Western Washington University is located in Bellingham, Washington, USA, and is just about like any other college out there. It's beautifully located because it's right between Seattle and Vancouver BC. So, you don't have to deal with living in a big town, but you can get to a big town in about an hour. The Education, Biology, and Computer Science departments are good, but the Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) in the Engineering Technology Department is the best of its kind in the US. The college has a huge convoluted library and a radio station run by students. Western has all the bureaucracy that normally goes along with being a public institution.

The Environs

There are many picturesque old houses around the campus for college students to live in, but unfortunately, all of these old houses have had poor college students living in them for almost 100 years. However, it would probably be better to live in an old drafty house than be stuck in a small dorm sharing bathrooms and a small bedroom with strangers. When looking for a place to live, pick something far from campus, where the houses are not falling apart, the neighbours are quieter, and you don't have to deal with lost, drunken partygoers wandering into your house.

The town of Bellingham is a wonderful place, but for about nine months out of the year, you won't want to go outside because the winters are cold and wet. That's bad enough, but sometimes the wind blows too - in the winter of 1999, trees were blown on houses, roads and cars and occasionally, branches fly off the old pine trees in the wind and can be dangerous too. Be careful walking across campus in the winter because the grass is like quicksand and can swallow tens of freshmen at a time.

Western is a good place to learn, but a not a great place to go to have fun. Parents: don't let this mislead you that your kids won't party. They will. They just might not have as much fun.