We are starting to visit colleges with our oldest son (a junior). Here is a bit of background info.
He has a 3.7 GPA.
He goes to a classical Christian school. All of his core classes are honors (except for math), but the only AP credit his school offers is Statistics.
He’s taking Algebra 2 as a Junior. So he’s on a more relaxed math track. He has the choice of Pre-Calc or Stat next year.
He’s a very strong writer.
I don’t remember his test scores. His verbal score was in the high 90-something percentile, and his math score was abysmal. We would work on it if he wanted to get into a selective college but… I guess it’s fine?
He’d like to major in English (w/a focus in writing) and/or history (particularly Medieval), and hopes to study/minor in Entrepreneurship. He would not enjoy being an actual business major. He’s also into science, but won’t want to major in anything science-y because of the math.
Activities: teaches skiing, plays football, on mock trial… um… plays bass for chapel band (I’m grasping at straws here)… let’s see… hangs out with friends and family… He’s honestly not that involved in activities. He works in the summer and during the ski season, so he seems pretty busy to me. I don’t know how other teenagers work in all of these activities and still have time for a social life!
Because we cannot afford private college tuition (and we don’t want him to take on debt), we’ve encouraged him to enjoy high school and not stress too much about grades (within reason) or worry about getting into a competitive college.
I THINK he’ll be able to get into most of the state colleges on the WUE list that would be of interest to him. (Obviously not UW or anything in CA, but they wouldn’t be right for him anyway.)
Here is the list of things he is looking for in a college:
Near skiing - by near I’d say within a 2-3 hours drive, although that is going to feel super far to him since he’s grown up in a town with skiing 30 minutes from our house.
Not in a large city.
Access to the outdoors for hiking, biking, camping, and other excursions.
He is politically moderate-mildly conservative and religious. So an environment where that would be socially acceptable/tolerated.
Traditional campus with lots of activities, intramural sports, clubs, exchange programs, and all the other fun things.
Here is the current college list:
University of Idaho - we all like Moscow better than Pullman, also smaller than WSU
Central Washington University - closest to home
Oregon State University - kind of far, but I’m a Beav
University of Montana - strong creative writing program, far away
Montana State - closest to good skiing, I think, but way too far away
Whitworth - not a state school and we can’t afford it, but it’s such a good fit, so on the list in case we win the lottery
Selfishly, I would like him to be somewhere we can drive back and forth. But maybe we should not be limiting him to our state/neighboring states. Should we be looking at Colorado, Nevada, etc.? If so, I know nothing about those state’s schools
Any schools I’m missing that should be added to the list?
Colorado Mesa is a WUE school, in Grand Junction CO. Close-ish to Aspen (although that’s very pricey) but also near Sunlight and not that far from Utah areas (not an everyday option, but the occasional long weekend). It has D2 sports.
If you live in Wash, the Wash schools will be closer and of course have instate tuition, not WUE 150% tuition. Personally I’d do Western Washington just because it is beautiful. I think you’ve hit the best WUE options of Idaho, Montana or Mont State. Wyoming also has a good writing program but not sure about Entrepreneurship.
If he was going to school out of state, would he be flying out of SEA, or is there a closer airport? If you are somewhat close to an airport and it is just an hour flight, that is one thing. If it takes a couple hours to get to the airport, a couple hours to fly, and then another hour to get to campus, that might be a different story.
If he’s interested at all in study abroad, Wyoming has an excellent and well-funded study abroad program. A friend of ours attended there through WUE and spent several semesters abroad. She went to grad school abroad as well, and has done very well for herself career wise.
He might not get WUE at OSU since it is limited (though they have loosened the criteria a bit in the last year or two).
Utah is on the edge of a big city, but the skiing is unmatched (30 mins away) and there is plenty of hiking nearby and biking up the canyons right behind campus. He would probably get WUE with a 3.7UW. D18 was very outdoorsy (climbing, skiing, etc) and loved it there. Several of her friends worked in the outdoor rec store.
WUE at Oregon State is now limited to about the top 30% of applicants, but other scholarships are also available: Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE)
He might love the skiing, community, and programs available at the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend, but it is small and might not offer the traditional college experience he is envisioning.
If you do end up expanding the map to include Colorado, Fort Lewis seems like an interesting one, and they really emphasize their proximity to amazing outdoor options.
They were also in an Amazon-produced series, The College Tour:
Per his academic interests, their English department has a Writing major, and their History department has at least a few Medieval history courses. Also, an Entrepreneurship and Small Business minor.
In terms of his faith being supported, the homepage for the school loaded and the first two events I saw on the calendar were a campus mass (I know; possibly not totally relevant) and a meeting of the campus chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. So there’s at least some fellowship around.
I totally get it if his staying closer to home is what makes sense; just wanted to mention Fort Lewis as another option to think about if you expand the search further.
In terms of skiing, Northern Arizona and Fort Lewis immediately come to mind :).
Instate, WWU would be great for his academic interests.
UMontana would combine strong Writing/English with skiing.
Sonoma State, a more residential CSU, would be a great academic match for its Hutchins program: https://hutchins.sonoma.edu/
For an English major, AP Stats (or just Statistics but it’d mean taking College Stats later on rather than being done in one go) would be more important than Precalc.
If he’s interested in Medieval History (I assume of Europe but could be other regions?) look into study abroad opportunities - ideally, one in Britain or Ireland early on, and one in another European country where he speaks the language and will become proficient as a junior or senior.
NAU has a fairly large percent of the student body that comes from CA due to the WUE tuition break and availability of merit scholarships for OOS students. It offers the full residential university experience for those of our CA neighbors who get squeezed out of the UC and CSU system.
Some WUE schools you may want to consider include:
Fort Lewis was the first school that came to mind, before you started mentioning Montana as far away. It has about 3300 undergrads, fabulous outdoors opportunities, a similar number of English majors as Whitworth, and would only be a couple thousand more than Central Washington.
U. of Montana Western: Its history offerings may not be as robust as desired, but as a WUE school, I think it’s definitely worth investigating. This school would probably be less expensive than any in-state option you have (tuition, room & board would probably run about $18k/year) and it actually allows students to receive WUE-tuition for up to 12 semesters (6 years), so if there are some detours in the educational path, the discount is still there. This school only has about 1400 undergrads, so if your son is looking for a more intimate environment, this could be worth a look. It’s also one of a very small number of classes where the focus is on one class at a time (like Colorado College and Cornell College…I think UMW is the only public school with this format).
Cal Poly-Humboldt: You might be thinking…Poly…as in polytechnic? But the English & history programs here are surprisingly robust and with only about 5500 undergrads, a more intimate environment. I don’t know how long it takes to get to skiing, and the campus may be more liberal than desired, but I defer to those who’ve been on campus and/or have more familiarity with the school.
UC-Merced: About 8800 undergrads at this newest UC. The English classes appear to be capped at 24 students (source). Additionally, there’s an entirely separate Writing Studies major, too. And its history department seems to have several courses on medieval history, though it seems to have a more global approach to the subject. Again, unsure as to how long it takes to get to skiing, but I thought I should mention this one, too.
If you let us know the budget, there may be some private schools that would fall within the desired parameters.
BTW, just to see, run the NPC on Whitman. Some top-notch, well-resourced private colleges “meet need” (Whitman does) while most others don’t. Each college has their own FA formula so you have to run the NPC on every single one of them…
I know - but Whitworth doesn’t meet need (*), whereas Whitman more or less does. Whitman would be great for English and depending on what OP meant wrt costs it could be affordable – it’s a good way for them to know whether they’d qualify for financial aid, it’s expand possibilities beyond WUE and in-state publics.
(* Based on their CDS/Data, only 25% applicants see their need met; on average, students get 35K which equals about half the cost of attendance. OP can try&apply hoping for a scholarship but odds are low. Whitman met 100% need for about 40% students and 89% need for the others, so odds are better).
I see. You make good points about Whitman, but average cost after aid tends to be lower at Whitworth than Whitman (which, of course, could be a result of more students without need attending Whitman).
In any event, it may be worth running Net Price Calculators at both schools and getting the financial pre-read at Whitman if OP’s son likes it. I know students from both, all great people, but different vibes. Whitworth’s Presbyterian/Christian values may appeal more to OP. I have visited Whitman and loved it; it felt a little like the Carleton of the West to me.
