<p>looking for some schools with the same vibe as reed....the same intelectual, open-minded, fresh, laid back, feel</p>
<p>So far ive found......
UChicago
Lewis and clark
St Johns college
oberlin
macalester</p>
<p>any more you guys can think of.....
i guess we'll just make a list</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Carleton, Beloit to name a couple.</p>
<p>Grinnell, Swarthmore.</p>
<p>New, Hampshire, Vassar, Bard, Earlham, and maybe Warren Wilson, Haverford, Brown, or Brandeis</p>
<p>New College of Florida!</p>
<p>I agree with those already listed. Also try Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Ok, so is that vibe only really found in LACs or are there any large universties or even state schools that you know of with that same vibe?</p>
<p>thanks guys</p>
<p>Sure thing. All of the following are public schools with a bit of a funky edge to them:</p>
<p>Evergreen State College (Washington)
New College of Florida
Purchase College (New York)-- probably not that intellectual, but very artsy
UC Berkeley</p>
<p>And I’m sure there are more. If you end up attending a state school, the common denominator to attract students (usually) is its low cost rather than “fit” or “feel.” This means that you see a lot of diversity in the people and personalities that attend these schools. I know a lot of graduates of the SUNY system who are self-described funky intellectuals who loved, loved, loved their experiences as an undergrad.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo in Michigan.</p>
<p>Haverford, Grinnell, and Swarthmore</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with a lot those listed above.</p>
<p>I’ll put in a good word for Swarthmore, Macalester, UChicago, Haverford, Brown.</p>
<p>Whitman, Kenyon, Carleton, Macalester, Grinnell</p>
<p>For a public, I’ve heard University of Colorado - Boulder has a very artsy vibe.
But I agree with the poster who said large publics are less likely to be as focused in student vibe as the smaller LACs.</p>
<p>You better be very precise in what you like about Reed. You are getting a bunch of schools thrown at you that may be similar to one particular aspect of Reed, but are diametrically opposite in other ways.</p>
<p>For example, you have had both Bard and Swarthmore thrown in to the suggestion box. IMO, you could not find two more dissimilar colleges than Bard and Swarthmore. They are at opposite ends of the universe.</p>
<p>I also see very little similarity between Reed and UChicago.</p>
<p>^ Reed and UChicago, as well as St. John’s, have a core curriculum and are famous for intellectualism. Oberlin and Macalester fit in quirkiness. I don’t know much about Lewis and Clark, other than it being geographically close to Reed. As for suggestions:</p>
<p>Core - Columbia, Thomas Aquinas.
Intellectualism - Swarthmore, Carleton.
Quirkiness - Vassar, Wesleyan, Bard, Hampshire, Brown.
Laid-back - any of the Midwestern LACs, especially those previously mentioned (Grinnell, Beloit, Earlham, Kalamazoo–the latter three are also safer)</p>
<p>I’ve heard good things about New College of Florida, but can’t really speak to it.</p>
<p>interesteddad–</p>
<p>Here’s what the OP liked about Reed:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I must admit that I’ve never stepped foot on Reed’s campus, and I only know one or two current students, but I certainly feel I could connect the dots between Reed and Chicago (as well as Swarthmore and Bard).</p>
<p>Let’s start with Reed, Chicago, and Swarthmore-- they’re among the handful of schools in this country that brag about the quality and intensity of academic life that they offer their students. Anybody who likes big books and big ideas will probably find any of those three to be heavenly.</p>
<p>Of the three, Chicago probably has the reputation for being the most conservative (politically and socially) and the most straight-laced. Reed probably has the reputation for having more drugs. I don’t know enough about Swarthmore to know how its reputation differs or is similar to Chicago/Reed. But whatever it is, it’s a reputation and only a reputation.</p>
<p>Bard tends to attract students who march to a different drummer, and while it might not have the same academic claims of intensity as the other schools, some kids I know there could kick my butt in terms of well-readliness any day of the week.</p>
<p>What I will agree is that the OP uses somewhat vague terms in describing Reed, but that’s not his or her fault, but rather the fact that characterizing colleges in a few words is extraordinarily difficult or even impossible.</p>
<p>“Intellectual” could be used to describe any school that’s been listed on this thread so far.</p>
<p>“Open-minded,” to me, means that you’ll find a good deal of piercings, hair dye, and body odor. And students who are too interested in other things to care about others’ physical appearances. On this end, Chicago is not known for being particularly “counterculture” but students don’t give much of a whiff about physical appearance, for the most part. (I do have a good deal of friends who change their hairstyle and color regularly and have piercings in way ouchie places, so again, it’s hard to establish any kind of hard and fast rules here).</p>
<p>“Fresh”-- I like this word a lot. I interpret it to mean a lot of students who are true to themselves and follow their own passions to their own ends rather than obsess about goals that others put in place for them.</p>
<p>“Laid-back”-- I think this goes along with “fresh.” “Laid-back” is where you can find students who aren’t stressed out about measuring up to others.</p>
<p>Interesting to note: most people probably wouldn’t describe Reed as “laid-back,” because of its reputation for lots of work. But I think the OP proves what I’ve been trying to argue all along: the right school for the right person will appear to be “laid-back,” no matter what others might say about it.</p>
<p>unalove, I think you make an excellent point. A lot of this really is about personal perception, and since we all filter information through our own biases and experiences, one person’s “Reed-like” or “Bard-like” or “Swarthmore-like” may be very different than another person’s view of the same group of schools. A few months ago, for instance, someone on the Reed board insisted that Ohio Wesleyan and Reed were practically kissing cousins. Many people would consider these two very different places, but in this person’s world-view they shared enough characteristics to make them very similar in his opinion. (Please note and disclaimer: I am not in anyway implying that there is anything wrong with Ohio Wesleyan!) </p>
<p>Perhaps, since no two colleges are ever going to be EXACTLY the same, and each person will filter the similarities and differences between schools through their own selective experiences and biases, it would be better to talk about schools that are on the same CONTINUUM in terms of sharing certain characteristics. Some of the schools on the same continuum might be closer to each other on one end or other of the continuum, but there are enough commonalities to make it not completely absurd to think that an INDIVIDUAL student could find similarities and perhaps good fits among all of the schools on a defined continuum. (Of course, some will still debate whether certain schools should be on the same continuum…)</p>
<p>That said, I can see commonalities between Reed and almost all of the schools mentioned in this site, some stronger on one quality than another, but certainly someone could make a case that many are on the same continuum of what the original poster is identifying as his personal criteria. Again, some may be a little closer to what he is looking for than others, but so far there’s no school that, from my perception at least, couldn’t fit into the same continuum, depending on the weighting of the continuum’s criteria. Rather than argue our individual perceptions of the subtleties between schools in this thread, perhaps we should just stick to brainstorming ideas for the poster and let him weigh the suggestions through his own filters, definitions, and experiences.</p>
<p>To the original poster, depending on your weighting of specific characteristics, in addition to the schools already mentioned, some other schools to take a look at might be: Pitzer (part of the Claremont Consortium, which some think feels like a small university), the Johnston Center at the University of Redlands, Sarah Lawrence, Eugene Lang, Hendrix, and Bennington. Keep in mind that you will also find social pockets at many large universities that you may find are on the same continuum as Reed, even though to a casual observer, the overall university might not seem to have much in common with the Reed continuum. Examples would be the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, UC Berkeley (already mentioned), UC Santa Cruz, Syracuse University, Boston University, and NYU. Some of the honors programs at large universities might also fit an individual’s definition of being “on the Reed continuum.” For example, both the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara and the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University offer students a similar intellectual intensity, even though at first glance the larger university might not seem to be anywhere near the Reed Continuum.</p>
<p>So, there are lots of possibilities – my advice is to investigate and, if possible, visit the schools mentioned in this thread that sound TO YOU like they might be on YOUR personal version of the Reed Continuum, and trust your own judgement about whether their subtle and not so subtle similarities fit the characteristics you are looking for. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think carolyn more deftly explained what I was going for-- that you can find a little bit of everything at every school. There are a lot of schools that people haven’t mentioned, but if you find one that fits perfectly for you (say, a school like Amherst or Duke) I wouldn’t second-guess your choice, particularly because I know of somebody who was completely stuck choosing between acceptances from Amherst and Reed and ended up choosing Amherst.</p>
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<p>That’s why I’m suggesting that the original poster be precise in what he/she likes about Reed. If it’s the whole counter-culture vibe, then I don’t think a place like Chicago or Swarthmore is going to fit the bill. If it’s the intellectualism, then these two schools would. I would say that both Chicago and Swarthmore tend more to “geek” than “Renn Faire”.
Likewise, if it’s the intellecutalism and not the counter-culture vibe, then suggestions like Bard are wide of the mark.</p>
<p>Plus, as a general premise, trying to articulate what attracts a student to the college can be very helpful in identifying alternatives up and down the reach/match/safety continuum.</p>
<p>carolyn,</p>
<p>the similarity between reed and ohio wesleyan has been argued elsewhere. i won’t add more to that argument. the more problematic aspect of the discussion was that you jumped into the discussion with no actual recent experience with ohio wesleyan and even more disturbingly you got a few facts outright wrong about the college. in the argument you got facts not perceptions wrong. as a consumer, i don’t care what perceptions people have about what they decide to buy as long as as i myself get the facts about what i am buying (be it is good or a college experience) correct. the ‘kissing cousins’ was never mentioned you can keep that in the perception category and for your dinner table.</p>
<p>Would anyone really classify Reed as laid-back? Talking to some people I know who go/went there, it’s very competitive. One person transferred because she didn’t enjoy the competitive atmosphere and felt it was too difficult to make friends.</p>
<p>Anyway. I have one friend who didn’t have the stats to get into Reed but is highly enjoying Ohio Wesleyan. If she’s typical of many students there, I’d bet it has the quirky/cool/open-minded thing down.</p>