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outwest
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 4th, 2007 |
| Location: | CA |
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Posted: Sun Apr 15th, 2007 04:20 am |
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I commented on the other Whitman thread which I'll copy here and add a touch.
Whitman College:
After a 5 hour drive from Tacoma, Washington, we visited Whitman yesterday. Talk about a college that's out in the boondocks! We're talking hours (all five hours) from no where. It isn't listed as a rural campus for nothing. It amazed me that professors would want to live in Walla Walla, a town with just under 30,000 people. It made me wonder what the turnover could be and if that statistic is available somewhere. Getting anywhere looks to be a royal pain although they said they have shuttles to the major airports in Portland, Seattle and Spokane at every break(4.5 hrs/5hrs/2.5hrs respectively). If you don't take a shuttle they do have a small airport near Walla Walla (30 minutes), but it is very expensive to fly in and out of so they said most students take the shuttles. We stayed in town and it had a gentle, lazy feel to it. I think that would grow on a person.
The weather, on the other hand, is wonderful. I did hear that it gets windy there, but we just had a gentle breeze. Compared to Seattle it was much warmer and drier. The Spring was fully in bloom there. The college itself is great, the down town area cute, but not that cute. They did have a Macys and a few other department type stores. Our tour guide was very perky. I think being perky must be a tour guide prerequisite at all these colleges. Or else it was because our tour guide was a theater minor/biology major.
The college is beautiful (okay, really gorgeous) with a stream running by and ducks. The students look intelligent. The food was terrific with lots of variety. This was the best food we had of all the schools.
Housing was good with multiple specialty houses available.
Their outdoor program is incredible and they get the students out of that bubble if they want to go. They had outdoor activities scheduled every weekend (kayaking, hiking, boating, rock climbing-you name it), but they also have things nearly daily during the week in the afternoons (practicing the water sports like kayaking in their large pool, for example). The blue-something mountains are beautiful and just East of the campus. They take them there for some of the outdoor programs.
We didn't see much in the way of sports going on, but they did have a beautiful pool and weight room with dozens of machines. The tread mills had cable TV attached to them so you could watch and exercise. My DD thought that was over the top. Most of the sports are Intra mural. They have a division 1 ski team, but otherwise it is div. 3. Many of the students looked ultra fit and I get the feeling that a lot of them are into intramural sports.
Academically it seems really strong with excellent programs. The students seemed to be happy and the activity boards were crammed with things to do on campus. I wonder if the fact that it is so rural makes the on campus life so vibrant?
We had asked for DD to visit a class well in advance, but they did not have one for my DD to see. Seeing as how we got up at 5 am to get there and drove for 5 hours that was annoying. When I gently questioned why they gave some excuse about not having any 'approved' classes to see right then. Hmm. What do they need to approve anyway? We had the feeling it was a teeny tiny bit elitist, but in their defense they were absolutely swamped with visitors this week. The information session was very good, but talked about the stats and difficulty of getting in a little too much. Other then that the speaker was terrific and informative.
It is one of the 'Colleges that Change Lives' in the Pope book.
DD liked it, said it had eveything imaginable a student could want, but the ruralness was a little too isolated for her (I think, not quite sure). She didn't think she would fit in with the students. Someone said on the tour it was like Grinnell which is also in the middle of nowhere.
Last edited on Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 03:12 pm by outwest
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Descartes
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 05:58 am |
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We (S and I) finished a PNW college tour in the past few weeks, too.
We crossed the Cascades and their arid rain shadow to visit Whitman College next in Walla Walla.
- How dry and desolate is the area between the Cascades and Yakima? It seemed a barren desert, and I did later confirm on a climate map that it was! The area east of Yakima, although still tree-less, was friendlier and more cultivatable.
- There is a considerable difference between a “small town” and a small city like Walla Walla. Walla Walla is about 31,000 with a pleasant Midwestern style downtown for shopping (within walking distance of Whitman), a hospital, multiple grocery stores, etc. In other words, it is a self-sustaining population center where a certain amount of anonymity can be assumed: not every local will know or recognize you even if you live there for four years. The city lies in the middle of an agricultural plateau with the beautiful snow-capped Blue mountains to the south and southeast. The ridge that parallels highway 12 for dozens of miles west of town is dotted with many hundreds of wind turbines, presumably helping to keep the clear air clear.
- Whitman itself is an oasis of trees, green lawns, and running water (in fountains and an artificial but naturally-sourced creek through campus) in the otherwise dry climate which apparently the local citizens like to walk through as much as the students. We visited during the college’s spring break, so there were very few students present, but still quite a few walkers from the neighborhood of modest-to-large, well-kept houses. One side of campus also blended in with the edge of commercial district of town.
- It was here that I realized that I prefer campus layouts more like Whitman’s – with the buildings set somewhat more lazily but not haphazardly positioned with one another. The layout avoids the blocky, grid-like feel more disciplined plans have but still preserves a sense of orderliness. I felt invited to explore at my leisure and pleasantly free to rest when I wished.
- A new building for studio arts was under construction, and in general it seemed that arts were exceptionally well-supported at Whitman, if judged based on the facilities allocated.
- Unfortunately we weren’t able to see many of the buildings from the inside on our tour. The dorm we did see seemed clean but otherwise average. The library was lovely, its reading room exceptional. There was a relatively new student center into which we could not go, as was the case for the theater and many of the classroom buildings.
- However we were fortunate enough to attend a information session with an admissions officer that was small enough to feel nearly private. As such, it provided much high quality information.
- Whitman requires all of its first year students to take a common course sequence in Antiquity and Modernity. Although there are different sections of this course led by different instructors with divergent approaches, all students nevertheless get to share a common experience which begins to define their life at Whitman. I find I appreciate this approach as it would seem to be a powerful technique, both pedagogical and social, that only liberal arts colleges could provide but which too few do. Moreover this sequence offers both a classical core and then explicitly frames that core in a modern context.
- Aside from this common sequence, there are the typical distribution requirements and also a somewhat untypical one requiring coursework in “alternative voices” in which the Western cannon is departed from. The ad officer summarized the curriculum as approximately 1/3 distribution requirements, 1/3 major, and 1/3 electives. A senior thesis/project is also required. Study abroad is an encouraged and supported option.
- Students play a role in the governance and administration of the campus, including in the selection of faculty. There is, however, no “honor code” against which to measure individual conduct. The ad officer felt such an overt set of rules would not be in the spirit of implicit respect and friendliness that permeates the culture.
- The admissions officer, an alumna, said that Greek organizations play a role in campus life but they are not exclusive in their social functions. In her opinion, remaining independent (as she did and most other students do) has no social consequences.
Everything left me with a positive impression, but with a caveat that there were no students around to get a more complete picture of the campus ambiance. Short of this, my son, too, liked what he saw, which subdued some of his reservations about four years of isolation in Walla Walla.
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Canadian
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 07:33 am |
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Whitman is another school that S and I visited last spring. I have the weird feeling I already wrote about it, but can't find anything, so I'll just add a few random things.
Descartes, we liked it for the same reasons that you do, and I have the same preference for "relaxed" campus designs.
The student center is very nice and includes a computer area (which I used), a small exhibit area for student art, a small food court with decent fare, and a popular coffee house with live student music downstairs. I think the outdoors club might be there, too. At any rate, the students can rent any gear they want at a low rate and there are numerous trips available.
There is a main quad, and all sorts of sports (IM, I guess) were happening there, as well as frisbee and a lot of sunbathing. Also, there was some kind of campus-wide game called Humans vs Zombies that one of my S's hosts was participating in. I didn't understand the rules of how humans turned into zombies, but it just looked like a quirky fun thing that a lot of the kids enjoyed.
Good gym and outdoors climbing wall.
One evening we enjoyed a barbeque, theatre sports, and a cappela group (the Testostertones--what a great name!) on the lawn by one of the dorms.
My S had 2 overnights, one set up by the school and one last minute with a grad from his high school. He had a great time. There are several special interest houses across the street from the school, and he was taken house to house partying. He reported plenty of booze but little dope.
The class the school set him up with was statistics, pretty weird choice for a visitor. The info session was good and quite relaxed.
The school offers lots of movie (artsy and Hollywood), lectures, and other cultural events which seem to provide a cultural focus for Walla Walla.
Not much diversity.........nickname is Whiteman.
There is a fountain near the student center. There were four students literally dancing in it.
Overall, S and I felt that the Whitman students had a really happy vibe.
Note that Whitman is one of the few schools to require a substantial graded paper as part of its application (at least for kids graduating HS in 08) as well as other essays.
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outwest
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 4th, 2007 |
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 03:33 pm |
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A year later: I still have a favorable impression of Whitman. In my mind, I remember how athletic the students are and how happy they seemed. My D ultimately did not apply there, but I think many students would really like Whitman.
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mmaah
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 03:36 pm |
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My son is finishing his second year at Whitman and could not be happier. Somehow they create an extraordinary community there and it is, at least for him, an exceptional place for this phase of life. And while it is small and not "diverse" in the conventional statistics by which this is often judged, I have been impressed with the school's attunement to this issue and how it is addressed in recruitment, research and educational activities (eg.,large and well recognized work by faculty and students on Latino issues in Washington state, speakers series and community forums), discussions, etc. Students are challenged to develop a real sense of responsibility about how community and culture happen and how values are made real in what they do with their lives. They work hard and also seem to have a lot of genuine, healthy fun while figuring out how to become responsible adults in a global community.
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CarolynLawrence
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 05:56 pm |
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My husband and I also really loved Whitman when we visited. I agree with Canadian: there's a very happy vibe to the student body. My son loved the campus and thought he could be happy in Walla Walla, but ended up feeling that the student body wasn't a fit for him personally. In his case, he felt the student body was too similar to his high school - nice kids, relatively clean cut, friendly, a little too jocky for him. But, as I said, my husband and I had a very favorable impression. 
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Canadian
Member
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Posted: Sat Mar 22nd, 2008 09:04 pm |
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A few more random notes:
Some people think Whitman is named for Walt. Not so. Marcus Whitman was a missionary, and the college teams bear the perhaps unfortunate name of the Whitman Missionaries. Some of the students would like their mascot to be changed to the Ducks, in honour of the many ducks on campus.
The mating habits of these same ducks are the object of scrutiny and intense discussion in the spring. Sometimes males gang up on a female. Is this duck rape? Should students interfere or leave the ducks to sort it all out in duck fashion? The grounded and quirky humour of the students really appealed to me........basically, I totally loved all the students I met at Whitman.
It was a close decision as to whether S would apply to Whitman or to Colorado College ED. CC won out because of the Block Plan and access to fabulous skiing. (The Blue Mountains have mostly blue runs.) Whitman is the school I look back on with the most "What if?" nostalgia.
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