@peachActuary73 Thank you! We’re not in the clear yet but hopefully she will be much better bu the time we move her out to Cali.
@cinn124 Congratulations!
@cinn124 Congrats to your daughter! CSU Long Beach is a great school and I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. It’s very popular in SoCal.
@sportingclaymom sounds good, but overnight? I’d rather pay more for him to fly the hour to Phoenix and drive two to Flagstaff, but we’ll see.
@eandesmom what is the closest airport to Western Washington…is it SeaTac? Or does Bellingham have an airport? He really seems enthusiastic about Western Washington…not a ton of people from our area go or apply there. One of my H’s co worker’s kid applied there, but ended up going elsewhere. And we had a neighbor who went there, she was originally from the Seattle area. S does love Linfield and it is a popular choice in our area for kids in this GPA range. Though we’ve had a lot of kids from our school apply, none have attended. Though we have had kids attend Puget Sound, Willamette, and Lewis and Clark, Reed, and Whitman over the years…Starting the year before D started applying for college, the Pacific Northwest has become a popular college destination at our school. It used to be 1 or 2 kids every year,but now it’s at least 6 or 7!
We know very happy NAU alumni. It’s become a more popular university at S’s school. In the last few years we’ve had at least 3 or 4 students who’ve applied and a couple who’ve attended. One girl who graduated the year before S goes there now and loves it! Don’t know any CSU alumni or people who are currently attending…
S doesn’t want to attend Humboldt…and it’s just as well. It’s pretty remote and hard to get to
I also think one reason the Pacific Northwest has become a popular college destination at our school is because we have a college counselor who is a University of Washington alum and was a long time college counselor at a private school in Seattle before moving to our school. She is very familiar with that area…and she had nothing but good things to say about Western Washington and Linfield…
Another school she recommended for S and other kids in this GPA range is University of Idaho. Great programs, beautiful area, and a wonderful choice for kids in the 3.0-3.4 GPA range. S didn’t end up applying, but it sounds interesting!
@JBSeattle Sounds good! We are going up for spring break!
Anyone here who knows more about Whittier, Colorado State, and Linfield?
@natty1988 - S20 and I just toured Colorado Stare yesterday. What types of info are you seeking?
@mountainmomof3 Nearest airport? Easy to get to? What is the campus and town like? It’s a campus we may not be able to get to…
Denver airport is probably an hour away. I didn’t inquire but I would not be surprised if there is some transportation set up to get to/from airport. I LOVE Ft. Collins - extremely bike-able city and campus; great downtown; a ton of nearby outdoor recreation; great campus vibe. Honestly, this has been my favorite college towns after tons of tours with S19. The whole area is just very nice.
Spread out campus so plan on needing a bike but there is easy to use shuttle service as well. (Big like Alabama.)
Class sizes are very reasonable for a large university and some seem quite small to me. It is known to have great advising to get the kids out in 4 years. Solid career center. Seem to have a good job placement rate but some majors have amazing job placement rates (upper 90th percentiles.)
Dorms range from swanky to standard. Food was good. Lots of meal plan options to choose from.
CSU will be S20’s only in-state pic.
@mountainmomof3 wow! Sounds amazing! Yes, Flagstaff has a similar shuttle that gets kids to the airport in Phoenix. I’ve heard great things about Ft Collins.
Maybe we can schedule a weekend trip there! We have plans to visit Western Wash over spring break. But, we’ll see about Colorado!
The fact that it’s part of WUE makes it appealing as well!
NAU is also on S20’s list of schools to consider. Not sure how the $ will work out there versus other options. At this point, CSU is the one to bear in terms of fit and financials so probably won’t visit anything else unless it comes in below in-state after merit at CSU. Good luck to your son!
@natty1988
Bellingham has a small airport, Vancouver is about an hour away but hassles of border/customs etc, a small airport opened recently at Paine Field/Everett (limited flight destinations) which is about an hour away then SeaTac is about two hours away. So, lots of options!
@mountainmomof3 have you heard of WUE/WICHE? What state do you live in?
Yes - we are in CO so I have looked at WUE programs (so NAU, ASU and some others remain on the “list” for S20.) We have also found great merit at some non-WUE schools and CSU instate with merit will be hard to beat in terms of checking off all of his boxes and being within budget. S19 applied to a couple in-state (unwillingly) and then primarily looked East where he wants to end up after college.
@natty1988
Colorado St has fairly tough academic requirements to qualify for WUE which makes it different than most of the other WUE schools. You may know this but just thought I would point it out.
Congrats to everyone with a decision made! S19 will be studying music at JMU and is low key sort of excited because the professor for his instrument is really cool.
@natty1988 My D16 is a junior at Colorado State. I agree with everything @mountainmomof3 said!
Airport shuttles will pick up at the campus transportation center and cost about $23. The ride is a little over an hour. Off campus housing is pretty reasonable. D has paid $600 in rent (furnished apartment one year, 1/3 of a house with a yard the next). She is paying $450 next year for her share of a 4 bedroom house.
She has not had classes with more than 90 people and a lot of them, even early on, seemed to have about 45. She is currently having some issues with getting classes she needs - not because they have filled up but because they switched the scheduling around. She would be fine if she hadn’t changed majors sophomore year to one that has a lot of required classes. It’s a B.S. major with a ton of required classes - I doubt that this would be a problem across the board.
Fort Collins is a funl place with a lot of parks and the wonderful Horsetooth Reservoir for hiking. Wages are also good if you have a student who will be working part-time.
@cinn124 Congrats on your D’s decision!
@natty1988 Seatac is about 90 min - 2 hours from WWU. The new Everett terminal at Paine Field is more like 60 minutes and has a lot of direct flights from CA. I’d absolutely try for that flight route, you’d skip all of downtown Seattle traffic. Bellingham does have an airport but it’s a small regional one, you’'d fly through Seattle and your only options are Alaska and Allegiant. I am a massive Alaska fan but would fly direct into Everett and drive up unless costs were equal. There is also Amtrak from Bellingham which is great for locals but probably wouldn’t help you all that much.
Fort Collins is about an hour away from DIA and yes, there are break shuttles, not sure about non break but I imagine there are options. My MIL and FIL (who are no longer married) met at CSU! We know a ton of folks who have gone there and they are all a tad cranky none of our kids did. It was our D14’s 2nd choice school.
What major?
It is always possible to get a shuttle into Denver and then take the train out to DIA if there is not an airport shuttle directly from Ft. Collins to the airport (but I bet there almost always are direct shuttles). It’s about an hour and a half to Denver for professional sports, theater, night life.
The academics are slanted toward agriculture, veterinary science, and other land grant college focus
Ft Collins is a true western town, more cowboy than Boulder. I’d say the biggest negative is the amount of traffic from Denver to Ft. Collins on a daily basis, and I do know people who commute, but college kids don’t have to deal with that much.
Thanks everyone for all the info about Western Washington and Colorado State. Yeah, I’ve heard it’s tough for WUE at Colorado St which makes it a bit unique among WUE schools. He is interested in science (Chemistry or Biology) but he is still undecided.
On my lunch hour I may look at airfares from Socal to Denver and Seattle and Everett. Our closest airport is Orange County/John Wayne, but we have Long Beach Airport which is about 30 mins away (dep on traffic) and LAX (half an hour depending on traffic). Also, San Diego and Ontario are an hour away but not worth going that far unless the airfare is super cheap! We’ll see…
One thing I like about Denver is that it’s served by Southwest and Frontier which often have great prices!
We mostly fly out of Orange County/John Wayne…we never do LAX unless it’s significantly cheaper to fly out of there, we’re flying internationally, or we’re flying to some odd place that would require 3 layovers if we flew out of OC.