For Three Quick Questions, I send the same three questions to admissions representatives at colleges all over the country.

The three questions are meant to probe some of the things that make a school unique but that aren’t easily captured as a stat to go in a book or web search.

Today’s response is from Carl Forbes, associate director of admissions at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

What is a course, tradition, program or event that is unique to Evergreen State College?

Most courses at Evergreen are unique because of their thematic nature, team teaching and multi-subject interdisciplinary approach.  Each course tends to be a 16 credit-hour “program”.  In fact, if you ask students what programs they’re in, they will usually respond with what they are currently taking rather than an overarching theme or “major’.

That being said, one of those thematic courses is “Madness & Creativity: The Psychological Link”.  This 16 credit-hour program combines Psychology, Creativity, Literature and Cultural Studies (four credit-hours from each discipline).  In the course, students dive into the intricacies of the human mind and social structures in the context of gender and identity, unravel underlying issues of poverty, housing, and criminal behavior in local and global communities, sort through the ways people create their own paths to successful living, and find out what makes people, and societies, tick.

Naturally every college wants to recruit the perfect student--high grades, high test scores, involved in their community, leadership...everything. But what kinds of imperfect students tend to flourish at Evergreen?

As a college where students choose courses to make their own way, take one 16 credit-hour, 10-week course at a time, and where they do not earn letter grades at the completion of a course, several students flourish at Evergreen. We have students at differing points of the autism spectrum. Students who struggled with the traditional high school institutional model relish the idea that they choose the courses that they want. In addition, students that have no clue what they want to do like the fact that we can start the course selection process with the subjects they like.

When people come to visit Evergreen, what's a place off campus that you recommend they check out while they're there?

Mount Rainier, the iconic mountain of Washington, is about an hour away from campus. If the student (family) enjoys the outdoors, that is a fantastic choice. However there are several trails to hike right in and around Olympia. Olympia’s place in the Puget Sound makes it a great place for fresh, local seafood. The Oyster House specializes in locally sourced delicacies. In addition, the rurality of the state makes the Olympia Farmer’s Market a year-round shopping destination for freshly sourced meats, seafood, produce, and other natural-themed goods.

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Photo by Angela Elisabeth.