The University of Puget Sound
Make It Big.
Make It Better.

I don’t know everything.
I don’t know you.
But I do know about The University of Puget Sound. I know that what really matters here is making it better. If you also make it big, I won’t be surprised.

Who am I? It doesn’t really matter.

What matters is who you are. And who you want to be. (Notice I didn’t say what you want to be. Two separate issues.)

I know that you, as a strong student, are the subject of an incredible amount of research and marketing. They call you the “millennial generation.” They say you have identified your first-choice college by Christmas of your junior year. They say you must be enticed by a brochure in the first 10 seconds. They list all the statistical reasons why you do what you do, think what you think.

I believe you are more than those numbers.

I know most college brochures begin by telling you things. They should really begin by asking you things. Why are you going to college? What do you care about? What kind of experience do you want? Who—top of the list—do you want to be?

And I know that every college begins by telling you that they have:
1. A talented, caring faculty.
2. Small classes.
3. A powerful curriculum.
4. Lots of personal attention.
5. A beautiful campus.
6. A wonderful location.

It’s almost always true. You are lucky—you have the opportunity to go to college at a time when the quality of higher education has never been, well, higher.

I know, too, that you will go to college at a very challenging time in history. The nation, and the world, have never been more in need of people with the skills and determination to make things better. If you want to be one of those people, then you have to find the schools that stand out from a very good crowd. The exceptional schools.

I know that the University of Puget Sound is one of those schools. In this case I am lucky—I’ve had the opportunity to meet UPS students, teachers and alumni, to walk the campus, to sit in on classes. There is something special here, something even beyond numbers 1 through 6.

There is an electric combination of talent and commitment running throughout the UPS student body and on into an amazing group of successful alumni. The school itself is small, everything else is huge: ability, goals, vision, ideas, outcomes. In a thousand ways, Puget Sound grads are out there making it big and making it better.

I know it’s all here: nationally respected academic programs, award-winning teachers, tremendous facilities for living and learning, the beauty of the Pacific Northwest—soon I hope you will know it too. Read this brochure, explore the web site, visit the campus, think about what you really want. If the University of Puget Sound is as right for you as I think it is, you’ll know it...