Regular Decision

<p>First of all, congratulations to your S for having such a high quality dilemma, all three are great schools. Our S really had no idea what he wanted to study, although he kept saying Environmental Studies, thus a liberal arts college seemed like an ideal way to find out. He’s investigated several academic areas and has fallen in love with geology, nobody saw that coming. </p>

<p>I’d say that to go to Cal Poly (I’m assuming SLO) your son should be pretty darn sure he wants bioengineering because it’s REALLY difficult to change majors there. I imagine it would be easier to change at Santa Clara if he wanted to. At Whitman he’d major in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology (BBMB) which I understand is a strong department, at least according to my S. I’m not quite sure how BBMB and bioengineering are alike and/or different.</p>

<p>Certainly, the life at Santa Clara and Whitman would be quite different experiences. We have friends whose twin daughters attend Santa Clara, and are having good experiences, but a lot of people leave the campus on weekends. Santa Cruz and San Francisco are frequent destinations, and many students are from the Bay Area and they go home a lot. That can be a plus or a minus. At Whitman people are around campus and the immediate area all the time so a very close knit camaraderie develops. Walla Walla is great little town and you can walk or ride a bike to do whatever you need to do. There is all kinds of shopping within walking distance.</p>

<p>There are kids who truly know exactly what they want to study right out of the gate, and if he’s really sure bioengineering is it, then Cal Poly may well be the best choice. But if there’s any doubt and he’d like a little room to try a few things out then I’d suggest one of the other two. Has he visited all of them?</p>