Willamette? Or...?

<p>Trying to get a new conversation started...</p>

<p>Our son has been accepted at several schools. Along with Willamette, he has narrowed his choices to UCD, UCSB, Lewis & Clark and UOP, with Davis and Willamette being the front runners. What other schools are you or your sons/daughters considering?</p>

<p>My son is deciding between Willamette, L&C, Beloit, Lawrence, and Whitman. All seem to be on the table at this point. Hopefully some visits will help with the decision.</p>

<p>I am still deciding between Willamette, Gonzaga, and UCM. But from the research I have done, I am 90% sure about going to UCM.</p>

<p>Sent from my SCH-I800 using CC</p>

<p>My son is considering the California publics he has been accepted to: UCSC, UCD, UCI, UCSB, UCSD and Cal Poly SLO. Also, still considering Lewis & Clark. Have ruled out a couple others he was admitted to, like USC, due to cost considerations. We are actually in Salem now at the Willamette admitted student preview day having just come from our visit to L & C.</p>

<p>Hi motherof3kids,
How did your visit to L&C go? It is my son’s #1 at this point above Willamette, UCs, and Kenyon. Thoughts on Willamette vs. L&C?</p>

<p>nly2012: The visit to L&C was good. My son attended a Writer’s Workshop there last summer and really loved it, but this was my first visit. I thought the campus was really beautiful and I was impressed. My son did an overnight and sat in on a class. I think the overnight was OK, but not great for him and he was looking forward to going to his visit at Willamette (first visit for us both). </p>

<p>I only stayed long enough at Willamette to check him in, but my first impression was that it seemed a little more friendly and inviting than L&C, although not nearly as beautiful. I did notice that there seemed to be a lot more activity: students playing ball and frisbee on the lawns in contrast to L&C where the students were just hurrying along the pathways without much enthusiasm or interaction. Looking forward to the program tomorrow and to hearing about my son’s experience with the overnight.</p>

<p>^^. I’d love to hear more about your experience at the Willamette admitted students days! And also any more Willamette v L&C observations.</p>

<p>Wondering if this comes up in the sessions with admit officers: last year’s entering classes at both Willamette and L&C were seriously over-enrolled. Were fewer applicants accepted this year to prevent that happening again?</p>

<p>I would love to be attending this weekend, but son has baseball games today and tomorrow. We visited Willamette and L&C in October. Like Motherof3 says, I found the suburban campus of L&C to be very beautiful; but the urban Willamette campus appealed to me with its red brick buildings and green lawns…its what I think a college should look like. </p>

<p>Some great schools mentioned in this thread so far. These are very exciting times: It sounds like some young people have some big decisions to make in the next few weeks. The good thing is, I see a couple of a no lose situations.</p>

<p>So happy this thread has started. My daughter and I are heading north to re-visit L&C and Willamette next week. These are her top two at this point. She has decided not to visit Kenyon, as the cost is prohibitive for us. </p>

<p>She will attend classes at both schools, and I believe she will have a host and have time to just hang out. </p>

<p>The interactions with Willamette in setting up her visit have been more personal and friendly. I know it’s going to be a tough decision.</p>

<p>We loved, loved, loved our visit to Willamette University. Everyone was so welcoming, the campus is both beautiful and comfortable, and the admissions staff seemed to take a real interest in my D. But: Even with generous merit aid (my D got $17K plus another $4K award based on part on need and in part on academics), the cost to attend would be higher than my D’s other two options, Kalamazoo College and Rhodes College. (Obviously geography wasn’t the prime consideration in her search!) We just committed to Kalamazoo.</p>

<p>We had a great time today at Willamette’s preview day. Like you, 95688dad, my S decided that the Willamette campus looked more like a college “should” look and found that it appealed to him more than the natural beauty of L&C. It really is a lovely campus with the brick buildings, wide open green lawns, stream and blooming cherry trees. The open quad was a great gathering spot and student musicians played there at lunch. Everyone was friendly and welcoming and the students really seemed happy and excited to be there. There seemed to be a lot more school spirit and camaraderie. It was really quite a contrast to the vibe at L&C, which just seemed kind of remote.</p>

<p>S had a blast at the overnight at Willamette with his student host and other prospies. They played games and he got a chance to meet a lot of students. The overnight at L&C was not as good; he was on his own quite a bit. The host was nice enough, although his suggestion of pot was a turn off to S, however, to his credit, he and his roomate did refrain from indulging when S said he wasn’t interested. The Willamette host showed him around Salem that night and S thought the close proximity to movies, shopping etc. was a real bonus. So, in the end, he preferred the more urban setting of Willamette, although coming from crowded So Cal it seems more like a small town to us.</p>

<p>To my surprise, S took L&C off his list after having really fallen for it last summer during his 2 week stay at their writer’s workshop. He did announce that he thought he could be happy at Willamette and it remains on his list. Next week we tour the UC’s – he needs to decide if a small LAC is what he really wants.</p>

<p>sunmachine - Neither college mentioned over enrollment although L&C did mention a waiting list. Wish I had known to ask.</p>

<p>re: pot smoking at L&C: I suppose one can find kids smoking weed on every college campus in the country, but thats certainly L&C’s reputation. A friend of mine, who’s son plays football there, seems to think its an ingrained part of L&C culture. That’s definitely one of the reasons my son prefers Willamette.</p>

<p>Two years ago, S1 did accepted student overnights at three colleges. He saw pot use in the dorms at all three. Pretty limited at two, but he said everyone in the dorm at Colorado College was smoking, and his host told him it would be pretty hard to fit in there if he didn’t. </p>

<p>In other news, I have it on good authority that a group of streakers, some wearing capes, graced one of the activities of Willamette’s Preview Days.</p>

<p>sunmachine - Your tip on the streaking was accurate. Apparently it is a long standing spring preview day tradition for the seniors to streak. A very large group of seniors wearing nothing but body paint (somehow missed the capes, but there were a lot of them) jogged through the campus and then stopped to dance. Student musicians provided music to “streak” to. Just added to the fun atmosphere of the day.</p>

<p>My daughter is at Willamette today. I think I was expecting that she would be with a host all day, kind of like a shadow day. When we checked in, we found out she is on her own until 4 pm. She has three classes to attend. I guess we should have asked more questions about the day, but this surprised me. Is this typical? When I expressed surprise, they did offer to put her with a host for lunch, too, so she said she would like to do that. Hope it’s a good day!</p>

<p>My son chose Willamette over Whitman and some other schools. The admitted student day last week really confirmed it for him. The streaking was hilarious. He had a good stay with a host who showed him a bunch of the dorms and all of campus. They stayed up until 2. He had a great time. It seemed like he met a lot of nice guys at the overnight, as when we were walking around campus many possible students and current students said Hi to him.</p>

<p>Also, obviously all of the schools mentioned are well respected academically. Ultimately it comes down to the “feel” of the school and that is very personal (well, and aid too!).</p>

<p>Unfortunately I applied to too many schools and was miraculously accepted into eleven of them, but I’m certainly looking at Willamette as an option. But there is also Lewis and Clark, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UOP, Mount Holyoke, Cal Poly SLO, Mills, and then my top choices that my family can’t afford :(</p>

<p>The admitted students day was enjoyable though and I was won over a wee bit by the beautiful cherry blossom and tulip trees blooming.</p>

<p>Karen, who did your daughter’s day turn out? </p>

<p>It sounds like those of you that were able to attend Admitted Students Day had a great time.</p>