<p>Sorry. I’m glad he’s enjoying it. It was just the way it is described, reminded me of what I’d heard about Univ of Chicago. Uh oh… maybe it was Reed…</p>
<p>Really sorry. Just when I was working on my social skills!</p>
<p>Just curious; is your son a 3.0-3.3 kid?</p>
<p>LOL, it does sound like I got my panties in a twist. No offense taken, and sorry to overreact, I was just sort of shocked. Reed is definitely the one you were thinking of. Whitman students study but they don’t let that interfere with their intramural sports or playing zombies vs humans.</p>
<p>I’ve been lurking here for good ideas for my friend’s son and I’ve been getting great information to pass on. Thanks.</p>
<p>D just checked her admission status on the University of Oregon website and it indicated Admission Confirmed. She has not received any notification by e or snail mail but we think this may be her first acceptance for spring admission. We know nothing about this school, ant insight on being a “Duck” would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>My daughter’s a Duck. What do you want to know? :)</p>
<p>I talked with my D’s HS counselor today. She said she attended a recent workshop where they said the average GPA for admitted students to UCSB this past year was a 3.9.
I was surprised at how positive she was about the community college even with all the budget cuts. I got the feeling that she felt the budget cuts were strong at all levels of Ca public education and that a diligent student could save money by attending the CC for two years.
D has started the Boulder application.</p>
<p>Sockhermom, what did your daughter know about U of O that made her want to apply? I’m an alum who is fairly involved, so I can try to answer questions along with rentof2’s perspective having a current student there. It would be helpful though to know what drew her to U of O to begin with.</p>
<p>Just thought I would let you know that there are some great Washington college reviews that were just posted on campus vibe. Almost all of them except Whitman. I was going to post our visit to Western Washington but he had a great review with some of our sentiments.</p>
<p>We left LOVING WWU… What a hidden gem. Absolutely beautiful campus with very personable tour guides who seemed to be beyond happy there. WWU is a state school but it is run like an LAC… holistic applicant review. The campus was a straight line that meandered through a forest with a brick walkway. There was a beautiful quad with a fountain. Small classes with a lot of support from faculty. The Sciences sounded fantastic with freshman getting tons of research opportunities. My S, who wants to go to med school, was impressed when they said that more WWU students are accepted into UW’s med school( top med school in the country), than UW students. They size was great as it is bigger than some of the other LAC’s my S is looking at, i.e. Whitman, but still had a small feel to it. No Frats or Sororities. Average SAT 1700. Looked like friendly, happy kids. Also, participates in WUE.</p>
<p>Bellingham was a beautiful and lively little town with a healthy, outdoorsy kind of granola vibe. Ate at a great little place for lunch with food from local oragnic farm…my S LOVED this. Great college town with TONS of outdoorsy things to do. PERFECT for my DS. We also drove into the next town called Fairhaven… adorable!! Cute shops, boutiques, outdoor quad that had a band playing music, restaurtants, pubs… right on the water… </p>
<p>Anyway, this is a great school for the good but not perfect student, who will blossom in college.</p>
<p>5boys-my D is applying to Western but we have not yet visited. We ran into a friend whose D is just graduating. Her D loves it for all the reasons you stated. She spent a lot of her free time doing outdoorsy things. She loved all the students and loved her program. The Mom said when they visited they felt so welcomed. The only downside of the school she felt was that you should know that it rains a lot and in the winter the hours of sunlight are few. It wasn’t a problem for her D but it might be for some.</p>
<p>Tulare & Rent- My d applied to the schools in the Pacific Northwest that offered WUE tuition. She has a sister of a friend who goes to there and indicates she likes the schoo but is not friendly with the girl and doesn’t really want to talk to her. </p>
<p>My daughter is realty involved in fashion (she has a popular fashion blog) and is interested in pursuing a career on the business side of fashion. She is a bit concerned that the school is not in a “know” fashion city, ie: LA (she wants to leave), NY (too far from west coast) or San Francisco (considering schools in the area) and we am trying to get a vibe of the student body. She is not into “expensive” shopping but is trending on stylish, she gets a feeling that the area is crunchy granola meaning sweats and tees and that she may she stand out and not fit in. I tried to explain to her that all schools have all types of kids, no matter where it is located and that she would be fine. Don’t laugh but we discussed the “grunge” style and how it originated in the area…then she got it.</p>
<p>On the other hand, school wise, are the classes all really large ie: 500 students in English 101, are professors accessible, how hard is it to get classes, how is dorm living—that type of stuff. Obviously, we know it is a big football school–any anything else that may stand out in your mind–good or bad.</p>
<p>We will take a trip up to the area once she hears from other schools</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>My D attends Western- just returned from an environmental studies program in Costa Rica.
I agree it is beautiful, but the weather can be very sucky & grey.
( also close to Vancouver, a much more cosmopolitan city than Seattle)</p>
<p>I guess you can get yourself a guided tour of the campus through Google now.
[Google</a> takes panoramic photos of WWU campus - Local News - bellinghamherald.com](<a href=“http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/07/21/2111245/google-takes-panoramic-photos.html]Google”>http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/07/21/2111245/google-takes-panoramic-photos.html)</p>
<p>SockherMom, I think if your D is really into fashion Eugene may well not be her kind of town. I love UO and I love Eugene, but it sounds like your D probably would be happier in a more urban, commercial kind of environment.</p>
<p>I am sure she would find kindred souls at UO just because it’s a big school and there really is something for everyone there, but if she’s looking for a fashion scene, it’s not going to be found in Eugene. It’s also not, probably, going to be the best place for students that would characterize the campus culture as “granola crunching”. There probably are a lot of people there who eat a lot of granola, and probably wouldn’t take offense at the label, but just from the point of view of your D’s goals and the kind of community she would find most compatible, she might not be happy there with people she thinks of in that way.</p>
<p>My own D is not into the nouveau hippee, enviro-culture, sweat pants, dreadlocks style either, but she is completely at home in that kind of campus culture too, along with her own self-identified group of post-beatnik, urban intellectual types. ;)</p>
<p>The lower division, intro-level, general ed type classes can be very large. (More like 250 than 500, though.) Like most schools, they are set up as a large lecture with small group discussion sections led by graduate teaching fellows. My daughter did not have very many classes like that, but she did her freshman year at a small regional public college that does not have those very large lecture classes, and then she transferred to the UO honors college where the classes are all small. However, in her major and one of her minor departments, she did have a few of those large lecture classes that are required for the major/minor. She found them still very valuable, learned a great deal from them, and most of the GTFs that led her discussion sections were very good. She didn’t, however, have very many of those large classes, so I don’t know what a freshman outside the honors college might experience in terms of the number of such classes they may have to take.</p>
<p>San Francisco could be a great spot for your D, and if she doesn’t want to be in LA, what about San Diego, Santa Barbara, Portland or Seattle?</p>
<p>For students looking at WWU:</p>
<p>If you are considering travel and flying, check the Allegiant Air website and see if they fly to your town. Allegiant flies tons of Canadians from the Bellingham airport to hot spots- LVG, PHX, plus CA. You can get amazingly cheap fares if you shop well and unclick all the add ons. I have flown non-stop from BLI-LVG for less than $50.</p>
<p>Sockhermom, I’m not sure where you live but if you haven’t already be sure to double check U of O’s WUE program. They don’t offer it to Californian’s, for example. </p>
<p>I think you’re right to tell your daughter that large-ish schools like Oregon will have all sorts of different types. You’ll see a ton of kids on campus sporting U of O sweats and tees (very spirited campus, although I wouldn’t consider that “granola”), kids who are very grungy, and plenty who look fashionable as well. The Greek system is thriving, and that tends to attract some of the students who want to dress up more. Eugene is far from a fashion haven though so if that’s her thing she might be disappointed. The business school is outstanding, but it doesn’t have a fashion specialty. Nike, Adidas, Columbia and other Oregon-based sportswear companies recruit heavily on campus, but that probably doesn’t qualify as fashion for your daughter. I’m sure she’ll get a good feel of campus if she visits and hangs out in some of the common areas so she can observe students, and from that she’ll be able to see if she fits. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. </p>
<p>rent-I didn’t mean any offense to the crunchy granola comment, I was just looking at the vibe of the area, we are from So Cal and this is what my D’s opinion is of the pacific Northwest, not by experience but by unsubstantiated bias. I actually think that environment would be good for her and she agreed to apply, I just knew that the city is not as “cosmopolitan” (don’ take offense) as the larger cities up in that area.</p>
<p>Tulare-We are aware of l the sport clothing industry in the area and thought may be a good reason for her to consider it. She is not a Chanel or Gucci girl, just trendy and she is a soccer player (thus my screen name) so she would be thrilled have an opportunity to be involved in the sport clothing industry.</p>
<p>We knew that the school did not have a fashion, she is intrested in the business side…not design so that is not a problem, although she also applied to Central Washingtion which does have a fashion degree…although that school seems even more “crunchy granola” …sorry couldn’t resist.</p>
<p>We figured at a larger school she would find all types so she is excited to go visit.</p>
<p>lastly, can anyone tell me, being an OSS do they offer any merit (non-need) aid at all?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, UO does offer merit aid, and it is offered to in-state and OOS students. There is some information here: [Scholarships</a> | Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships](<a href=“http://financialaid.uoregon.edu/scholarships]Scholarships”>Scholarships | Financial Aid & Scholarships)</p>
<p>My daughter received some scholarships, even as a transfer student, and in fact her scholarship awards have increased each year.</p>
<p>I don’t know if your D entering mid-year instead of in the fall term would make a difference. It might be worth a call to the FA office (they deal with both need-based and merit-based aid) and ask about that.</p>
<p>On your question about the difficulty of getting classes, my D has not had much problem there, but she has been pretty flexible about which classes to take when – that is, if there was a required class she wanted, but it was full one term, she’d just take some other requirement-filling class instead and wait until the next term to get the one she wanted in the first place. As the students go through college, of course, their priority in registration gets higher and higher. As a junior and senior my daughter has not had any issues. That said, her roommate had a couple of occasions when she took something she didn’t really need just to fill out her schedule, but she is a sweet but pretty disorganized student. My D, who is very much a planner, has never had to take something that was of no particular use or of no particular interest to her.</p>
<p>I grew up in SoCal (various places in OC) and now live in the PNW. Newport Beach is plastic Barbie and PNW is crunchy granola, it just is. I could never have considered leaving the house without make-up growing up, even to exercise, not the case up north. It is a huge difference. It is a bit of culture shock as is the lack of freely available authentic Mexican food. We have some, but not the varied options of SoCal!</p>
<p>I was born and grew up in southern California, too, and I now live in the PNW, and I wouldn’t characterize either place that simply. I guess my experiences have just been different, but 40 years in southern CA and 15 in Oregon haven’t brought me to the same conclusion.</p>
<p>I spend a lot of time in the OC with a kid who plays sports there with her club team. Some people are fake, some aren’t - just like everywhere else. </p>
<p>There are some like the “Real Housewives of the OC”, but I wouldn’t say it’s the majority of those I have encountered. Perhaps it just depends upon the circle of friends one travels with!</p>
<p>My daughter who attends WWU just had as a roommate ( in a Costa Rican language program) a girl who was from Santa Barbara.
She is not granola compared to someone from Evergreen or many from Western, but let’s just say she came home with quite an opinion about people from Santa Barbara!
( It didn’t help that she had been living in the jungle for several months doing environmental research and had only been able to wash out her clothes in a sink- most of the students in the language program were European & D says " very stylish")</p>
<p>I don’t have the impression that WWU is " granola" but then I have lived in the Seattle area all my life so I have never worried about looking fit to give a television interview, just to go to the grocery store.
However D says that * " some people don’t even shave under their arms!"* so that would probably qualify as granola.
;)</p>
<p>We don’t have a lot of Mexican food it’s true, but we have lots of Thai, Vietnamese & Indian places!</p>
<p>OK parents from the PNW, if you could pick any school for your kid to go to in the PNW with WUE tuition, where would it be?</p>
<p>Looked further into University of Oregon and yikes…no WUE tuition for CA kids and cost of attendance with out of state tuition = total cost is $41,751. They did offer us loans to cover it but not one cent of any scholarship/grant $$. Most private schools will at least offer you a little incentive, a couple grand or so but nothing from the Ducks…I think she will say " No Thanks" :(</p>