POST COLLEGE – Grad School Shoo-ins
Reed College
Portland
The library is the most popular place on Reed’s campus, and that devotion to study has a big payoff: Reedies are accepted to medical school at a rate of 85 percent, 31 Rhodes scholars have come from Reed, and only three other schools in the country (California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) produce a higher percentage of PhDs in science and engineering fields. Why is this small Southeast Portland school so exceptional at preparing students for graduate work? Because going to Reed is like going to graduate school. At the end of their junior year, Reedies must pass a qualifying exam before beginning their senior theses. And that senior thesis isn’t the 20-page research paper you might find at other liberal arts colleges. It’s a yearlong project built on original research, and it must be defended in an oral exam before a panel of professors (and sometimes outside experts). After that kind of trial by fire, spending three hours on the GRE is no big thing.
Whitman College
Walla Walla, Washington
A whopping 60 percent of Whitman graduates hold advanced degrees. That’s due, in part, to the 3-2 programs the school offers. A 3-2 program lets students earn dual undergraduate degrees from two different schools and gives them an edge when applying to the larger university’s master’s program. For example, in the 3-2 engineering and computer science program, students earn a BA from Whitman in natural and mathematical sciences and a BS from Duke University in engineering or computer science. They then can go on to join Duke’s graduate engineering school. Whitman has three of these programs, rare for such a small school: engineering and computer science (with California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Duke University, the University of Washington, and Washington University in St. Louis), forestry and environmental management (with Duke), and oceanography and biology (with the University of Washington).
POST COLLEGE – Debt-Free(ish) Degrees
Reed College
Portland
With a yearly tuition of $34,530, Reed is one of the most expensive schools in the Northwest, but this bastion of liberal learning also offers some of the best financial aid packages. To wit: The average financial aid package is $32,154, and $28,108 comes from scholarships and grants, not loans (about 50 percent of full-time students qualify for financial aid, on par with most schools). That means Reed students, in spite of tuition costs, typically graduate with debts of only about $17,000. Some people pay more for their first car.
University of Oregon
Eugene
At $6,036 per year (in-state tuition), the University of Oregon still has one of the lowest sticker prices in the Northwest. And for the 47 percent of in-state students who receive financial assistance, there’s even better news: In-state undergraduates receive an average of $5,186 in need-based gift aid. For the un-initiated, that means free money.
Published: December 2008
