50 Things to Love About Puget Sound

  • We have less annual precipitation than New York, Boston, Houston, St. Louis, or Washington, D.C.
  • Mount Rainier, visible from campus, is just a two-hour drive east. 
  • Nearby Point Defiance is one of the largest urban parks in the United States.
  • Puget Sound offers more than 50 majors, minors, and programs.
  • Puget Sound has innovative interdisciplinary programs, such as international political economy.
  • "LogJam!" is a campuswide celebration that ends the first week of fall classes.
  • The Puget Sound student-to-faculty ratio is 12 to 1.
  • "Foolish Pleasures" is an annual festival of digital films written, directed, acted, and produced by students.
  • The hatchet is the symbol of the Loggers, Puget Sound's varsity teams.
  • Puget Sound's radio station, KUPS "The Sound," at 90.1 FM, was ranked ninth in the nation by The Princeton Review and received the 2009 mtvU Radio Woodie award for Best College Radio Station!
  • Puget Sound has a conservatory-quality School of Music.
  • About 40 percent of Puget Sound students study abroad.
  • Puget Sound has a high acceptance rate of applicants to health profession graduate programs.
  • PETA has recognized Puget Sound as one of the nation's most vegetarian-friendly campuses.
  • About 75 percent of students are involved in service activities in Tacoma and the broader community.
  • Students produce as many as 20 one-act and four full-length plays each year.
  • The university-sponsored Expeditionary offers outdoor equipment rentals right on campus.
  • Tacoma is 35 miles from Seattle, and only a few hours from both Vancouver, BC, and Portland, Ore. 
  • Within two hours of campus: Mt. Rainier, Olympic Peninsula, Pacific Ocean, San Juan Islands.
  • Puget Sound is consistently a top producer of Fulbright Scholars, Watson Fellows, and alumni serving in the Peace Corps.
  • Puget Sound has been recognized as one of the top 20 campuses for LGBT students nationwide.
  • Puget Sound offers 23 varsity sports, as well as many intramural recreation options.
  • The students of Puget Sound are involved in more than 70 wide-ranging organizations and clubs.
  • 66 percent of incoming students in 2010 were in the top 25 percent of their high school graduating class.
  • Puget Sound offers more than 1,200 courses annually.
  • Students come from 50 states and 11 countries.
  • Puget Sound is one of only five independent colleges in the Northwest granted a charter by Phi Beta Kappa. 
  • The Puget Sound Class of 2014 includes students from 429 high schools. 
  • Campus Films provides recently released movies to students weekly for only $1.
  • The average high school GPA for Puget Sound students is 3.52.
  • 87 percent of freshmen return to Puget Sound for the next year.
  • Average class size is 18, and 91 percent of classes number less than 30 students.
  • Each summer Puget Sound awards research grants to approximately 60 undergraduates.
  • 65 percent of students live on campus—and nearly all who don't live within walking distance.
  • ASUPS, the student government, manages an annual budget of more than $500,000.
  • 23 percent of Puget Sound's 2,600 students are intercollegiate athletes.
  • Nearly 91 percent of students receive financial aid.
  • Memorial Fieldhouse's doors were built large enough to accommodate circus elephants.
  • Puget Sound has 21 language and theme-oriented residence houses.
  • 20 percent of Puget Sound students join one of seven sororities and fraternities. 
  • Puget Sound Women's Swimming has won 13 of the last 16 Northwest Conference titles.
  • There are 12 multicultural and religious groups that meet regularly in the Student Diversity Center.
  • The Student Diversity Center is open from noon to 10 p.m. weekdays for student use.
  • Puget Sound signed the international Talloires Declaration committing to environmental sustainability.
  • Puget Sound was the first university in the Northwest to offer Fair Trade coffee exclusively.
  • Last year Puget Sound used 8,975 pounds of Fair Trade coffee-that's 575,000 cups!
  • A 27-foot juvenile grey whale skeleton hangs in Harned Hall as part of the Science on Display elements. 
  • Since 2002 14 Puget Sound students have been named Watson Fellows.
  • Puget Sound Women's Soccer has won eleven consecutive Northwest Conference titles, including going to nationals in 2004 and 2007.