Every year Princeton Review asks students at 380 colleges to rate their schools in multiple categories, then they compile lists of the top 20 vote-getters in each category. Whitties have had another good year!
Best Classroom Experience - #12
Best Health Services - #10
Best Quality of Life - #9
Best Science Lab Facilities - #11
Easiest Campus to Get Around - #5
Everyone Plays Intramural Sports - #15
Happiest Students - #8
Impact Schools - #20
Lots of Race/Class Interaction - #14
Most Accessible Professors - #8
Professors Get High Marks - #15
Their Students Love These Colleges - #3
Personally, the lists I find it especially encouraging to see colleges on are:
Professors Get High Marks
Best Classroom Experience
Best Quality of Life
Their Students Love These Colleges
Happiest Students
The only 3 colleges on all of those lists are Middlebury, Claremont McKenna and Whitman
rayrick, I’m with you. We went through the Fiske guide, Princeton Review, and all the online student review sites we could find looking for great academics and happy collaborative students. Son wanted a college where life wasn’t a competitive grind, but he also wanted inspiring erudite professors who expected a lot from their students, Whitman hits that balance pretty well.
I hope you’re having a good summer and many fun college trips with your son. This is such an exciting time in a teen’s life, and more than a little anxiety producing for the old folks.
I’m finding it a bit less anxiety provoking the second time around. The fact that he doesn’t really aspire to get into the most selective institutions in the land has made the whole process a bit more chill. Some of the schools that feel like the best match for his particularly interests are also ones where he’s got a very solid chance of getting admitted, so I don’t think we’re going to be on pins and needles as much as we were with our daughter. We’re doing a west coast swing sometime this fall, where we’ll see UPS, and, hopefully Whitman. He’s even more motivated after the summer to pursue music pretty intensively in college, and he’s a bit worried that Whitman might not provide what he’s looking for in that department. Still, I think he should check it out, because I think it’s a special place and one that would be an excellent fit for him in all other respects.
I hope you do take a look at Whitman. Maybe an email to the music department is in order, your son could tell them what he’s looking for and they could tell him if it’s possible. With the new president coming in I can’t imagine that music wouldn’t be in for some growth.
You’re way ahead of me. I see from some other threads that your son has become more serious about pursuing music as a major, and that changes the conversation quite a bit. It would be very interesting to know what his list looks like in the end, keep us posted.
Reporting on my son’s first year at Whitman: it has been a tremendous place for him! This is a brilliant kid with a lot of interests, but little patience with the pretense and snootiness he sensed at some other highly ranked schools he visited.
His experience throughout the first academic year was that he was consistently challenged and encouraged, but also had time to explore clubs and activities, and to relax and hang out as well. By around spring break, he was recruited by a chemistry professor to assist him with research over the summer. This was a real, paying job in a field he loves, and he’s spent June and July there on a team with the prof and 3-4 other students. Summer in Walla Walla is HOT, but other than that it’s been great.
Whitman students are deeply bright and hard-working, but also warm, decent, and ready to enjoy life–not in a fakey up-with-people way, but just great citizens and great young people. There’s no one way to fit in at Whitman; you just need to be willing to work hard and keep learning.
My son is really engaged and looking forward to sophomore year, and we’re very happy about his good work and the wonderful friends he’s made at Whitman.
Hi rejnel! Whoa, time flies, it’s hard to believe your son’s freshman year is done. Thanks so much for the update, it sounds like he’s doing very well and taking full advantage of the opportunities that have arisen. Good for him … and great to hear from you!
Earthmama, there are various ways to get to campus that aren’t immediately obvious. If you fly into Seattle and then catch a flight to Walla Walla you can spend all day at SeaTac waiting for your one flight option into Walla Walla. Flying into Pasco, WA (tri-cities) is another strategy, it’s an hour away from Walla Walla and has a much bigger airport, so there are many more airline and flight time options. From Pasco, you can rent a car (if you’re visiting with your daughter) and take a pleasant drive to Walla Walla, or there are three scheduled shuttles a day that pick travelers up at the airport and take them to downtown Walla Walla, 4 blocks from campus (Grape Line). Students do the Pasco trip all the time, and once they’re on are campus and have friends with cars, there’s a lot of ride sharing. Getting to Whitman is usually an all day journey, no matter where you come from, but it doesn’t have to be insurmountable.
Thanks, bopambo! Time flies is right!!! Just a year ago I was so anxious about him leaving for college, but he has been absolutely thriving. Thank you for all of your encouragement and the information you shared at every step!
Re transit, I’ll echo what you say about ride sharing. The kids get each other to the airports (Seattle, PDX) and to hometowns throughout the northwest and California. It’s part of the culture for sure.