taking a leave of absence to work/earn money to pay for college, transfer students who need to satisfy pre-major requirements, a change of major or part time students. </p>
<p>Looking at a school like Gonzaga vs. University of Montana, the costs are enormously different. Students taking their time completing classes is going to cost them/their parents much more at Gonzaga. </p>
<p>I have seen transfer students take a long time to actually transfer because they get distracted, don’t take it as seriously because the financial costs are less expensive or they just lack direction of what to do next. Counseling departments vary widely in community colleges, as well. </p>
<p>It’s a good question. It would be great if we could get some students/parents/counselors from some of those schools to weigh in on what they are experiencing in terms of graduating on time.</p>
<p>I have two kids in private schools. They tend to get their classes easily and ready access to counseling.</p>
<p>There are multiple reasons. One is that some state schools error on the side of admitting apparently less prepared students so as to provide educational opportunities to the student who may be more of a “late bloomer.” This increases the number of hits at the lower end of the score/gpa distribution, but also increases the number of false alarms. One could argue that this is part of the mission of these schools. It may take a couple of generations to get a college grad, but if the parent has some college, it becomes more likely the student graduates. Another reason is financial. Often students attending these schools find it difficult to fund four years of college. Many need to work to help support the family, much less pay for school. Many talented, though perhaps not merit scholarship quality, students have to leave for this reason. And finally, there tends to be more support at smaller private schools, but that can vary.</p>
<p>Any good new finds. My daughter is looking at Western Washington.</p>
<p>Son got his first acceptance and with merit. Found the school on this thread! Thanks you guys! He’s pretty stoked.</p>
<p>My daughter has been happy at Western Wa- despite initially not being thrilled about the instate/public aspect. ( it’s close enough that her friends from high school who are attending colleges on the semester system, have been able to come up to visit- )</p>
<p>She is now in 2nd yr & while a few of her friends from freshman year have transferred ( out of state tuition is too much for many families), she has made others and really is excited about most of her classes and the opportunities around town ( like snowboarding at Baker & sailing on the lakes)</p>
<p>Congrats shrinkwrap! Must be a good feeling. My DS (definitely a late bloomer) is applying RD to a few schools discussed in this thread. We won’t know for a while, so that happy feeling is still far off… I’m envious.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Second acceptance a few days ago. He doesn’t know. He has not looked at the email with the title “Admission Decision”. Sigh. Anyway, both schools found on this thread; Willamette and Univ. of the Pacific. </p>
<p>Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!</p>
<p>DH and son left yesterday after school to go down to Ashland for a Friday afternoon campus visit at Southern Oregon U. The phone rang when I walked in the door after work today; DH said, “Well, we did the tour thing.”</p>
<p>“How did it go?” I asked.</p>
<p>Long pause. “He hated it.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” RATS! “Oh, well.” I’ tearing my hair out.</p>
<p>“Nah, I’m just kidding…here, I’ll let you talk to him.”</p>
<p>Son says, “I really liked it. I think I would rather go here, in fact.” Whoa!</p>
<p>So he’ll be finishing his apps for OSU and SOU when he gets home. Thought the people were very nice and friendly, enjoyed having a cup of coffee at the coffee stand on campus (“It’s fair trade organic coffee”), loved the “shoe tree” (apparently graduating seniors throw their shoes up in a tree), said the dorm they toured was fine, was impressed by the laundry machines with card-swipe instead of coin slots, though Ashland was really nice. What may be the clincher: the campus bookstore stocks gummi bacon. <em>eye roll</em></p>
<p>Can I breathe yet?</p>
<p>CHS2011Mom… I would like to hear more details about your son’s impressions of Southern Oregon. What major is he interested in? My son has applied and we are waiting to hear news about the financials before we schedule a visit since it is a bit of a haul for us. Which dorms did he tour? Any additional impressions that you can provide would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>digitalmom, he’s interested in computer science. I’ll get some more details from him when he gets home tomorrow.</p>
<p>Thanks. I will be interested to hear more. Sounds like he is excited.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son, Shrinkrap! That’s really good news. So nice to go into the holidays with some positive news.</p>
<p>CHS2011Mom we would love to hear about your son’s impressions of SOU. DD has been accepted to her in state safeties but still really likes U of Idaho and SOU. </p>
<p>Just FYI brother in law is a professor at OSU. I love the campus and town but DD’s major is not offered.</p>
<p>More Southern Oregon U impressions: They saw the Cascade complex residence halls, which are 21 and under. There are a number of wings for various preferences (quiet, no alcohol, single-sex, coed, etc.). Cinderblock-style construction, utilitarian, but perfectly fine as far as dorms go. There are other residence halls that are newer. Fewer dining options than at OSU, but the dining hall looked just fine and there are some other on-campus dining options. The admissions counselor confirmed that Ashland is full of great places to eat. He also said that they have a variety of scholarship options available and that SOU would undoubtedly have more to offer on that front for DS than OSU.</p>
<p>Two tour guides, one a senior and the other a freshman, I think; one from CA and one from the Portland metro area. The one from CA had looked several smaller schools in CA and OR (including Linfield) and ultimately chose SOU. She found SOU to have a very friendly vibe and said that the professors are really, really accessible. While there are some big lecture classes, many of the classes are small conference-style classes.</p>
<p>The campus is pretty; most students get around by bike or skateboard. Having a car isn’t really necessary. The new library is beautiful and has comfy chairs and a fireplace. During finals, students sometimes bring their sleeping bags (it’s open 24 hours) and camp out there. </p>
<p>It’s now his preferred school, over OSU. DH said that when they first got there, about an hour before their scheduled tour time, they checked in at the administration office and the folks there suggested that they stroll over to the bookstore or coffee shop until it was time for the tour. While walking through campus, DH asked him what he thought, and he was kind of “meh” but after the tour was considerably more enthusiastic. Both of them were impressed with the friendliness of the people there and with how genuinely positively both tour guides spoke about their experiences there. </p>
<p>OSU would have a wider variety of classes and related opportunities, but it’s four times the size of SOU. DS has several friends attending OSU but I suspect he worries that he’d be a little lost there. SOU seems like a good size–it’s about twice as big as his high school, but small enough that there’s a sense of community. He’s not into sports so he’s unconcerned about the lack of a big-time NCAA team. Ashland is a lovely town and gets less rain than we get up here in the Portland area. The drive is not bad; it’s about 5 hours but all I-5 so not so difficult travel.</p>
<p>So now it’s on to completing the application, submitting it, and waiting to hear.</p>
<p>Thanks for the updated info CHS2011Mom. My son applied a few weeks ago and while we are sure that he will get in we need at least the WUE award to make it feasible. Sounds like everyone there was friendly and informative.</p>
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<p>Really? Cool! Sounds like a must-get stocking stuffer for my own son. ;)</p>
<p>Learning a lot from this thread.
I am a firm believer that a motivated kid can get as much from his environment as he puts into the process, but I was wondering if anyone can give me some feedback on the following schools in the context of an 28-30 ACT scorer. Would you recommend AGAINST any of the following as not being challenging enough for such a student/ student would be better off with academically “stronger” peers?</p>
<p>Western Washington
Willamette
Southern Oregon
Gonzaga</p>