socaltownie;842335679 said:
Constructive criticism - no need to dis them. Zaga is pretty much like Santa Clara. OK for a lot of kids and pretty good for the part of the nation it is in. No, I have NO affiliation - just that I think that you could leave it at that Spokane is a cow town with really not much to do after 8 p.m. on a Friday night other than to go through the Wendy's drive through a bunch of times and then go out and look at what happens when wind comes down from the north pole with nothing but about 4,000 miles of Canadian Tundra to impede its path. ;-)
One thing (and this gets into the weeds of higher education policy) I would be shy about using acceptance rates for schools in rural areas. So, for example, Carleton comes in at 25% and Reed at 36%. Bates is 24%. All three are fine schools but don't get a huge applicant pool because...well...they are in BFE. BTW - for even more direct Santa Clara is at 51%. USF is at 70%
Is Gonzaga a "great" school. No. But is it ASU or Oregon? Also no. It is what it is, a private Jesuit university located in a pretty rural and remote part of the country. If you want to go to a private school and you are located in the interior mountain west (and are not a morman) there are not many options. Zaga would be a decent one.