Evergreen State College

Date: Nov 08 2010
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)
I came to The Evergreen State College expecting an educational atmosphere I wasn't used to, and I got it. In fairness I didn't know what exactly I wanted to do so my research into the college mainly consisted of looking at sights like this and seeing that it got generally great reviews. However, I will tell you about my impression of Evergreen after spending my Freshman year here, and so that you may take me seriously I will try to carry myself with dignity and restraint so that no degree of bias or exaggeration can be attributed to my sentiments. This college is, put kindly, not at par with what I believe a serious student expects from a university. I realize that a good amount of people may be attending from Washington because of the price or ease of getting in and that's great, but my comments are directed to those out of state students like me who Evergreen seems to market towards. You only take one program at a time, which may seem great, but when you're doing ten hours a week of both class and schoolwork it seems that the challenge one expects from higher education doesn't exist. I was in what was called a "tough" class and I found myself with hours upon hours of free-time, which is great if you want to chill and smoke weed like the majority of students but if you want to learn it seems like a giant waste of money and time. They make a big deal about being "interdisciplinary" but that doesn't mean they teach classes in special ways, they simply teach you abbreviated versions of the classes you'd be taking at other, more traditional colleges. There are serious programs like Molecules to Organisms, but these programs are no more than glorified versions of the biology and chemistry programs you find at any university. They offer only about fifty classes a year, about ten of which are science related, twenty of which are dance/yoga focused and the rest are philosophy, literature and governmental classes. I have had friends in all of these and am well aware of their focuses. The only highlight of the science classes are the upper-division classes which are nothing to write home about, but the primary problem is they offer practically no lower-division classes in chemistry or biology to prepare you for these programs (they only offered a health science class this year, and the same is true for next year). Apparently the dance is great so if that's your thing, come on over! The philosophy and literature classes are terrifying, often devoting entire years to concepts like "What makes us truly human?", these classes tend to be seminars (basically book clubs where all the students discuss among themselves the topics at hand) and an occasional lecture (the teacher's attempt to connect the material with a fun topic, there's often food involved). The politics related classes are mediocre from what I understand, attempting to teach you the history behind imperialism or the concept of power in American society while teaching you nothing of the basic concepts of political science, economics, or any of the other bases you need to understand these things on a deeper level. As I said you only have on class, which means if you don't like it, tough, because that's your entire focus, and If you don't like the college don't think that you can just transfer because not only does Evergreen not give grades (which no college will accept) but they have no required classes which means you must start over as a Freshman if you were going to go to another university. I have found Evergreen a completely unserious school; if you want an easy place to hang out, smoke weed and get a free pass while learning nothing and developing a resume that no graduate school in the world would accept, go here. If you want a college with smaller classes and a different atmosphere than high school but that will also offer legitimate opportunities and a quality education, consider one of the many other liberal arts colleges in the Northwest. I truly hate to break it to whoever read my opinion this far, because I was in your position a year ago and I would've hated someone telling me this, but The Evergreen State College is a place for people to hang out, learn very little and be completely unprepared for both the real world and any further education one might consider, it is not for serious students who want a challenging and rewarding education. Personally, I'm going back to my home state to go to the local national university (which is a place that will have opportunities for those looking for them). Sure, I'll begin as a Freshman there, but I'm always looking for a good challenge.