<p>Is it because Reed's curriculum is so accelerated and advanced that the intensity is even comparable with the courses offered by Ivy league schools? Or because the courses simply assign so many projects, reports and lab papers? </p>
<p>Many colleges in the US offer classes “comparable with the courses offered by Ivy league schools.” It is very naive to assume that the eight universities that make up the Ivy League have some premium on difficult classes and/or set the standard for workload intensity in the US. Neither of those things is true.</p>
<p>Reed is what it is. I don’t know what you mean by accelerated and advanced curriculum; I suspect the material you learn in most Reed classes is the same as the material you’d learn anywhere else, from Cal Poly to Harvard. It’s the mode of instruction and the expectations of your professors, peers and yourself that make a difference.</p>
<p>I think it is a little of both-- courses are somewhat more fast-paced and go into more depth than the average college class, and they require A LOT of reading and a decent number of papers/projects. But what Ghostt said is probably closer to the truth: professors expect a lot out of students and students expect a lot out of themselves and each other. Reedies aren’t really into half-assing things or simply getting by with the least amount of effort to pass, which motivates them to take their studies seriously and work hard. It is also different from many schools in that grades are de-emphasized and feedback is more qualitative, so it isn’t about achieving that gold star/A+ or beating your peers, but about doing your best work and challenging yourself… which is often actually more demanding. </p>
<p>The reading tends to be very heavy, and when it comes to assignments, it’s less a matter of the quantity than the quality expected, by both students and professors. One of my professors was just remarking last night that when he came to Reed from Duke, he had to rewrite his syllabi. He had always included lots of recommended reading, and people would occasionally do some of it, but at Reed all of his students were doing all of his recommended reading.
In terms of acceleration of studies, the only concrete comparison I’ve encountered personally was with intro language courses. A friend of mine at George Washington has the same textbook I have for an intro language course. At GWU, they use this textbook for two full years of language (first half of the book is first year and second half is second year). At Reed, we finish the entire book in a year.
Reed expects students to pick things up very quickly, read a lot, and produce very high level work.
Regarding your comparison to Ivy Leagues…I don’t have any friends at Ivy Leagues, so I can’t really say. But I do have friends at Reed with friends at Ivy Leagues, and they have commented before on the light workload of these friends compared to Reed. Though I would take that with a grain of salt as many Reedies like to make digs at the Ivies. It’s not uncommon to hear the phrase “Ivy League A” around Reed to describe work that is not great, but is decent (in reference to the fact that the average grade given out at an Ivy League is much higher than at Reed)</p>
<p>Thanks for your helpful comparison based on the real experience. I’m going to compare the textbooks used in Reed and other colleges to decide which seems more accelerated.</p>