During the final week of July, Willamette will welcome nearly 200 families to campus as part of Oregon Private College Week (OPCW). During this special week, families have the opportunity to visit 11 of the state’s private colleges and explore what makes each of them unique. When they register in advance on oregonprivatecolleges.com to visit at least four of the schools, students qualify for application fee waivers.
Here in the Admission Office, we look forward to welcoming these visitors for sessions at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily throughout the week. We hope you’ll get a chance to meet some of them, too!
Gov. Kate Brown declared Oregon Private College Week in recognition of the indispensable contributions of Oregon’s private, nonprofit higher education sector to the state’s education and economic goals.
The 18 colleges and universities, including Willamette, in the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and Universities:
- Enroll 19 percent of Oregon’s undergraduate students;
- Award 23 percent of Oregon’s undergraduate degrees;
- Confer 25 percent of the bachelor’s degrees awarded to minority students in the state, including high-need fields such as STEM , health professions, business, economics and political science, mathematics and statistics, and public administration and social service;
- Offer degrees in more than 240 fields of study;
- Help 60 percent of their students save time and money by graduating within four years.
During OPCW, prospective students and their families can learn about academic programs and financial aid, meet admission experts and tour the campus. College officials will also address common myths about private higher education:
- Thirty-two percent of Alliance undergraduates qualify for federal Pell Grants based on income,
- The Alliance member institutions are cost-effective. The average indebtedness of Alliance graduates is lower than the national average for private colleges and universities and similar to that of public institution graduates;
- Ninety-two percent of first-time, first-year students receive financial aid, with an average grant and scholarship award of over $19,000.