Whitman College

Date: Jul 30 2006
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
Social: Whitman can be a great school for the right type of person. If you're a laid back, earthy-crunchy sort primarily planning on being involved with on-campus extracurriculars, you'll have a good time. Most of the students here are genuinely good, friendly, and idealistic people. However, the happy-go-lucky feel and homogeneity can get to be frustrating at times, and if you're somewhat intense or cynical you will tend to stand out, not necessarily in a good way. Also, think carefully about the isolation before you attend. Coming from a school with only 250 students in grades 6-12, I did not expect to be bothered by Whitman's size, but felt decidedly claustrophobic after my first few months in Walla Walla. The town, at least the area around the school, is fairly quaint and comfortable, and the campus is pretty, but it can be disconcerting to spend all day at class and "home" staring at the same quad. The school definitely does have a sense of community, which can be a great source of support for those who fit in but can also make you uncomfortable if you'd rather have some space to yourself.

Academics: There were some positives about academics here, mostly having to do with class size (great for discussion) and a faculty that genuinely cares about teaching. However, for the most part I did not get the feeling that my professors were really brilliant. I came here under the impression that Whitman was a great academic school that had been underrated due to its relative obscurity and location. This is probably true to a certain point, but even taking 20+ credits with some junior level classes, I did not feel challenged here and in some cases felt like I had taken a step down from my AP courses in high school. Admissions people like to tell you that regardless of how easily you were able to do well in high school, you will be challenged once you start your first college paper. This isn't always true. In fairness, most of my classmates had a very different experience from mine, but if you had the grades to get into a more rigorous school, you may owe it to yourself to give it a shot. There are also some problems stemming from the school's size. Even for a liberal arts college, Whitman does not have a great deal of breadth in its course offerings, and if you aren't sure what you want to study (overall or within a field), make sure that there are going to be enough classes to satisfy you. For example, in the history department there's a sizeable hole in the curriculum where Eastern Europe and Eurasia are supposed to go.

I'm transferring out after a year to attend a larger school in an urban setting, and while there are some friends I'll miss, overall I'm not sorry to go. Again, Whitman is a friendly place and it's possible to get a good education there; I would just encourage all prospective students to think carefully about whether they'll be able to get everything they need from four years of college despite the size, isolation, and lack of diversity (I used to think this was unimportant, but that's definitely not the case) among the student body.