My daughter got $33,500/yr in merit from Willamette, and just today got an additional $10000/yr music scholarship. Cost of attendance there is $59600 (without books and travel), so her cost would be about $16000/yr.
In addition, Willamette has a matching plan for Oregon residents who have been using the Oregon Savings 529 Plan for longer than 4 years. They will match up to $10000/yr in withdrawals from the savings plan, so that puts our cost down to $8000/yr. If anyone is interested in the details of the Savings Match, you can look here:
If you want to apply for the match, you have to do it during the application process, before your child receives their acceptance.
Wow, congrats to your D! Now I’m wishing mine had applied there. We are from the Midwest, so no OR match, but in the neighborhood of 16k per year would still have been an amazing deal. Will definitely have my younger daughter check them out.
UPS gave us $30k/yr. plus $10k/yr music scholarship.
Willamette gave us $33k/yr. Plus DD just heard she got the $10k/yr music scholarship too! We are celebrating over here.
We are not in OR. so no match for us. But this brings our total cost down well below UC’s costs significantly. Which brings her closer to her future career goals!
@Mountain22 Congrats to your DD for all her hard work.
@skydivemom Definitely look at Willamette and UPS for your younger DD.
Congrats to your daughter too–our kids seem to be applying to similar places, with similar results! My daughter received the exact same scholarships at UPS too.
Is your D an instrumentalist or a singer? And where else did she apply? My daughter is still waiting to hear from Scripps and Occidental, and she got into Santa Clara but with only a small scholarship, so that one is out. She’s also in at University of Oregon and Western Washington, but will probably go for a smaller school.
Hi! My son was admitted but doesn’t see any merit award, which seems strange because he has received quite a bit from all the other schools he applied to (except Reed which doesn’t give merit awards). When he submitted his info to Whitman for a preview of merit they indicated a fair amount. Where do you see the merit award and any tips on what he should do given he is very interested in Whitman? Thanks!
Your D must have been excited to get the UPS scholarships too!
My D is an instrumentalist. But she does love to sing and is also considering auditioning an a cappella group too. How about yours?
We are still waiting to hear from quite a few. But I’ve been asked not to divulge because she doesn’t want to jinx it . She kind of went crazy on the applications because in Cali the likelyhood of getting into a UC is tough. But she will most likely go to a smaller one too. She got into Reed, CU Boulder, UVM Honors College, Northeastern, and University of Washington. She only applied to UCs instate. She won’t let me say more about ones we are still waiting on .
Hi, another parent of an admitted Whitman student and likely music major. He didn’t get any merit aid so it’s a less-likely pick than some of the others. He’s also looking at Lewis and Clark (admitted with merit aid), Puget Sound (waiting to hear still… we finally worked out that they don’t have one of his LORs yet for the music major), Willamette (I think this is no longer under consideration - his sister went there and it’s a good school but I think having had a sib go there makes it less appealing), St. Olaf (great school for music and he got in with merit aid but location is much less appealing), UN-Reno (the one big school he applied to), Chapman (waiting to hear… this one is pretty high up if he gets in), Occidental (waiting to hear).
If he gets into Puget Sound we’ll probably go to the admitted student days that are back-to-back in early April for there and Whitman since we haven’t toured either campus yet.
He hasn’t visited either school yet but we live in California so for him a west coast state feels closer than Minnesota even if in reality it’ll take longer to get to Walla Walla by plane than Northfield (actually I should figure this out… the flying time might be longer with a connection to WW but then you are already in the town rather than still a 45 minute drive). We had a video call yesterday with a friend from his high school who is now at St Olaf and now he’s a lot more interested in that one.
I have been to both Northfield and Walla Walla and can confirm that both towns are charming. To me, Northfield feels more accessible being within an hour of a major international airport and large city. Walla Walla felt more remote and challenging with respect to coordinating travel, but I loved the Whitman campus and the students.
We’re from Portland, so we also just drove. For people coming from farther away, there’s a tiny airport in Walla Walla just a few minutes from campus with a couple of flights each day to Seattle. There’s a larger regional airport in Pasco about an hour away, and a shuttle bus called the Grapeline that you can take from the Pasco airport right onto campus, with a few other stops along the way. Of course if you’re visiting you could also rent a car in Pasco.
It looks like the school also organizes buses to and from Seattle and Portland around school vacations. I imagine that students who live in those cities use them, along with those who decide to fly directly out of SeaTac or PDX instead of Pasco.
My son goes to Whitman and travels from home in Colorado. We have found flights into the Walla Wall airport, connecting in Seattle. But we’re more likely to get good flights to the PASCO airport, about 40 minutes away from campus. He just gets an Uber or an organized shuttle from there.
Only direct flights to Walla Walla are from Seattle, but there are direct flights to Pasco (Tri cities airport) from 11 cities (see below). And as mentioned Pasco is approx 45 minute drive from Walla Walla.
Thanks for the info on Pasco airport … I’d never heard of it but looks like there’s one nonstop per day to and from SFO which makes it a little less inconvenient to get to :-).
. She kind of went crazy on the applications because in Cali the likelyhood of getting into a UC is tough. But she will most likely go to a smaller one too. She got into Reed, CU Boulder, UVM Honors College, Northeastern, and University of Washington. She only applied to UCs instate. She won’t let me say more about ones we are still waiting on 
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