Alex

The 10:1 student to faculty ratio is fantastic. Getting a hold of professors has never been a problem, and I know many professors outside of the classroom through class dinners at their house or babysitting their kids. The workload is large, but entirely manageable. Almost every student is overly committed to their activities here: whether they’re in Tae Kwon Do club or doing student government. Buying into campus life and getting invested in activities is key—there’s always more than enough to do on the weekends, but it’s not the nightlife of the big city. It’s more intimate and close knit.

Every professor I’ve had at Whitman has known my name (and my major, hometown, and extracurricular interests, most probably). Many of them will meet with students for a meal instead of just going to office hours, or have a class over for dinner around midterms or finals. I babysit and dog-sit for a number of my professors, and they come to the shows at the theater, choir concerts, sporting events, and concerts on campus. You get used to seeing professors as whole people, not just professors, and they see students as whole people with lives outside the classroom. Going to class is key, and class participation is usually of paramount importance and counts towards final grades in many classes. Students tend to be far more collaborative than competitive, and share ideas with one another, offer help in areas where they are strong, and ask one another for help in areas where they are weak. Learning for learning's sake is encouraged, as is both depth (in your major department) and breadth (drawing from other areas) of knowledge.

In the past few years, Whitman has made an effort to bring more racial and socio-economic diversity to the student body, and diversity continues to grow on campus. There are a lot of white Pacific Northwest kids here, but to lump all of them into one category isn’t totally fair either. I would say that diversity of interest is what is really cool on campus. There’s a rap-activism group on campus, and a cello choir. There are trips to nearby skiing and craft club meetings. Every year, students find a way to organize their passions into activities, and the “typical” Whitman student is involved, but in what, it’s hard to say. For the most part, students tend to be fairly liberal-leaning politically, and agnostic. Conservatives and the religiously minded (especially Christians) are small, fairly soft-spoken minorities.

One of the best ways to meet people and make friends is simply by living on-campus during the first two (or more) years here. I met a lot of my best friends freshman year while they were living down the hall. Many students (especially in first year halls) keep the doors to their rooms open whenever they’re not at class or in bed. ASWC (Associated Students of Whitman College, our student government) brings a lot of really cool speakers (Salman Rushdie, Marjane Satrapi, Helen Thomas) and bands (Guster, Ben Lee, Flogging Molly, Blue Scholars) every year, as well as coordinating a lot of activities, like the “drive-in” movie, where students watch a movie on a big inflatable screen on the lawn, or Casino night. A lot of off-campus houses will host parties, a lot of times with dress-up themes or student bands, and they are generally pretty fun. There are always a number of fun things to do on the weekend, whether you drink or not.

Nerdy, liberal, outdoorsy

We tend to be nerdy and liberally leaning, but the outdoors stereotype can be misleading. There are tons of things to do outdoors, but you don't need to be a seasoned camper to fit in.

It takes buying into the small town and the community, but if you put a lot into Whitman, Whitman has a lot to give back to you.