What do people know about Whitman College XC? Thanks!
What do people know about Whitman College XC? Thanks!
LOL I always get D3 school Whitworth and Whitman in Washington mixed up.
My impression is Whitman is the superior liberal arts school.
Whitworth is the superior running school and apparently has a good coach, but he is very religious and you have to learn to ignore or embrace it.
If you are from the NW I'd also consider Willamette or Linfield in Oregon.
I ran there over a decade ago, when it was XC-only. A few people ran some open track meets and most of us ran a leg on a 100k road relay and in some years Bloomsday in the spring, but the off-season was pretty low-key, which held us back in the running performance sense but also meant we had a semester where we were normal students (not that we were exactly monks during the fall, either). They’ve recently added a distance-only track team, although their season (like everyone’s) was canceled this spring.
You’ll run through the wheat fields a lot, do long runs on the Mill Creek Trail and sometimes past the pen where you’ll pick up the pace, and repeats in Pioneer Park. You’ll have a great Halloween Party after conference where both mistakes and memories will be made. The women’s team is almost always better than the men’s team and has periodically had real national-level standouts on the individual level. The coaches are good folks and while they want to be good also let you have a balance between running, academics, and your social life (and Neal, while quiet, is hilarious, and genuinely a great guy).
The attitude in the academic sphere isn’t competitive, but it can be rigorous depending on your major and course load. It’s a good school with a really good reputation in the Northwest, but not a lot of people know of it outside the region—worth considering if you don’t plan to stay in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, or Northern California.
If you’re BIPOC or LGBTQ+, you may not find the town to be super-friendly at times— although maybe that has changed in the last decade or so—and some of the kids on campus don’t realize how privileged they are, either. It’s a small town without much of a bar scene, so get used to house parties. If you’re into music, comedy, and the arts, the only taste of it you’ll get is what the school brings to town. That being said, there’s a little bit of a restaurant scene (largely due to the numerous wineries in the area) and what there is of downtown is walkable. You can mostly skip the fancy stuff, though—the Mexican food is the best food in town, and I hope the XC Team still does team dinners at El Sombrero.
There’s a semi-official “Beer Mile” (really more sanctioned naked drunk run around the quad than true Beer Mile) on reading day every year, and I dearly hope that the distance runners (who meet with the Dean of Students and help spread the word about how to keep the semi-official Beer Mile safe enough for the administration to turn a blind eye) still hold a competitive beer mile on the track afterwards.
I went to summer camp as a kid (and embarrassingly deep into adulthood), and I both got a great education and had as much as I did at summer camp at Whitman. Could I have gone somewhere else, probably with a track team, trained more seriously year-round and run better? Almost certainly. But I could’ve trained more seriously in the spring on my own, as a few people did then, and they’ve since built the infrastructure for the whole team to do that. Instead, I kept running in an appropriate-for-my-moderate-talent-level, third-priority place, still ran okay, and got a good education and had a great time with people (both on the XC team and not) who are among my best friends today.
Apologies for being” that guy” and waxing nostalgaic about “the glory days.” But if Whitman feels right to you when/if you visit, seriously consider it. I wouldn’t say it was the best four years of my life, because life has been pretty good most of the time since then, too, but it was definitely four really good ones.
Awesome post!
six degrees wrote:
Awesome post!
+1
Not An Expert wrote:
I ran there over a decade ago, when it was XC-only. A few people ran some open track meets and most of us ran a leg on a 100k road relay and in some years Bloomsday in the spring, but the off-season was pretty low-key, which held us back in the running performance sense but also meant we had a semester where we were normal students (not that we were exactly monks during the fall, either). They’ve recently added a distance-only track team, although their season (like everyone’s) was canceled this spring.
You’ll run through the wheat fields a lot, do long runs on the Mill Creek Trail and sometimes past the pen where you’ll pick up the pace, and repeats in Pioneer Park. You’ll have a great Halloween Party after conference where both mistakes and memories will be made. The women’s team is almost always better than the men’s team and has periodically had real national-level standouts on the individual level. The coaches are good folks and while they want to be good also let you have a balance between running, academics, and your social life (and Neal, while quiet, is hilarious, and genuinely a great guy).
The attitude in the academic sphere isn’t competitive, but it can be rigorous depending on your major and course load. It’s a good school with a really good reputation in the Northwest, but not a lot of people know of it outside the region—worth considering if you don’t plan to stay in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, or Northern California.
If you’re BIPOC or LGBTQ+, you may not find the town to be super-friendly at times— although maybe that has changed in the last decade or so—and some of the kids on campus don’t realize how privileged they are, either. It’s a small town without much of a bar scene, so get used to house parties. If you’re into music, comedy, and the arts, the only taste of it you’ll get is what the school brings to town. That being said, there’s a little bit of a restaurant scene (largely due to the numerous wineries in the area) and what there is of downtown is walkable. You can mostly skip the fancy stuff, though—the Mexican food is the best food in town, and I hope the XC Team still does team dinners at El Sombrero.
There’s a semi-official “Beer Mile” (really more sanctioned naked drunk run around the quad than true Beer Mile) on reading day every year, and I dearly hope that the distance runners (who meet with the Dean of Students and help spread the word about how to keep the semi-official Beer Mile safe enough for the administration to turn a blind eye) still hold a competitive beer mile on the track afterwards.
I went to summer camp as a kid (and embarrassingly deep into adulthood), and I both got a great education and had as much as I did at summer camp at Whitman. Could I have gone somewhere else, probably with a track team, trained more seriously year-round and run better? Almost certainly. But I could’ve trained more seriously in the spring on my own, as a few people did then, and they’ve since built the infrastructure for the whole team to do that. Instead, I kept running in an appropriate-for-my-moderate-talent-level, third-priority place, still ran okay, and got a good education and had a great time with people (both on the XC team and not) who are among my best friends today.
Apologies for being” that guy” and waxing nostalgaic about “the glory days.” But if Whitman feels right to you when/if you visit, seriously consider it. I wouldn’t say it was the best four years of my life, because life has been pretty good most of the time since then, too, but it was definitely four really good ones.
Thank you!! This was a helpful post. I am from the northwest and only just now heard of the school and was wondering what it was like.
Walla Walla has grown in both size and sophistication over the past decade. The wine industry is fueling that growth. The area is attracting monied retirees and people looking to escape the crowds and high housing costs in Portland and Seattle. The area is rural and skews conservative. As stated earlier, LGBTQ and BIPOC students may feel a bit lonely and isolated but, the town is not heavily populated with the sort of hicks and bigots that would be dangerous.
That said, crime seems to be an issue...
All I know is that Whitman is very expensive!
Bring a lot of Cash!! wrote:
All I know is that Whitman is very expensive!
OP, while the above is true, don’t let the sticker price scare you off from applying. Both merit-based and need-based financial aid packages can be substantial. And also, if you ever live off-campus (most juniors and seniors do), your rent will be almost anachronistically cheap.
But that post isn’t wrong—especially if you don’t receive financial aid, there are certainly schools out there more affordable than Whitman.
Be sure to get the tony’s sub shop discount if you are in walla walla
I'm a current runner on the team, but Not An Expert nailed it right on the head.
To Not An Expert, I wouldn't actually be surprised if none of us have visited El Sombrero, so not sure who to blame for that tradition falling off. Although I would be glad to restart it. As usual for most Whitman students, our go-to has been taq in the wheatfields.
Beer mile still going on (speaking as a 1-time DNF and 1-time DFLer), although I don't think we've ever had it exactly on the same day as the naked run.
To the original OP, if you're not a High School senior who has already made their choice, feel free to reach out to me with more questions at
L take
+ ratio