I suppose it’s about time for me to write a review of my school. I’ve written loads about college life. So it’s time specifically for me to write about the University of Puget Sound or UPS. Not to be confused with the mailing company. Yes, we get a lot of jokes. And no, our colors aren’t brown. ; )

The University of Puget Sound is located in Tacoma, Washington. The great Pacific Northwest. Woohoo! It is a small liberal arts school of about 2500 undergraduate students. Our President has supposedly called our school, “The Harvard of the West”. Um, right. We might be a great school, but Harvard of the West? Um, right.

The academic programs we offer are listed below:
African American Studies, Art, Asian Studies, Biology, Business and Public Administration, Business Leadership Program, Chemistry, Classics, Communication and Theatre Arts, Comparative Sociology, Dual Degree Engineering, Economics, Education, English, Environmental Studies, Exercise Science, Foreign Languages and Literature, Geology, History, Honors, Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies, International Political Economy, Latin American Studies, Mathematics and Computer Science, Music, Natural Science, Occupational Therapy, Philosophy, Physical Therapy, Physics, Politics and Government, Psychology, Religion, Science in Context, Women Studies.

So while we are known as a liberal arts school, we do offer a wide variety of subjects and majors. Other background details? We’re in the Northwest Conference, NCAA Division 3. We have ten fraternities and sororities (total). The average class size is 19 and the student to faculty ratio is 11.5 to 1. (How can you have a half of a student?)

Tuition for 2001-2002 is $28,285. They raised the tuition since last year. High I know. But before you wince at the cost, heck I already am, you have to consider what you’re receiving in return. Many freshmen receive some kind of financial aid or scholarships.

All of this information can be found at the UPS website, www.ups.edu.

But enough of the boring statistics. Let’s talk about what the campus is really like.

The Campus
The campus is absolutely gorgeous. I mean it. We have brick buildings, lots of grass, lots of redwoods, rhododendrons and tulips in the spring and pretty architecture. I always wanted to go to a school with brick buildings and ivy. But there aren’t that many on the West. In fact, UPS is one of two that actually has brick buildings. The newest building is Wyatt and it has a great Dale Chihuly glass sculpture which is highly prized by the President. The campus is of course small, since we’re a small population. Everything is within walking distance. No buses or even a bike is needed. Only your two walking feet. The campus is really pretty in the spring when everything comes into bloom and it’s nice to lay out in the sun on the lawn, watch people play ultimate Frisbee, make comments about guys that walk by and enjoy the sun. When there is sun, of course.

The dorms on campus are mainly for freshmen only with the exception of one dorm for upperclassmen. Otherwise, freshmen live in dorms. This is the one part of UPS, which I don’t like. After freshmen year, you have to scramble around to find a living situation. There are 58 on campus houses, along with Greek Row or you can rent a house or an apartment. The dorms are fairly new and spacious. Our dorm was the biggest but with the smallest rooms but very very clean! I’ve visited other schools and we must have the best janitors because their dorms were dirty!

There is one main eating area for students called the Wheelock Student Center but known to students as the SUB. They’ve got all kinds of different food. They have stations where you have your choice of pasta, pizza, tacos, burritos, Chinese, sandwiches, sandwiches, soup, fast food-ish type food, and full fare which is what you find at home like mashed potatoes, turkey and the like. There’s the cellar, which is in the basement of the SUB which has pizza, ice cream and other food. The food of course tends to get old after a couple of weeks…but that’s to be expected. The food isn’t bad however and there are food places around campus where you can liven up your food routine. I highly recommend Kobe Teriyaki which has great cheap teriyaki.

There’s Diversions Café which is a café that serves coffee, tea, chai, along with other coffeehouse related items. We are close to Seattle after all. They have excellent toffee cookies. I highly recommend you purchase one if you have the opportunity. My boyfriend and I used to prey like vultures waiting for these cookies. They started to recognize us since we always came in looking for cookies. The café is also a nice place to realx, do a little homework or sit with friends.

Academics
I’ve found the professors at UPS to be excellent and approachable. It was easy for me to contact them outside of class and they were always ready to help. Of course I had a good selection of professors for my freshmen year so I was lucky.

There’s a core type of curriculum at UPS. You have to take at least one unit in each of the following: Communication I , Communication II , Mathematical Reasoning, Natural World , International Studies , Science in Context , Comparative Values , Fine Arts, Historical Perspective, Humanistic Perspective, Society. The idea behind this is that you’ll be exposed to all the types of classes and departments offered at UPS and this helps in choosing a major. I like this type of idea since I wasn’t sure at the beginning what field I wanted to study in. I have since declared my major (somewhat of a feat for a freshman) to be English, Creative writing. And I’m lucky to have found a fabulous advisor. This type of core might not work for those who already know what they want to study but for those who want to explore, it’s great. The most popular majors are English, Biology and Psychology.
Registering and choosing for classes is easy as 1-2-3. Their website is set up so you can check the availability of courses online before you register. This helps setting up your schedule. Classes are all worth one unit unless it’s a PE class where it’s worth .25.

Things to do
On campus, there are plenty of things to do. There are many clubs you can join, intramural sports as well as varsity sports. If you’re into the Greek scene, rush is late rush so it gives you time to get adjusted to college life and meet other freshmen. Some of the clubs I can think of include, Hui O’Hawaii (Hawaii Club), Circle K, Reperatory Dance Group, SIRGE (Sexuality Issues, Relationships and Gender Exploration), UPS Young Democrats, Lighthouse (Religion). Those are just a few of the clubs on campus. You can get involved with the Puget Sound Trail, which is the campus newspaper, or KUPS which is the UPS radio station. Or you can take an acting class or participate in their productions or one acts. There’s also the music department which is a large percentage of the students. I attended many music programs as well as theater programs and even cheered on the Loggers at sports events.

Things to do in Tacoma? Well, Tacoma isn’t the greatest college town. There’s of course a mall, bowling, movie theaters and the like. But if I were to rate it compared with other college towns, I wouldn’t rate it so high. IT doesn’t necessarily cater to college students. It’s not horrible mind you. The UPS campus is in the pretty part of Tacoma. We’re not far from the water and we’re very much in a neighborhood. In fact, the house featured in 10 Things I Hate About You is located not to far away from our campus. Another interesting fact about our school is that the movie, “Prefontaine” featuring Jared Leto was filmed at our school. Our claim to fame!

If you’re looking for things to do, consider Seattle. We’re about 25 minutes away from the city and it’s a fun escape to eat or shop or hang out. Bumbershoot, which is a great concert, is in Seattle as well other fun things like Pike’s Public Marketplace, the original Starbucks and others. It’s not that far of a drive or you can take the bus. Public Transportation isn’t that hard to master and there are several bus stops on campus.
The UPS campus is small. You should be aware of that. Only 2500 undergrad students here. So we’re not exactly a hustle and bustle school. I don’t know if I can stress that enough. I talked with many prospees (potential freshmen) last year and the one major point I pointed out was that we’re a small school. That’s a big factor in making the ultimate choice sometimes.

The People
The people who attend UPS are from all over the US. Most are from the West, popular states represented are California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. There’s also a large amount of people from Minnesota and Hawaii. We have international students as well. The diversity of students is there. Although the majority of students are white, other races are represented. That was one of my factors considering UPS (I’m half Asian) and I haven’t felt uncomfortable whatsoever.

The people are for the most part nice, understanding and interesting. I haven’t made any enemies and everyone seems to be mellow and cool. After all, we’re past the stage of high school drama.

The Greek community meshes well with everyone else. There’s no real hostility amongst the students and everyone’s pretty much welcome at their parties. They don’t dominate the school and I like that.

Overall
UPS isn’t a school for everyone. We are a small liberal arts school. You might hate it or you might love it. Be aware that this is Washington, and we do get rain. We had a dry year last year, but be aware that it'll rain. The year before I attended, they had 90 days straight of rain. If you're looking for shorts and flip flop weather (which I still wear despite the rain) consider somewhere else.

I haven’t regretted my decision to attend UPS at all. I’ve found my own little niche at school, and have made some great friends. I’m happy with my major, the location, the classes and pretty much everything. Even the rain. Being a Californian, I was a bit skeptical of the rain. But we had some gorgeous "California" days. I had that gut feeling I would love the school when I visited and I do in fact love it. Overall I’m a happy camper.

If you have any questions about info I didn’t cover, please don’t hesitate to email me and I’ll try my best to answer! Or check out the UPS website. Thanks for reading!


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