Western Washington University?

emeraldkity4
Tue, 12 Apr 2005 11:52:39 +0000

oops waited too long to edit my post-
I wanted to add some more comments

http://www.livejournal.com/community/wwu/

Westerns live journal
actually my daughter felt Western was too big- but then her graduating class was 18!
The main difference would be- public vs well funded private
Classes at Western may be overenrolled- and you may find that your dorm was made for 2 people but now holds 3. We loved the area- very beautiful- but when we went for accepted students weekend and sat in with a biology prof who compared Western to Yale- but in a way that Yales academics were lacking we thought that perhaps they took themselves a little too seriously. I don’t have any trouble with a school saying that “we provide a good balance of education- of academics- recreational opportunities- and social opportunities” , for instate students especially it is a fantastic deal, but there just wasn’t any comparision to the intensity of Reed.
I don’t know what your finaid package is- but workstudy is available- you can earn $3,000 during summers for tuition, and take out loans- my daughter has also been taking a CC class summers to add to electives just to take some of the pressure off during the school year.
I have to say that while I think Western is a great school- if you are looking for really challenging academics and function better if you are in the middle of the pack rather than at the top, you may be frustrated at Western- ( however you also might find that you thrive getting to lead the way)
good luck