Admission

Whitman’s admission process is selective to assure a student body with excellence in both academic and extracurricular pursuits and with varied backgrounds. To achieve this balance, the Admission Committee evaluates scholastic records, the quality of written expression, test scores, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendations. Evidence of motivation, discipline, imagination, creativity, leadership, and maturity also are considered.

Although most of the entering first-year students graduated in the top 20 percent of their high school graduating classes, there are no arbitrary entrance requirements or quotas. It is recommended that candidates complete four years of secondary school English and mathematics, three years of laboratory science, and two years each of history/social sciences and foreign language. The Admission Committee looks for those candidates who take and excel in advanced level courses.

Whitman College is committed to providing access to an affordable education for as many admitted students as possible. More than half of current students demonstrate financial need and approximately 90 percent receive some form of financial aid — scholarships, grants, employment, or loans. Whitman College has a strong commitment to the principle of nondiscrimination. In its admission and employment practices, administration of educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs, Whitman College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, gender, religion, age, marital status, national origin, physical disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by applicable federal, state, or local laws.