Willamette University impressions?

NolaCAR
Tue, 17 Apr 2018 13:01:06 +0000

@tad33 My DD is a freshman at Willamette. She also applied to Lewis & Clark and UW-Madison (in-state). She is a biology major so I can’t give you much insight about East Asian studies, other than to echo VickiSoCal that Willamette’s partnership with Tokyo International University means there is a year-round presence of many Japanese students, and there are some study abroad opportunities created by the partnership, in addition to all the normal study abroad programs.

DD’s thought process was that she would end up at a major research U like UW-Madison for grad/med school, and therefore wanted to give an LAC a try for undergrad.

Willamette has suited her socially in a couple of ways. 1. It is collaborative. Everyone, from the professors to the students are really nice. 2. It is not a party school. Like your DD, she is quiet and studious and would have found it socially isolating, I think, if all of her classmates wanted to party all the time. 3. The students pride themselves on being heavily involved on campus. DD is an outdoor programs leader, an EMT for Willamette’s EMS, and she tutors Native American high school students at a nearby boarding school. She is also in Chemistry Club and a knitting club. And this is a kid who did very little in terms of activities in high school.

Good luck to your DD with her decision. I don’t think she could go wrong at any of the 3 schools in terms of her intended major-they all sound quite strong. So it sounds like it’s more a question of fit-does she want a big U or a small LAC, is she ok with Wisconsin winters (I drove through the UW Madison campus yesterday and felt sorry for all the kids bundled up in their snow boots and parkas-later DD texted me a photo of ducklings on green grass near the mill stream at Willamette), is she okay with the PNW rains, etc.