<p>Well, we’ve all heard of Silicon Valley, though I’m not exactly sure what cities that location constitutes, but I’ve recently come across the term Silicon Forest.</p>
<p>Where is this place, and what kind of companies are located there?</p>
<p>I have a mechanical engineering major son, and he’ll definitely have to look other than his hometown for employment, even internships, and just trying to get familiar with the geographic jargon.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Google is your friend. </p>
<p>[Silicon</a> Forest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Forest]Silicon”>Silicon Forest - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>^^^Oh, I know! Sorry I wasn’t clearer.</p>
<p>Anybody live in this area, have kids or they themselves work in this area?</p>
<p>If son was able to get an internship in this area, where would be options for him to live?</p>
<p>And of course, since it’s got Silicon in the name, I’m guessing it has a high cost of living.</p>
<p>And where does one fly into to get there for internships?</p>
<p>What schools generally feed grad students into this area for employment?</p>
<p>Sorry for all the questions, but would like to get some firsthand or even anecdotal knowledge besides the canned internet definition.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>It’s essentially the Portland area, and not too expensive. Twice we have looked into moving there but are pretty well set now in the Seattle area.</p>
<p>Intel, Nike, and the other big companies, obviously, will be recruiting worldwide. OU, OSU, U of Portland, Portland State, and a number of smaller area colleges provide a stream of young professionals. A summer in Portland would be a lot of fun for a college-aged boy. He may catch that NW bug like so many others.</p>
<p>^^^Son does want to settle in the Pacific NW. We visited Seattle/Everett/Whidbey Island after high school and fell in love.</p>
<p>He doesn’t want a big city, so I was hoping this area was away from the big city feel of Seattle, but would love to learn more about it.</p>
<p>Son’s field is mechanical engineering, and this seems more an area for electrical or computer or software engineers, but hoping there might be some place he can latch on to up there.</p>
<p>He knows if he settles in the Pacific NW, he would have no problem convincing me to relocate and help raise the grandbabies!</p>
<p>I love Portland. We’ve lived in Massachusetts (the Technology Highway–AKA Route 128), Mountain View (Silicon Valley), Seattle’s Eastside (Microsoft)–and this is the best. Mechanical engineers are a surprisingly versatile bunch.</p>
<p>Except for the downtown Portland area, it is all fairly suburban. Even downtown doesn’t feel too “big city” compared to many others. As an ME, he would be more likely to be working in McMinnville or Beaverton. </p>
<p>Bend, on the other side of the mountains, has some smaller industries and would be really, REALLY cool for a summer.</p>
<p>^^^Thank you so much. Another poster gave me advice on how to look for internships/jobs in certain cities, and I will definitely plug in McMinnville, Beaverton, and Bend and see what he can find. Son did choose mechanical engineering as his undergrad major instead of going straight into BME undergrad because he was told it was a very versatile major. Perhaps he can find his professional fit among one of the companies in the areas you suggested. He’s never expressed an interest in the Research Triangle, although I begged him to consider Clemson as an undergrad choice, but he is interested in going to Boston one day, and perhaps he can find something up that way, too. Thank you so much for your input. We will definitely check out those areas.</p>
<p>BTW, why is it called the “Silicon Forest”? Is it a more woodsy area? And is Silicon Valley actually a valley, as opposed to mountainous? </p>
<p>Just curious. We live below sea level, in NOLA, and this will definitely be a change of scenery for us.</p>
<p>Silicon Forest = 250’ Douglas Firs. Silicon Valley is, officially, the Santa Clara Valley. The climate and geography of Portland is similar to what you would have seen in Seattle.</p>
<p>Bend is high desert, hot (90ish) and dry during the summer. The Deschutes river runs right through town and there is a steady stream of people floating down it on rafts and tubes. You can see the cutthroat trout hanging out in their lies near the bottom. My oldest mostly watched for bikinis.</p>
<p>Having lived in Seattle, I’d argue that the climate and geography of Portland are different… Portland is warmer, less rainy, better summers, more moderate winters, and we have volcanoes and rivers instead of lakes and Puget Sound. It’s subtle differences.</p>
<p>Portland may be somewhat suburban, but it’s quite dense, and there’s a real push to make sure that it’s walkable, bikeable, and public-transport-able. To my knowledge, it’s the only American city that has a stated goal of social equity: [Portland</a> Plan](<a href=“http://www.portlandonline.com/portlandplan/]Portland”>Portland Plan)</p>
<p>And we have the best restaurants at the best prices anywhere.</p>
<p>No sales tax. </p>
<p>Reasonable state income tax.</p>
<p>Reasonable property prices.</p>
<p>We lived in the “Silicon Forest” area before moving up north. It is a beautiful area with lots of greenery (mostly evergreen). You’ll have too many options when it comes to outdoor recreational activities - hiking, mountaineering, windsurfing etc. It is a great place if you are into gardening. High tech activity in the Portland area is not as high as the label suggests. No where close to what we have in the Seattle area. Intel has a huge presence in Hillsboro, 30 minutes west of Portland. Tektronix was also very big but has shrunk a lot due to layoffs and spinoffs. Most others are smaller companies. </p>
<p>Insitu is a company your son might want to look into. It is located in Hood River, about an hour east of Portland.</p>
<p>^^^Thank you. Son is at a big Southern football school for undergrad, and I’m worried he’ll shy away from UW, as it seems to be another big football school, but it seems it has a great reputation for engineering. Is UW a big feeder school for industry in the Pacific Northwest, particularly, the Silicon Forest area? Thank you for all the feedback. You guys are very helpful!</p>
<p>Yes, UW is a big feeder school for high tech companies all along the west coast. They have a very good engineering program. One of a very few schools with top-notch molecular engineering program. By the way, football @ UW is not as big as people think.</p>
<p>UW is not a big football school in the same way that it is in the SEC, or even the Big 10. Many students don’t attend and don’t care. With the rebuilding of Husky Stadium, they will be moving the students out of their good seats to sell them to boosters so will lose many more students. He may disqualify it for other reasons - too urban, too rainy - but football should be way down the list.</p>
<p>UW has the reputation as the best engineering school in the NW. There is a waiting list for companies trying to recruit graduates. The Seattle area continues to import tech people from all over as we can’t supply enough for the local demand. Portland, though, is desireable for a lot of reasons, has a smaller job market, and will draw from many areas, especially the CA schools.</p>
<p>He may also want to look into HP. They like to hire interns and use that as a filter for new permanent hires. Insitu in Bingen, WA is a cool company, making UAVs, bought by Boeing a couple of years ago. Bingen is definitely small town.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the vote of confidence for UW. We did a lake tour while in Seattle and passed the big football stadium, and I am very worried that is going to scare him off of there.</p>
<p>University of Puget Sound, though not an engineering school, sent a college rep to his HS and he really liked the school, so I wonder if there is an engineering school similar to UPS in the area that might be a good fit for him as well.</p>
<p>While I assume one would fly in to Seattle to visit UW, where would one fly into to do internships in the Silicon Forest area, and these Bingen/Hood River towns, the smaller town locations?</p>
<p>Thank you for all your help!</p>
<p>Portland Airport. Not as big as SeaTac, but still has many flights. The airports are about 2 1/2 hours apart on I5, somewhat manageable, if there is a huge price difference in flights.</p>
<p>University of Portland would be most similar to UPS for a masters in engineering. I would not recommend Seattle U.</p>
<p>Bingen is probably closer to Tri-Cities in Pasco, WA.</p>
<p>UW is absolutely fantastic. There is no in-your-face football culture there. Our son who is at UW has zero interest in NCAA sports of any kind and he doesn’t feel out of place at all. He is in a group of kids who will graduate before they turn 19.</p>
<p>Bingen/White Salmon is accessible via Amtrak and would also be drivable from Portland. I’m always unsure of how to pronounce Bingen as the city in Germany and variety of cherry would lead it to being pronounced B-ing-en, but newscasters pronounce it as Binge-en</p>
<p>It’s worth noting the differences in taxation between Washington and Oregon. Washington has a sales tax, but no state income tax or can/bottle deposit, while Oregon has no sales tax and has a can/bottle deposit. Washington doesn’t charge sales tax to OR residents if the items will be used outside of Washington and the merchant participates in collecting information about shoppers collecting the sales tax exemption. Washington does have a use tax on items bought tax-free in Oregon and used in Washington, but enforcement is more common with cars and large ticket items. </p>
<p>As for the Silicon Forest, it’s a nice area with lots of shopping and outdoor activities and doesn’t have as much of a hipster vibe as Portland. I actually have a paper I wrote in 2nd grade which details my plans to be living in Beaverton when I’m 25. 
</p>
<p>PDX is my favorite medium-sized airport as it has great food and shopping options, no sales tax, and is very environmentally-friendly. One also gets a beautiful view of Mt. Hood and the Columbia River when landing. It has light rail directly to downtown and an Ikea a mile or so away.</p>
<p>Is your son looking at mostly tech-related companies or has he also considered the aerospace industry? Boeing has numerous facilities in both states and there are many other companies in the area. The timber industry also employs a lot of engineers and at least one company with significant operations in western WA/OR recruits at your son’s school. </p>
<p>As for the UW, it’s an excellent school for engineering and many other programs and football isn’t as big as it used to be. It’s fairly common for people to get graduate degrees at the UW while working full time.</p>