<p>Hello, from 95688Mom. Best wishes!</p>
<p>(edit; A 95688mom; not THE 95688Mom!)</p>
<p>@momsings – the overnight clinched things for my son too, a couple of years ago, and he’s been very, very happy at Willamette. I’m glad to hear your son had a great experience.</p>
<p>@KareninCA – let us know how things worked out! It’s good to know your daughter was paired with a host for lunch, and I hope the weather was nice for the day.</p>
<p>@Shrinkrap – Hi! How is your son liking college in southern California? I remember he was choosing among Willamette and several other places last year.</p>
<p>Good morning Shrinkrap. I love your edit - funny!</p>
<p>Crazy weather here the 88 this spring. Vacaville High School baseball has had more rainouts this year than Willamette University baseball.</p>
<p>^ Wow! That’s saying something!</p>
<p>Son says it’s been raining in So Cal too. He is liking So Cal very much.</p>
<p>My daughter had a good visit to Willamette, but it just didn’t capture her heart the way that Lewis and Clark did. She has chosen to attend Lewis and Clark. They are both good schools, and as someone else said, you can’t go wrong with either. Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Final decision made: Last night, our first born son announced that he has decided to attend Willamette.</p>
<p>@95688Dad–Yay, new fellow Willamette parents! Just curious, if you don’t mind me asking, what about Willamette made the decision for him?</p>
<p>momsings: The final decision came down to Willamette vs. UC Davis. Our family loves everything about both schools. We had a great visit to Willamette in the fall and we’re very familiar with Davis as we only live 20 minutes away. Academically, he’s a fit pretty much anywhere.</p>
<p>The determining factor was baseball.</p>
<p>He was recruited by WU and several other schools (but not UCD). We were really impressed with the WU program after meeting with the coach and touring the facilities. He figured he’d be better off going where he is wanted than to try walking on at Davis.</p>
<p>^ Welcome, new Willamette parents!
@95688Dad – If you’re only 20 minutes from Davis, your son could take the train to Salem. The train isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but we sent our son off from the train station, and it was pretty cool watching the train pull away from the station.</p>
<p>95688dad, Interesting we live in sacto and S was admitted to uCDavis and willamette also. He was recruited for football and loved willamette campus. Curious if your S was recruited for other D3 schools? redlands, linfield highly recruited mine and now its just deciding. Did willamette offer you agreat FA package? We are struggling with costs.</p>
<p>@kb2133 - I’m not the person you addressed your post to, but I have known at least two families who had subsequent conversations with the Financial Aid office at Willamette and were happy with the outcome. If you believe they haven’t taken everything into consideration in calculating your award, do contact them. There’s nothing to lose, in any case.</p>
<p>thx CalALum, will do on contacting FA office. Concern is they are much more cost than Linfield or a few other LACs. Really hope they can improve pkg. as W is first choice but currently they “way” more. Can anyone comment on williamette compared to Linfield or pacificU in oregon?? We liked L & W most. Anyone with knowledge of both schools and could provide feedback on academics, athletics/school spirit, internship, etc. would be great. S is looking at econ. as major</p>
<p>Rankings aren’t everything, but for what it’s worth: </p>
<p>Out of more than 1,000 accredited colleges ranked by U.S. News and World Report, Willamette and Reed College are the highest ranked liberal arts colleges in Oregon, tied at 57. Lewis and Clark is ranked at 70, and Linfield is ranked at 121. Pacific University in Forest Grove is ranked in a different category, as a regional university in the West. It’s regional ranking is 22, but since there are at least four regions in the country (West, North, Midwest, South), the equivalent rational ranking is probably somewhere around 88 or higher. </p>
<p>If you Google the name of the school and enter the phrase “Common Data Set” you can find statistics that every institution must report by law to the federal government. One way to think about a school is to ask, “How many students who enter as freshmen graduate in four years or less?” </p>
<p>UC Davis = 51%</p>
<p>Linfield = 61%</p>
<p>Pacific University = data not available online</p>
<p>Willamette University = 70%</p>
<p>kb2133 - yes, son was recruited by a variety of schools, some more aggressively than others. WU just struck him as a place he’d like to go to school and play ball, especially after seeing the facilities and meeting with Coach Swick and a couple of players. DIIIs do not award athletic money, but yes, he did get a very generous merit award (on par or better than what other privates offered)…we’re still going to have to take out some loans, but finacial aid is taking care of a huge chunk.</p>
<p>Where does your son go to high school? Mine was a backup QB on this year’s D2 section championship team. The seniors only lost three football games in two years. Great times and great memories.</p>
<p>CalAlum: Thanks again for all the fantastic information. My wife and I have already looked at the Amtrack schedule.</p>
<p>Ranking criteria are set by magazine editors, abhorred by educators.</p>
<p>For anyone making the choice between Whitman and Willamette, what were the deciding factors? S2 is struggling with a decision. Really liked both schools when he visited, said the students at both were incredibly friendly and welcoming. Thought whitman’s facilities had the edge, but liked the idea of Portland being an hour away (from Salem) by train or bus to see a show or something. whitman’s FA offer was a bit better, so we’re still factoring that in. Just curious how the decision process is going for others.</p>
<p>Adding Whitman to the colleges in this list.
If you Google the name of the school and enter the phrase “Common Data Set” you can find statistics that every institution must report by law to the federal government. One way to think about a school is to ask, “How many students who enter as freshmen graduate in four years or less?”</p>
<p>UC Davis = 51%</p>
<p>Linfield = 61%</p>
<p>Pacific University = data not available online</p>
<p>Whitman College = 67%</p>
<p>Willamette University = 70%</p>
<p>CORRECTION – Whitman’s number is 79%, sorry. Just realized I had used a previous year’s report, not the most recent data. </p>
<p>^^ Not that statistics will matter to a high-school senior. It comes down to, “This is where I can see myself living for the next four years; here is where I think I’ll thrive.”</p>
<p>Whitman is a great college, and it was my son’s top choice. He applied EA and was turned down. Applying EA was probably a mistake, because he had high SAT scores (2130) but B+ grades when he applied; during his senior year, he became a straight A student. Ironic! Anyway, Whitman accepted three of his high-school friends, but to our surprise, none of them chose to go. One went to UC Santa Cruz; one to Pitzer (Claremont Colleges), and one to UC Davis. Personally, I wouldn’t have made those choices, but each young man said he worried about going to a college “out in the middle of nowhere.” When we toured the Whitman campus, one young woman said something like, “Walla Walla’s a great little town, but we have everything we need right here – the college does a great job of bringing in events.” I imagine there’s some self-selection going on, in that students who want to be closer to cities and a wide range of natural resources might choose Willamette. Weather could factor in, too. I noticed that Whitman posts the number of sunny days in some of their admissions materials!</p>
<p>Good luck in the decision. If money plays a role, call Willamette’s Financial Aid Office to see if they can do anything to narrow the gap.</p>
<p>Sunmachine, my son was accepted to both Whitman and Willamette–received merit scholarships for both. My son really did like Whitman, but once he experienced Willamette, he knew the choice for him was Willamette. It was interesting because he applied to Willamette originally as a back up, since Whitman is so hard to get into. Both have amazing programs for what he wants to do (theatre). It mainly came down to Walla Walla vs Salem and the “feel” of the 2 cities. He couldn’t see himself spending 4 years in Walla Walla. Also, he liked that Willamette was a little larger in student body due to the graduate programs there. Whitman is slightly more prestigous and I thought that would be important to him, but it wasn’t. In truth, he liked that “Oregon” feel–the culture just was a little different for him, maybe even quirky, dare I say, at Willamette. We are from WA state, by the way.</p>
<p>We have friends with kids totally happy with each school; you won’t go wrong at either. They have quite different feels about them, with Whitman a bit more academically challenging, I think, as well as more transportationally challenging. I would expect visits to convince fence-sitters one way or the other.</p>