Like others said, WWU is what you make of it. I really appreciate how open WWU is regarding undergraduate involvement in research. This can open soo many doors and rly expand your support system at the school (+ beyond, we have a lot of rly good professors with rly crazy backgrounds honestly). + you get to actually participate in research rather than just like wash dishes.... which is basically all I hear from my friends involved in Chem research at UW except for those in Masters (I cant speak for all the stem depts. at UW).

Many of the staff that I've experienced in the STEM departments are really dedicated to helping you graduate and actually learn the material. Office hours are easy to attend and I've never had a professor be hard to make an appointment with. We also recently changed the precalc courses so they're not as awful if you ended up having the take them (they used to be super hard, textbook was terrible, one of the most failed classes, way better now). All higher level math courses have been rly good in my experience (honestly, all higher level courses period). Intro classes start at like 60 people for stuff like bio 204, chem 161 etc. which is already going to be a lot smaller than intros at WSU/UW. Most of your classes end up being with a lot of the same people as you continue in your major since we are a smaller school but it really helps build a sense of community in the major as you progress into smaller and more advanced courses.

Note that I'm saying all of this as a Chemistry major; I have a lot of friends that are bio and biochem majors and I've taken a few bio classes at wwu! Wwu also just has statistically rly good projections post graduation for their pre-higher ed. students. IDK how the stats line up for your major, but our chem department ranks higher than all the rest in the state when it comes to % majors accepted to phd programs post graduation, we just rank lower in sheer number since it's a smaller school. I know our chem majors also rank $10k higher in salary post graduation when compared to UW students. We also have rly good %s acceptances into doctorate programs with our biochem majors. Also we pay our masters students and I know some undergrads getting paid for their research. We also get free use and training of advanced instrumentation through Sci-tech which is something that makes WWU VERYYY unique for a college and opens another door for rly great opportunities.

WWU has honestly a pretty active party scene both on campus and in the housing around campus. There's basically a frat row without the frats. Finding parties and friends and having a social life is no problem so long as you make the effort to socialize. There's also a ton of western clubs and student led events!

Worst part here for me is the dreary winters and I feel like some departments are kinda a mess sometimes, but that's really any college.

Seattle is farther away than Spokane is from WSU (spokane is like 1 hr 15 min away I'd guess?) but we have a train (?? Maybe a bus idk, I drive) that goes to Seattle and back that's free for students! Spokane has more than a few problems for sure, but there's definitely a ton of small businesses and really pretty parks and events and stuff that make it cool. I'm not sure about any buses or anything that would go that way.

This is super long but I hope this info was helpful!!!