Here are some of the many reasons students give us for coming to Whitman College from across the nation and around the world. But remember, the best reason to choose Whitman is a sense of place, a spirit of belonging – difficult to describe yet easy to experience when you visit our campus.
Academics at Whitman represent the best of what a traditional liberal arts education is all about. Build a solid, interdisciplinary foundation in the liberal arts through Core, a two-semester course requirement for all first-year students that engages them with the founding philosophies and debates of Western civilization. Choose from more than 42 majors in the liberal arts and sciences. Discover new insights and make new interdisciplinary connections as you prepare for your comps — Whitman was the first in the nation to make comprehensive oral exams a graduation requirement for all students, regardless of their major.
Small classes and a student-faculty ratio of 10:1 ensure that Whitman students are closely mentored by experienced and caring faculty who are equally passionate about teaching and research. In fact, you’ll not only interact with highly qualified professors in all your classes, you’ll also find yourself actively collaborating with them on real-world research and fieldwork . What better way to prepare for graduate or professional school?
A Whitman education is also about taking advantage of a wide variety of unique and innovative learning experiences few other colleges offer. These range from the annual Whitman Undergraduate Conference, where students exhibit their research, scholarship, and intellectual creativity (one of only two such conferences nationwide) to extensive study-abroad, internship, and service opportunities to our nationally renowned Semester in the West program, a semester-long, interdisciplinary course that takes students on an extraordinary 12,000-mile journey of discovery across the American West.
Whitman is not just a college where curious minds thrive in their pursuit of knowledge. It is a place that offers a perfect balance of natural beauty, history, and all the modern comforts you would expect. One of the nation’s premier liberal arts colleges, Whitman is in a location ideal for intellectual reflection and contemplation. It is a place where landscaped pathways (as well as modern technologies) seamlessly connect historic buildings of timeless beauty to cutting-edge computer and science labs and athletic facilities, or a new 24-hour health care facility that offers free services to students, or a comprehensive library that stays open 24/7 during the academic year. Above all, it is a vibrant, close-knit, residential community where — from academics to athletics and dynamic student clubs — people collaborate, support, and connect with one another in powerful ways. In fact, about 75 percent of Whitman’s 1,450 students live on campus, where they find a liberating, diverse environment rich in ideas, personality, and perspective.
Whitman offers:
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