University of Washington (Seattle): UP for everyone
This was our last college tour (she said, optimistically) and it really delivered.
I went back through my copy of Fiske Guide recently, which has dozens of small sticky notes tabbing various schools, color-coded by “likely, target, wild card, reach”. Amazingly I didn’t even have a sticky note on the UW page. Why? Because at the beginning of our search we were looking for a liberal arts college (I thought) for a shy, smart kid who wasn’t sure what he wanted to do in life and was pretty lousy at navigating bureaucratic systems. We only started adding state schools back into the mix once he expressed interest in engineering, and for the most part we focused on likelies (Oregon State) and matches (CU, Minnesota, Pitt). UW was a long-shot for him but he wanted to apply, and somehow he got in. So we went to check it out.
What we appreciated right away: you can walk off the plane out of the airport, and onto a light rail that takes you straight to campus for $3. It’s clean, safe, and frequent. Seattle really knows how to do transit.
We disembarked right next to the Husky stadium and ascended a wide walkway up to the scenic campus, Mt. Rainier peeking behind us. I don’t know if anything prepared me for how lovely and traditional the campus would feel. I had this vague memory of U-District being kind of gritty and sort of expected something akin to Pitt or maybe U Minn (which has some quads and classic college architecture but also city streets criss-crossing campus). Instead, honestly, it reminded me of Princeton (lots of collegiate gothic buildings mixed with more modern styles and abundant trees). And right off campus, along the “Ave”, my son discovered every variety of Asian cuisine and all the shawarma his heart could handle (along with a two-story H-Mart, bookstores, boba, thrift shops, etc.) He was in heaven.
I can’t think of many schools in the country that combine these features – a) a gorgeous classic campus within walking distance from b) a vibrant college town area and public transit to all kinds of urban amenities (a car is completely unnecessary) and c) access to all kinds of outdoor adventures (the nearest downhill resort is about an hour away, students can rent kayaks down at the waterfront, there’s a vast and accessible network of off-road bike trails, etc.) I don’t think I’d quite put together how important each of these things would be to our son.
The tour was apparently fine (full disclosure: I nestled in a purple armchair near the fire in the student center and nursed the my blisters instead of going out in the rain to revisit the greatest hits). One nice factoid that both husband and son picked up on: students with disabilities can qualify for priority course enrollment. Five minutes after returning from the tour, we paid the deposit and said yes to UW. After 18 months of agonizing and visiting colleges all over the country and thinking about all the different tradeoffs, it turned out to be that obvious. The trickiest decision of the day was which sweatshirt to buy in the bookstore.
The next day my son tucked into a table in the library, put on his headphones, and finished a bunch of remote course requirements that he’d been punting on for ages. Then he met up with a high school classmate and walked around campus checking things out. They chatted up students from the cycling and badminton clubs, both of whom were friendly, and were impressed by the gym.
I don’t think there are any perfect schools out there and every option involves trade-offs. I’m glad we didn’t visit UW early in our process because it would have been tough to get him to apply anywhere else. And of course it’s a large school in an expensive urban setting and one has to apply to one’s major (so it probably feels a bit more competitive than some of the other options we were considering, e.g. WPI, Case Western Reserve, etc.)
But if you have a kid who enjoys both city amenities and the outdoors, a kid who appreciates a good gothic library but is also discerning about their banh mi? this place should be on your list.