<p>I checked the alphabetical college list on CC and nothing's been posted for Whittier in quite some time, so I thought I'd post here.</p>
<p>Does anyone know someone who attends or who has recently applied to Whittier? What kind of students get accepted (ie, what stats)? My impression is that it isn't a super selective school, but that it treats its freshman well, ie, helps them get oriented to college life. It seems like a great school for my S.</p>
<p>Thanks for any thoughts (good or otherwise).</p>
<p>My D did receive a full tuition scholarship, and it is currently her top choice. She spent a weekend there in October, and I was at a nearby hotel and spent a lot of time on campus. </p>
<p>My impressions - it is a really nice school for someone who is looking for that small college experience. Only 1300 students, and 80% of them live on campus (it is required for the first 3 years). They have small class sizes and really involved professors. They pay attention to the individual student and work hard to make sure the transition to college goes smoothly. They have living learning communities for the first year where the student will be in a group of 15 others, and they live together with a few mentors (like sophmores or juniors) and all take the same class/have the same advisor. Some of the professors live on campus and have the students come over to hang out and have dinner. </p>
<p>They have lots of programs on campus and there seems to be a lot of fun activities for the kids to do. Whittier is a pretty big city (for us, coming from a small town) but the area around the campus has a really neat feel - there is a movie theatre and lots of restaurants/shops within walking distance. There is also a really nice library on campus which is open 24 hours (if I remember right). There is a really nice theatre on campus (my daughter is active in theatre) and a newer sports complex. They also have a January term which is included in your tuition and a study abroad program.</p>
<p>The only drawback that I can see is that some of the kids feel like the college is a little too small, so they don’t have as many majors or clubs as some of the other schools my daughter is looking at. They do have the Whittier Scholars program, though (a design your own major kinda thing) and they state you can start any club you want.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any specific questions or feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Our son received a $15,000/year scholarship and attended Whittier. He had a 3.5 average in high school and decent SATs. The experience was very personal, small classes, and he made good friends. He was able to be the captain of a Division III sports team, which might not have been possible at a larger school. He became close with an art professor and was able to TA in his class. As parents, we felt pretty secure with our son at the campus as many students just hang out in the town during the week (Weekends are a different story, with LA and the beach so closeby).</p>
<p>The Whittier administration was extremely tolerant of some of our son’s not so excellent adventures. I believe that the Quaker tradition of tolerance still exists at Whittier albeit that it no longer identifies itself as a Quaker school. Our son was pretty wild during the first two years; alcohol and marijuana. He was placed on probation once (it seems so long ago now - two years - that I can’t remember whether it was academic or disciplinary probation - probably both). He straightened himself out totally when he was suspended for a semester, and came back a different guy. He said that he finally figured it out that the people that get good grades really have to study hard. It took him awhile to make that connection.</p>
<p>In all, I highly recommend Whittier. They were loyal to our son thru all his little growing- up messes, and I feel very loyal to them in return.</p>
<p>We had a lovely tour of Whittier last June. The tour guide was excellent, a senior with lots of information. I can’t recall the particulars, but I was very impressed with some of his interactions with professors (internships, or summer work? I can’t remember exactly.) </p>
<p>We also ran into the president of the college and had a lovely conversation with her. People there seemed very accessible, so I would try contacting department heads for more information.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I think this would be a great choice for my S, although I am wondering if he will have the stats to get in. Right now he is only a HS soph, and let me just say that if he finished this semester with a 3.0, I would be thrilled. It will be more like a 2.5 or maybe a little higher if the stars are aligned. What do you know about admission stats, and also ECs?</p>
<p>The S of an acquaintence of mine was admitted for fall 2010, and the acqaintence said that his HS courseload wasn’t super rigorous, although his GPA was reasonable (I think somewhere around 3.6), and he had decent ECs.</p>
<p>I just checked Naviance data for our (CA) high school. GPA 3.0 with SAT 1700 was “average”, but there were multiple acceptances in the 2.5-3.0 range. Don’t know about their respective ECs.</p>
<p>Thanks musicmomz, I think my S could hit those numbers with some encouragement.</p>
<p>missemily, thanks so much for sharing your experience. I like the idea of the living learning communities, rather than freshmen being thrown to the wolves, so to speak, as they would be in a very large school.</p>