For those who are looking at Willamette- what other schools are you looking at as well? DS is looking at Willamette, Lewis & Clark, Occidental. Appreciate any thoughts on key differences as well as other schools to consider.
Has your son considered UPS?
I have no ties to Willamette as my kids didn’t look but if you look at US News, they show cross consideration to Lewis & Clark , Linfield, Puget Sound, and U of Oregon (probably locals based on price).
I could see Reed, Pacific, Whitman, and even Oxy as well.
Good luck.
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If my kid doesn’t go to a big school, she is considering Willamette, University of Puget Sound, and Whitman. These are just her/my impressions based on brief visits, so take them with a grain of salt, but here goes:
She liked the Lewis and Clark campus, but the school never made it to her final list for some reason. I think mostly she thought it wasn’t far enough away from home. If you haven’t been, it is tucked away in a wooded neighborhood on a hill — does not feel like you are in a city.
By contrast, Willamette is smack in the middle of Salem. It’s a much smaller city than Portland, but the campus feels more urban. It’s right between the courthouse and Capitol and hospital, which provides for internship opportunities, etc., but also means there are some transient and homeless folks near campus. It felt less safe to my kid, who thinks in terms of where/how she would go for a run, but we did have the sense it drew a more urbanite diverse student body than the others. Just our impression.
Whitman is lovely and my kid had a great visit and really liked the students she spoke with. The students came across as down-to-earth, unpretentious, upbeat smart kids from all over the country. Walla Walla is charming but very isolated. You are 50 minutes away from a city big enough to have a Target.
University of Puget Sound has a gorgeous campus straight out of a book in a nice neighborhood less than a mile from the water. My kid liked the students, but felt they were more cookie-cutter than at Whitman — more kids from upper-middle-class Seattle suburbs, maybe more driven but less intellectual than the Whitman students and less quirky/urban hipster than the Willamette students?
Both Willamette and Puget Sound offered business programs that felt closer to a big university business school experience. Lewis and Clark and Whitman felt more like traditional LACs, despite Lewis & Clark’s law school.
Funny how much depends on the students/people you happen to meet or run into on a visit — that can influence your entire perception. Anyway, that was our take-away from each place.
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Sounds like your daughter has great awareness…would it be safe here for me to run ?
Only thrvNW is in play besides Oxy?