After Reed...

<p>Dear Internet,</p>

<p>I'm a high school junior. I'm interested in majoring in Math or Physics (but I'm really eager to take classes in Philosophy, Linguistics, History, Political Science, Chemistry, Economics, Classics etc). However, I have some concerns about the situation after graduation...</p>

<p>It seems that many Reed alumni go on to get advanced degrees, particularly Ph.Ds. I am fully aware that Reed is 'not a vocational school', but how easy is it to get a job after college? I really like Reed, but I'm not sure about commiting myself to a Ph.D program right out of high school. Can some alumni/students/parents inform me about the post-graduation plans of hard science majors at Reed?</p>

<p>This is not exactly what you’re asking, but is some info:</p>

<p>[Life</a> After Reed](<a href=“This is Reed - Reed College”>This is Reed - Reed College)</p>

<p>Especially: Occupational distribution of alumni</p>

<p>thanks for the response vonlost… </p>

<p>I know I sound like a obnoxious prospie, but I was more curious to see anecdotes about If recent reed graduates in the sciences have gotten solid job opportunities, without having to go to graduate school</p>

<p>I hope someone can help, but the LACs as a group are often considered to be grad school prep colleges. You would be competing for science jobs with MS or better holders. However, taking a work break before grad school is common; e.g., our Reed BA/psych daughter worked for four years as a veterinary assistant, preschool teacher and psychiatry office administrator and prescriptions manager before starting social work grad school.</p>

<p>What timing (but still not answering the question):</p>

<p>[Reed</a> Magazine | What do you do with a degree from Reed?](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/september2013/articles/features/reed_degree.html]Reed”>What do you do with a degree from Reed? | Reed Magazine)</p>

<p>It seems to me that math and physics majors are some of the most employable right out of the gate without further education. Based on my very limited sample size and total hearsay (Facebook, LinkedIn), I see those people working for tech companies, in research labs at OHSU, doing data analytics, etc. You will greatly increase your chances of employability if you get actual work experience while in college-- working for professors, doing summer research projects, doing internships, applying to special programs and grants, etc. It’s relatively easy to get a job working for one of your Reed professors as long as you’re not a total schmuck.</p>

<p>As far as “how easy is it to get a job after college?”, well that’s a different can of worms not limited to Reed or to math/physics majors. In case you hadn’t noticed, the economy sucks and graduating in the midst of a recession is the pits. But hey you have at least 6 years, maybe it will be better by the time you graduate (hahaha that’s what I told myself in 2009). I will say that most of the Reedies I graduated with have found some sort of work, often related to their skills and field of study or something different that they wanted to go into (like organic farming), and as a whole, they seem to be faring a bit better than some of my friends who graduated from other colleges. Like vonlost said, a lot of people enter the workforce right away even if they plan to go onto further education later. I personally found an ideal job in my field a month after graduating, yay, though I think that was mostly just luck.</p>

<p>I’m a Reed graduate. The College is insular and depressing, although academically demanding. Take it to heart: Reed is not for everyone.</p>

<p>A small number of Reed graduates go into medicine, law, engineering, finance. The vast majority go into sundry careers like alternative medicine, computer programming, library science, freelance writing, and beer-making. But Reed is best suited for students who, out of high school, are confident they want to become academics.</p>

<p>For a century a large number of students have had the privilege of attending this expensive and elite school yet, compared with peer institutions, only a minuscule percentage have attained significant prominence or minor renown, even in academia. And Reed is not known for graduates who start businesses, invent things, go into politics, or lead organizations. Just read the Alumni Notes section of any Reed Magazine to get a flavor. All of this is a lousy metric of educational value (there are tremendously talented, successful and happy Reed graduates), but it does bespeak Reed’s isolation and over-emphasis on intellectualism for its own sake. The place is an ivory tower. Missing is the vibrancy of real-world engagement and service to society. The Greeks and Romans are fine, but Reed makes little room for developing leadership skills, understanding and wrestling with contemporary problems, learning from prominent experts, and interacting with local and national interest groups. It also does little to prepare graduates uninterested in graduate school for decent, well-paying jobs.</p>

<p>For what it emphasizes - the life of the mind - Reed does well and promotes a sense of purity about it. The well-worn example is that while grades are conferred and appear on transcripts, the school does not disseminate report cards or divulge grades to students unless they ask to see them. Reed also eschews grade inflation. For example, I worked hard to receive a B in almost every class I took. But such virtuousness must be celebrated on an island isolated from the rest of humanity. And, perversely, the lofty principle competitively disadvantages its graduates. Even if Reed students are capable, ambitious, and have significant talent and superior scores on GREs, LSATs, and MCATs, computer screening algorithms and admissions officers in graduate and professional schools simply don’t know or care that Reed has more stringent grading standards than other schools.</p>

<p>The prioritization of scholarship over grades, fraternities, and team sports has merit, but the Reed ethos encourages students to be too extreme and self-congratulatory about this, and to have an exaggerated belief about how iconoclastic and liberal and free-thinking they are. The self-indulgent, counter-culture miasma quickly gets old. Peer pressure to endorse these values and to cultivate a bohemian image also yield an irony: while Reed prides itself on being “different,” it’s not a place where one who disagrees with aspects of the Reed norm can feel comfortable. In fact, rampant political correctness notwithstanding, Reed is intolerant of many kinds of diversity.</p>

<p>A stereotype about Reed was true: there was plenty of pot, alcohol, and hard drugs. In awed tones, some spoke of “Bromo,” a strong and scary, mind-altering substance that a Reed student had supposedly invented in a chemistry lab. Reed provided an accepting atmosphere to try some of this. </p>

<p>Finally, there have been spates of student suicides during Reed’s history. Whether this is a bigger problem than at other liberal-arts colleges I don’t know, but one wonders about the influence of Portland’s near-constant drizzle, low skies, prolonged winter darkness, and Reed’s small spaces, recreational drugs, interminable pressure to study, and number of socially awkward students.</p>

<p>I don’t regret attending Reed yet I would have been happier and received an equally good education if I had attended a more conventional school with more sunshine and more resonance with the rest of society. There are myriad alternatives for a more balanced life, for friendship, and for the development of critical thinking skills: any of the Ivy Leagues; most of the highly-ranked US News and World Report liberal arts colleges; and even many state schools, some of which have liberal arts programs that try to capture the feel of life in a small college. </p>

<p>Some of these observations reflect personal experience, predilections, and the nature of my adolescence. Perhaps Reed has changed. I’ve gone on to have a wonderful family and a fulfilling and successful career. But as much as I genuinely benefited from, I also had to work hard to overcome my Reed experience. Most telling is that I would not encourage my own children to attend Reed – or even visit it.</p>

<p>Honestly, it sounds like you went to Reed a long time ago and are responding to questions about its current climate on the basis of decades-old grievances.</p>

<p>Old alums are very often bitter about their years at Reed, usually for the same reasons as you, but that is not how current students and recent alums perceive the school at all.</p>

<p>There have been no suicides in recent memory–in fact, Reed’s mental health services, student counseling and student advocacy are all excellent–the drug culture has mellowed considerably, students have and create many opportunities to engage with the local community, the career services office is doing a much better job of assisting people who aren’t interested in an academic career, and the school has become more diverse.</p>

<p>What is more, Reed graduates do very well in grad school admissions, and Reed has worked hard to make the leading universities in the country aware of its grading policies. I don’t know why people refuse to believe this. It’s what the school is known for, after all.</p>

<p>Seriously, I’m sorry you faced so many problems in your time at Reed, and I certainly believe you that it was miserable, but it’s very unfair to level the same accusations at Reed today without having any first-hand experience when the school’s worked so hard to address those exact issues.</p>

<p>@Sslater: How recently did you attend Reed? It seems like it’s probably been a couple decades if you have children old enough to be making college decisions. I feel like some of your complaints with the school have been addressed in recent years, especially drug use and administrative support. </p>

<p>I’d love to see some data to back up your more sweeping assertions. Here’s some that I’ve culled:</p>

<p>The occupational distribution of alumni is: 31% Business and Industry. 24% Education. 14% Self-employed. 7% Students. 6% Government Service. 5% Health Care and 5% Misc. 4% Law. 2% Arts and Communication. 1% Community Service. Yes, it is disproportionally weighted towards academics/education, which should be a surprise to no one, but there are still a lot of people working in the public and private business sectors. [REED</a> COLLEGE LIFE AFTER REED](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/success.html]REED”>Life After Reed - Institutional Research - Reed College)
Also see recent infographics divided by major here: [Reed</a> Magazine | What do you do with a degree from Reed?](<a href=“What do you do with a degree from Reed? | Reed Magazine”>What do you do with a degree from Reed? | Reed Magazine) </p>

<p>Here’s a list of notable alumni: [List</a> of Reed College people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Reed_College_people]List”>List of Reed College people - Wikipedia) I think your categorization of Reedies not going on to do important things is myopic at best. </p>

<p>“…admissions officers in graduate and professional schools simply don’t know or care that Reed has more stringent grading standards than other schools”- Also not true and addressed in the thread about grade deflation.</p>

<p>I could not find any hard facts about Reed having a higher than average suicide rate, or even ‘spates’ of suicides. I believe the last student suicide was in the 2009-2010 school year. </p>

<p>However, I totally agree that Reed is not for everyone, and not everyone is going to love their experience there. I think it is really important for prospies to visit if at all possible, or do a lot of research and talk with the adcom, current students, faculty etc if they can’t, to get a good sense of the place and whether it would be the right fit for them. </p>

<p>Personally, I loved my experience at Reed (graduated in 2012) and felt like I received a world class education from engaging and brilliant professors that has given me a toolbox of skills to apply to anywhere my interests take me. I don’t have any solid plans to go to grad school at this point, but I did land a job after graduation that is completely related to what I studied and for which I feel Reed did a good job of preparing me, intentionally or not (it was not a job I had considered until a professor sent me the job posting and it turned out to be a great fit for my studies and skills). Obviously, each person’s mileage may vary, in terms of the ‘usefulness’ of their Reed education, their undergrad experience, their outcomes and career choices, etc. But very generally speaking, the other recent Reed grads I know seem to be content with the education they received and their life and job prospects after Reed.</p>

<p>Not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but here are a couple of pieces about a Reedie who majored in economics (but also studied physics, math, and philosophy). After Reed he started a tech firm… which he sold to Twitter!</p>

<p>[Portland</a> startup Lucky Sort sells to Twitter, will move to San Francisco | OregonLive.com](<a href=“http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2013/05/portland_startup_lucky_sort_se.html]Portland”>Portland startup Lucky Sort sells to Twitter, will move to San Francisco - oregonlive.com)</p>

<p>[Reed</a> Magazine | Beyond (and Behind) Lucky: Noah Pepper ?09](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/june2012/articles/alumni_profiles/pepper.html]Reed”>Beyond (and Behind) Lucky: Noah Pepper ’09 | Reed Magazine)</p>

<p>Good example of the interdisciplinary fluency you find in a lot of Reed grads.</p>

<p>This is a comment to #7 by Sslater on 9/13. </p>

<p>I was looking on ‘Yelp’ online at comments for a college in Portland that my neighbor said her daughter is attending. While there, I noticed a link to Yelp comments for Reed.<br>
I was interested as my daughter graduated from Reed several years ago. </p>

<p>I found the same comment submitted here on the Yelp page, almost word for word. But that is not really all that remarkable. What is though, is that the same comment (with a few variations in phrasing) has been submitted to Yelp over 90 times since 3/9/13 with the last one posted on 10/5/13. A ‘Sam S’ and ‘Fred F’ have submitted them all every few days from over the country. The site has filtered all but the most recent comment. </p>

<p>I bring attention to this to let the OP know that Sslater appears to be someone with an ax to grind and that his/her comments should be considered in that light. I am not going to refute the comments, as I believe both Ghostt and SHolmies did a good job of that. </p>

<p>I will, however, address the question of post-grad plans of hard science majors. My D majored in Biology. She also took a lot of classes in Sociology (enough that it would have been a minor elsewhere.) The year she graduated, she secured an internship at OHSU in Portland—they employ many Reed grads. That led to a full time job the following September. </p>

<p>She worked there for 2 years—she loved it and OHSU was very anxious to have her stay. However, she decided her true love was Sociology, and she is now enrolled in a PHD program. </p>

<p>I think it is important to note that while in college, she worked as an intern at a lab at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center one summer and at the Reed lab another. Her junior year was spent working for Reed again in admissions. These internships helped her secure both her job after graduation as well as her acceptance to grad school. The quality of her Reed education (and her hard work) enabled her to have her choice of top grad schools. I mention this because I believe that a lot of what happens after graduation depends on how you’ve prepared for it before. Securing summer internships is hard work. It takes researching and planning and giving up a lot of your summer to prepare for a career in a competitive workplace. Internships also help you to discover what is available in your field and whether or not you will enjoy doing it. </p>

<p>I believe that if you major in Math or Physics and spend your summers wisely, you will be employable. My D worked hard at Reed. It is academically demanding. And as Sslater pointed out, it isn’t for everyone. But if it is a fit, you can get a first class education and even enjoy the process. My D did, as did her friends and all state they have no regrets.</p>

<p>Very interesting observation by metermaid. I guess some powerful media organization is trying to make sure that whatever positive effects Jobs the movie may have, it is immediately nipped in the bud. Obviously scary, but probably not surprising. Just another day defending the brand name!</p>

<p>This “Sslater” has posted the exact same message on several sites over the last few months. Yelp, CC, <a href="http://www..com%5B/url%5D">www..com</a>, just google a random phrase in his/her post and you’ll see the same post in several places. Is this person on a ■■■■■ mission? Kinda funny, I must say. Others have wondered if Sslater is being paid… Why would a former student emerge like a sleeper cell and (apparently) years later post this in several places? I personally think Sslater isn’t being paid, but is going through some personal stuff, is rehashing some memories, having some regrets, etc. We all have those. Undergrad life was quite difficult for me to get through at times as well. But the college isn’t to blame.</p>

<p>I totally agree with what some others are saying about Sslater’s responses. This is clearly a very bitter individual who has no idea what the CURRENT social, academic, and community-integration vibes are at Reed. To read that an alum who’s spreading all kinds of misinformation about Reed would call the place “insular and depressing” blows my mind and quite frankly saddens me deeply. As a current undergrad at Reed, this couldn’t be farther from how I feel about my institution. I hope all considering applying take Sslater’s comments with a VERY large grain of salt…</p>

<p>I am the parent of a current Reed applicant. I want to echo how important it is to consider the source of internet comments about Reed - or anything for that matter. Like many parents, I have had some concerns about Reed - drug use, excessively hard classes, etc. - but my son fell in love with the place, and in so many ways it seems like a great fit. So I did my own research, with real-life people. I spoke with graduates of my son’s high school who attended Reed as well as local parents of current Reed students. Overwhelmingly, the feedback confirmed that it is likely the right place for my son (albeit not for everyone). One parent told me her son is taking a year off and may not go back, and one reason given was that there isn’t enough to do there, like football games. Well, hello?! My son loves that there are no intercollegiate sports or greek system. He’s visited, spent the night once, sat in on classes, and is convinced Reed is for him. I’m convinced too. ED application submitted.</p>

<p>"… excessively hard classes …"</p>

<p>Note that Reed will admit only those who have shown (via the application) that they have the academic wherewithal to succeed in Reed’s rigorous environment. </p>

<p>-Reed '09 alum parent</p>