Beautiful spring day! (Vancouver, Pullman: transfer, commuter, area)

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Yes, this campus screams potential whenever I visit it. The fact that its connected to Pullman helps as well. I think they are able to live stream certain courses from the main campus if not offered at Vancouver. Their master plan for expansion looks really good. And its not plagued with the same problems as Evergreen which is basically imploding on itself.

While visiting the school in the past, we met with some of their STEM professors and I was very impressed with the current research being conducted. They are part of a Tier 1 research institution, the only one of its kind in Southwest WA. That's also why it attracts students from PDX. Although fewer majors than larger campuses, they do a good job with the areas of specialization they offer such as engineering, nursing, computer science, environmental science, etc...

That said, my son has selected UW for computer science. He likes their smaller satellite campuses and has applied to both Bothell and Tacoma for fall 2020. As for our younger daughters, WSU-V does have some appeal depending on what they decide to major in. That is still very much up in the air.

Derek

If you want to see what growth looks like in a modern suburban campus like WSU-Vancouver, take a look at UT-Dallas which has gone from a minor commuter school to a fairly world class research institute with 30,000 students in basically two decades. https://youtu.be/lSpANsEzbM0

I was there in the early 2000s for a conference and went back in 2016 and was shocked that it was the same place. Obviously they aren't really comparable as UT-Dallas is a rising flagship and WSU-Vancouver is a branch campus. But it shows you what can be done when building a new modern university from scratch.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by MtnSurfer

Yes, this campus screams potential whenever I visit it. The fact that its connected to Pullman helps as well. I think they are able to live stream certain courses from the main campus if not offered at Vancouver. Their master plan for expansion looks really good. And its not plagued with the same problems as Evergreen which is basically imploding on itself.

While visiting the school in the past, we met with some of their STEM professors and I was very impressed with the current research being conducted. They are part of a Tier 1 research institution, the only one of its kind in Southwest WA. That's also why it attracts students from PDX. Although fewer majors than larger campuses, they do a good job with the areas of specialization they offer such as engineering, nursing, computer science, environmental science, etc...

That said, my son has selected UW for computer science. He likes their smaller satellite campuses and has applied to both Bothell and Tacoma for fall 2020. As for our younger daughters, WSU-V does have some appeal depending on what they decide to major in. That is still very much up in the air.

Derek

Yes, this campus screams potential whenever I visit it
BTDT many times helping with WSU-V projects / leadership.

We need some very engaged and influential business / industry locals to give WSU-V a unique and desirable and contributory image and success of it's own. It could be superb and complementary to Pullman. One of my kids did WSU-V and was very disappointed due to WSU really treating it as a 'Branch' campus and the TRUE campus (Pullman) getting a lot better choices and academic endeavors. (and sometimes profs).

Gotta break that barrier... such as when I completed my apprenticeship... the wise masters from eastern Europe said... Boy!, you gotta leave and make your mark somewhere else, otherwise you will always be considered an apprentice here (pay, career growth, assignments, opportunities, and growing professionally by taking risks). WSU-V needs to figure out where they want to go, then be 'Set-free' to go there (with significant pain / risk associated with that.) Growing UP comes from growing OUT (taking risk).

Now is a perfect time to set that direction and make the leap.
Opportunities are vast. (and fresh / changing)

They could do this RIGHT and be very successful. (Thus it is a shame to do NOTHING with this one-time-challenge / opportunity).

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Yes, this campus screams potential whenever I visit it
BTDT many times helping with WSU-V projects / leadership.

We need some very engaged and influential business / industry locals to give WSU-V a unique and desirable and contributory image and success of it's own. It could be superb and complementary to Pullman. One of my kids did WSU-V and was very disappointed due to WSU really treating it as a 'Branch' campus and the TRUE campus (Pullman) getting a lot better choices and academic endeavors. (and sometimes profs).

Gotta break that barrier... such as when I completed my apprenticeship... the wise masters from eastern Europe said... Boy!, you gotta leave and make your mark somewhere else, otherwise you will always be considered an apprentice here (pay, career growth, assignments, opportunities, and growing professionally by taking risks). WSU-V needs to figure out where they want to go, then be 'Set-free' to go there (with significant pain / risk associated with that.) Growing UP comes from growing OUT (taking risk).

Now is a perfect time to set that direction and make the leap.
Opportunities are vast. (and fresh / changing)

They could do this RIGHT and be very successful. (Thus it is a shame to do NOTHING with this one-time-challenge / opportunity).

Yes, we need our own local business leaders to step up as is the case with other local universities.

Go to UO and there are Knight-branded buildings all over the place. Not just the sports palaces like Matthew Knight basketball arena. But also academic buildings that are built with Nike money.

Go to UW and there are Gates and Allen-branded buildings all over. Mary Gates Hall after Bill Gate's brother. And the Kenneth L. Allen library was dedicated after Paul Allen's father. And of course the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering which is headquartered at the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering (Gates Center).

Ken Fisher are you listening? WSU-Vancouver could use a world-class business and innovation center called the Fisher Center for Business Innovation or some such. WSU-Vancouver is in the WUE so they could pull students from Oregon as well.

[StealthRabbit]

Would be a beautiful Spring Day for WSU-V to get that boost.

(complimentary programs to WSU and UW, but expertise of it's own)

Business Development and innovation would be one of many excellent opportunities, as well as Medical Business Innovation. These are sectors that are really lacking in academic leadership in PNW.

One of my kid's went to WWU and had a great experience and got one of the best jobs I could imagine within WA state for business finance / analyst. 10 yrs of that experience set him up to contribute in vast areas of expertise, which he is now pursuing with start-ups and innovation capital markets.

I do work for SCORE and SBDC and Bizcenter (Oregon), and recognize a pretty large educational gap for successful and sustainable business / finance / management. Marketing and invention is pretty well covered, educated, and staffed in Portland area, but the majority of excellent potentially successful business opportunities fizzle due to management and finance.

OT... spend a beautiful Spring Day
at Crystal Springs!!! Next 2 weeks are usually the BEST!
Walk around Eastmoreland neighborhoods and Reed College (next door)

Catch a lunchtime special at Spagetti Factory on the Willamette. Walk the river trails after your lunch.
I miss the happy hours at Ringside East (Golfcourse), but it now is a brewhouse that might have happy hour on the patio.

[TheOrca]

wsu-v has really great potential

[TheOrca]

Woah what the heck I just looked at UT Dallas - that's right near where I used to live

Richardson is a great area

My dad went to UT Dallas actually while I was there

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by TheOrca

Woah what the heck I just looked at UT Dallas - that's right near where I used to live

Richardson is a great area

My dad went to UT Dallas actually while I was there

Pretty impressive results when you drop a couple billion dollars of oil money into the Dallas suburbs. UT-Dallas used to be a minor suburban commuter school. Now it has leaped past all the other public schools in Texas to more or less 3rd place behind UT-Austin and A&M. They get more and better applicants than places like Texas Tech and Houston (and especially the other regionals like Texas State, UT-Arlington, UTSA, and North Texas) which didn't used to be the case at all.

Obviously there is nothing like that kind of money here in WA. I think it will take local Vancouver leaders grabbing the bull by the horns and forcing the issue. That is, of course, what happened with UT-Dallas. All the Dallas moneyed class demanded that they have the best university right there in Dallas. Because as long as the main WSU administration in Pullman is in charge, they will always slow-walk major investments in any other campus, especially those that compete with Pullman. At some point they need to grow up and chart their own course independent of WSU. But then Dallas and Vancouver hardly carry the same clout and weight in their respective states.

[TheOrca]

What I find so interesting is that so many people in Vancouver are from a small a few small cities outside of dallas and the bay area

It seems like Vancouver is this sort of like nexus of people from Bay area california and Dallas Tx

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

WSU-Vancouver is a hidden gem that has a lot of potential if the state has the money to continue building it after this current financial disaster. It is actually now LARGER than Evergreen State College in Olympia but only gets about 5% of the attention that that school gets. Which I find odd. Most Washingtonians outside of this region probably don't even know it exists.

According to Wikipedia:

WSU-Vancouver enrollment: 3,577
Evergreen enrollment: 2,854

The campus is 351 acres which is larger than the 22,000 student University of Oregon at 295 acres, so they obviously have plenty of room to grow.

Thanks for calling my attention to this, you and the OP. What iare the college's strengths? What fields are they outstanding in?

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Thanks for calling my attention to this, you and the OP. What iare the college's strengths? What fields are they outstanding in?

I think Business Administration and Computer Science/Engineering are their two most popular majors. But they offer most of the traditional arts and sciences degrees. Stealth could probably answer that question better.

It's your basic commuter school that sort of flies under the radar, even here in Vancouver. I think the majority of students are non-traditional. Average age is more like 26. So it is a lot of local people going to get or finish degrees they started elsewhere.

I think there are also students from the area who start there for their first two years, and the transfer to WSU Pullman to finish their degrees, especially in the hard sciences where WSU-Vancouver is kind of lacking.