Evergreen State College

Academic approach. Evergreen has a very unique outlook on education. You have very broad "programs" that will normally have about three subjects combined into one interdisciplinary program. In my program and in most programs, you have lectures like any other college but two times a week you have a seminar where you openly discuss with your peers about the content that was given then you write a reflective essay about some of the ideas that you and your classmates threw around during seminar. Because we don't have grades, we have self evaluations and meetings with faculty to discuss your progress. You and your faculty discuss what's going well and to find what's not going well. Again, since we don't have grades, theoretically, each assignment has a certain number of credits to receive and so you have to do every assignment in order to still be in the running to receive your credits. For financial aid, some prole need to keep a close eye on their participation and work. The academics here are very "self advocating" when you need help, talk to your faculty and from there you guys can work on a strategy to make sure you stay on track. This school puts a lot of emphasis on communication and building relationships. In order for faculty to write a written evaluation, he/she/they/them really need to know you and your work habits.

Campus vibe. The vibe here is really relaxing and the academics here aren't so cut and harsh (although sometimes challenging). We're in the forest and for me personally, it's been good for my anxiety being in a more creative and interdisciplinary setting.

People. The people here are very original. There isn't really "one" type of evergreen student. I've had classes with "adults" and with students right out of high school. Evergreen really tries to encourage people to be themselves and you see a lot of people being who they really are here. Another rumor people have is that every student is lazy or doesn't do work. I haven't came across anyone here at evergreen that just slacks off in class. Everyone I've came across had passion and they were very engaged in class.

The con of this school. People have "ideas" about what they think evergreen Is about. I wanna say I read a comment on here talking about how a lot of people don't do their "research" on evergreen and what its about and they end up going to yelp and cyber bashing it. This school is a state school part of the Washington State list that's federally funded. This school is accredited. Again, this school is accredited. You can get a degree from here and then go into the work force. You aren't wasting your money this school has the same price range as any other state school. I often forget this is a state school because its liberal arts and it's small. You're getting s private school approach with public school rates.