Linfield College - Overview
Liberal Arts Focus, Internships, and Research Opportunities Provide Foundation for Lifelong Education at Linfield College
Linfield College is a four-year, private, coeducational liberal arts college in the beautiful town of McMinnville, Oregon. One of the oldest colleges on the West Coast, Linfield College offers a comprehensive education with opportunities to learn in the classroom, in the field, and around the world.
At Linfield College, the average class size is 16, with a student to faculty ratio of 12:1. In recent years, Linfield has had 22 Fulbright scholars. Students have also gone from the school on to graduate programs at esteemed institutions such as Yale Medical School, Harvard Law School, MIT, Northwestern, UCLA, and the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Traditional programs such as business, mass communications, education, psychology, and the sciences are among the most popular majors at Linfield College. Business and mass communications are also among several of the majors that offer students the opportunity to obtain an internship. Similarly, education majors are able to work in a classroom all four years of their undergraduate study. Linfield also offers a few somewhat unique majors for a small college such as: creative writing, environmental studies, and athletic training.
With Portland being only an hour away from McMinnville, Oregon, many students have interned at top companies like Nike and Intel, while science majors can do environmental fieldwork or marine biology work along the Oregon Coast.
At Linfield College, there are no graduate students, so the opportunity to do research with professors solely belongs to the undergraduate population. In fact, the chemistry department has never turned down a student who asked to do research, and part of the college's endowment goes directly to support student-faculty research.
Linfield's Study Abroad Programs Extend the Campus Beyond McMinnville, Oregon
Over fifty percent of Linfield College graduates have participated in at least one study abroad program. The Oregon school offers a very unique incentive for students to study abroad: Linfield pays for round-trip airfare for the student's first trip. Whether students are interested in spending a year, a semester, or a one-month January Term abroad, students can choose from the college's many international study opportunities.
With Linfield's January Term program, approximately 15 to 20 courses, such as Music Cultures of the World: Trinidad and Tobago, are offered onsite in locations in other countries. The Semester Abroad Program allows students to study in one of the following study abroad centers each fall: Australia, Austria, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, France, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, and various locations in Asia.
Students who decide to become language majors at Linfield College will be required to spend one year abroad immersed in the language. To help make programs more affordable for students, the majority of a student's scholarship package may be taken from McMinnville, Oregon, to anywhere that he or she goes abroad.
Clubs, Organizations, Athletics, and Community Service Contribute to Active Linfield Student Life
Students quickly find Linfield College to be a "home away from home" and nearly 80 percent live on campus. There are over 80 clubs and activities on the McMinnville campus. Greek life and the Linfield Activities Board (LAB) are both active on campus. LAB sponsors social, cultural, and educational activities for the student body. Students can also go to historic downtown McMinnville, home to several coffee shops, bookstores, and art galleries.
Linfield College's athletic program is well known throughout the region, not only for its NCAA Division III sports teams, but also for its club and intramural sports. The women's softball team won the national championship, as did the football team in 2004. Additionally, Linfield College's football team holds a national record, maintaining a "streak" of 56 straight winning seasons -- more than any other college team in any division. The men's baseball coach is former New York Yankee Scott Brosius, who is also a Linfield College alumnus.
Linfield students are also active in community service, so it is no surprise that the college founded one of the first collegiate chapters for Habitat for Humanity on the West Coast. This program is still strong on campus today. Students also started an after-school program for local children called "Kids on the Block" and have spent countless hours volunteering for beach clean-ups along the beautiful Oregon coast.
Linfield College Students Achieve Successful Placements in Graduate School Programs and Careers
Linfield College students become life-long learners and find success after college. Students in the pre-law, pre-physical therapy, and pre-veterinary programs have a 100 percent acceptance rate into their programs.
Seventy percent of pre-medical students from Linfield have gotten into medical school, a number significantly above the national average of about 40 percent. Computer science majors have had a 100 percent job placement in recent years.
Linfield College in McMinnville is a dynamic place where students can discover the world, realize their potential, and accomplish great success.