Whitman College Top Questions

Asking me to stereotype the student body? Not possible. I am a Tennis player who enjoys nerdy D and D sessions and cooking. How is that for diverse interests? And I am no where near as varied in interests as a lot of people. The one thing you will realize when you come to Whitman is that everyone has a talent. Everyone seems to have something amazing that they can do. Whether it be playing an instrument, playing a sport or being able to snap louder than thunder, (not kidding one of my best friends does this) Whitties have amazingly diverse interests and talents.

Whitman students are passionate and always surprising me. I am always learning that my friends have crazy talents or really cool interests. Students are mostly relaxed and dress to class is always casual. Above all else, students are accepting and encourage their peers to be themselves, whoever that may be. Whitman is too small for there to be cliques or individual social groups. Most of the time, I would feel comfortable sitting down at any table in the dining hall.

For the most part, the Whitman student body is pretty relaxed. Dress code is casual: shirts recommended but shoes optional (except in the dining halls). I usually think of Whitman students as the kids who were a little different, so were never the most popular in high school, but then came to Whitman and found their peers. Unicycling, fencing, and accordion-playing are all fairly common sights on campus. Most students are from the Pacific Northwest, especially Seattle and Oregon, but there's also people from all over the world. Although not known for its racial diversity, there is a black student union at Whitman, as well as an International Students and Friends Club, GLBTQ, and Allies Against Homophobia.

Whitman kids are almost too welcoming to people of different racial, religious, and sexual orientations. By that I mean it is a constant topic of discussion. I think it could become suffocating to be constantly told "you are accepted. we love you for who you are. etc." I do think that different types of students interact very well. I can't imagine anyone being excluded from anything at whitman because of race, religion, or sexual orientation. Most people at Whitman are moderately to extremely well off. Coming from a lower middle class family, I consider myself a minority. Once again, we are quite liberal and quite politically aware. Yes, people do talk about earning money.

Whitman's student body is very open and very diverse. There's a group or club on campus from every type of person, and all of these groups are widely supported by other types of people on campus. Whitman never feels cliquey. For example, if I were to describe four tables of students in the dining hall, there would be a wide range of people at each table. One may have someone who is really into sports eating with others who spend most of their time with theatre-related activities while someone else may be the next world-renowned biochemist. I could walk up to and sit down at practically any table in the dining hall and feel welcome. This being said, there are of course groups of people that spend more time together, just because their interests are similar or the groups they belong to are the same. I often eat in the dining hall with my sorority sisters, but that doesn't mean people who aren't in the sorority won't eat at our table--there are usually at least a few people who aren't, and they don't feel out of place.

I've worked a lot with the feminist club on campus (FACE), and I've laregly found the campus very receptive. There are so many different people here, and while EVERY different (racial, sexual orientation, ethnic, religious, etc) minority group may not be represented in spades, there are people from just about every subgroup I can think of. This feels like an odd question because at Whitman the studwents are really the clincher of the college experience. We all learn from each others' different and exciting experiences, and limiting my thoughts to different representative "groups" on campus seems to betray my experience, which has just been full of a lot of different and really great people. While here at Whitman we talk a lot about needing to become more diverse, we are, I think, more diverse than many of the other campuses I've ever seen and I think that we also have a far more comprehensive view of diversity that enriches everyone here. Could we be more diverse? Yes, but then, I think every institution could benefit from increased diversity.

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.

Whitman tends to be super laid back. Students definitely don't dress up for classes, most will be in sweats or something comfy. It is true that most of the student body is made up of white, middle to upper class students, but Whitman seems to be making a big effort to change that. As far as different social groups on campus go, students tend to band together in classes more often than they splinter off with just people they normally hang out with. And because everyone seems to be involved in at least three to four different activities on campus, there's a bunch of overlap anyways.

Whitman's student body is very environmentally conscious. It is true that our student body is mostly white, middle/upper-class, but Whitman is making a genuine effort at fostering diversity. With recent years we have seen more and more diversity in incoming classes. Whitman draws students who are "outdoorsy," and quite a lot of students are involved in IM sports.

My classmates are engaged and enthusiastic to learn about theories, applicable sciences, and are willing to help whenever it is needed.