@Lemonlee
Hi, reviving this old thread to ask how your S is doing at Whitman? My 23D is also considering Whitman and St Olaf (we haven’t gone in person yet to either, but will soon) so I’m wondering how they compare?
Hope all is going well!
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My son loves Whitman! His classes are challenging, but he is doing very well. Last semester was a bit more normal, with all classes in person and the dining halls open. They had regular testing of the kids and were able to keep the number of cases on campus pretty low. Unlike his sister, he doesn’t volunteer too much too information, lol. But it seems like the kids there are nice, and socially are not cliquey. They care about their grades, and studying, but not to the exclusion of everything else. With such a small school, I was worried about the dynamics as I didn’t want him at a school where there was a divide between the athletes/non-athletes or greek/non-greek kids. He has chosen not to join a fraternity, but has friends who are in the Greek system, and is considering living off-campus next semester with a group of boys who are a mix of greek/non-greek. He is also an athlete and really appreciates the ‘academics come first’ mentality of the school. His coach and his professors have been very supportive. His one challenge was Calculus last semester - he did not take pre-calculus in high school, and Whitman doesn’t offer a pre-calc class so the class was really geared towards students that had at least taken pre-calc, if not calc in high school. It was a struggle but he was able to get help from his professor and the tutoring center and ended up doing fine. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I’d be happy to check with my son.
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Thank for this update!
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Thanks so much for the reply!
My daughter is also hoping to be a recruited athlete, she’s had good conversation with the coach. I read your reply to her and she appreciates your input. This school really sounds like a perfect fit for her. We just booked flights to make a quick weekend trip for an ID camp in April. We are both excited to see the campus and the area!
If you have any insight for the merit scholarships, I’d love to hear it. She’s dreaming of the Garret Sherwood scholarship! We probably won’t qualify for any need based aid, but hoping my daughters high stats will qualify her for top merit.
Whitman offers what I think they call a “financial aid guarantee.” In other words, if you provide an unofficial transcript and FAFSA-type info before you even apply, the financial aid office will tell you exactly how much you can expect to receive. Early Financial Aid Guarantee
I don’t think the guarantee would reflect special scholarships like Garrett-Sherwood or National Merit, but you would know if you would get their highest standard merit award in advance.
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My son did not get any FA awards from Whitman, but was guaranteed a very nice merit scholarship. And he ended up getting $4,000 per year more than the guarantee, which was a very nice surprise! Not sure why, but he did not have an SAT score for the pre-read, but did for the application. And it was a very nice score, so maybe that helped.
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That’s good to know — if we could get another $4k over the guarantee, it could make a difference for us. I hope we have a similar experience!
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This is great to hear, thank you very much for the info!
I’d love to hear how much the Garret-Sherwood scholarship is or any further info on it, if anybody reading knows.