PNCA anyone?

<p>Pacific Northwest college of art
Small <400, no SAT, Cheaper, happy faculty, up and coming, Portland OR
anything else you know?</p>

<p>My friend's sister is going there and seems to be happy. The housing the school provided for her is kind of far from campus, but there are buses, streetcars, and the MAX train that are pretty accessible in Portland - I don't know if you are from around here or not. The school also offers a shuttle from the apartments to campus. That said, the apartments are really nice and about two blocks from a MAX station, which has stops in many major downtown areas and runs way across to the Portland airport. There are two very decent sized bedrooms, a kitchen area, a bathroom, and a shared living room area with a balcony. The apartment building is also shared with students from Portland State University, the Art Institute, and the Culinary Institute, which I thought was kind of cool because they can then become acquainted with people from different schools.</p>

<p>The campus itself is in Portland's Pearl District, which is very artsy with a lot of galleries and art resources. It's a nice part of town :) I can't really say anything about the school from an academic perspective besides that it seems to be pretty fine art, art-for-art's-sake oriented, but if there is anything general that you want to know about Portland, feel free to ask! I live in a suburb of Portland, so I can give you a somewhat accurate overview of the city, I think.</p>

<p>Finally! Someone replied. Want to ask questions a ton.
Well, for the local-ish art school, about half come from outer state is interesting. Where are they come from is another thing. If you grow up and live there, do you have many friends from outside? Any from east coast especially NYC ghetto?
What kids are to do for fun, say, go to California or Vegas (!?) or stay put?
Is Reed’s druggy culture seeping through rest of Portland?
How much does quart of generic milk costs at generic supermarket and at corner deli?
How about one head of iceberg lettuce?
How is weather in four seasons, rain, snow, humid? I thought Oregon is in the upper top confusing with Washington, is there much difference from Seattle weather wise?
What is your life’s dream? Do you want to go somewhere and do what?
And last but not the least, are girls around college town hot or more likely down to earth but good hearted as somehow sound of “OREGON" suggests.</p>

<p>I am waiting to hear from Portland, please.</p>

<p>I'm not sure that I understand some of your questions, but I will try and answer the ones I did understand and/or the ones I know about.</p>

<p>I don't really know what the average college kid in Portland would do for fun, but I suppose that there is definitely enough to do in Portland to keep someone busy or at least mildly entertained on the weekends. Seattle is 3 hours away and the beach is about an hour and a half away. There are also a lot of outdoor recreational activites available in Oregon.</p>

<p>I actually don't know much about the food prices, I don't really do grocery shopping because I am a high school student and live with my parents, haha. I can tell you that Oregon doesn't have sales tax if that helps at all!</p>

<p>I wouldn't really say that Portland is particularly rampant with drugs - I mean, in a large-ish city you're going to get a variety of people, some who do drugs, some who do not. I wouldn't say that it's a big problem, at least in the areas I've visited, and drug use among college students probably isn't any different than you would see at other schools in different areas.</p>

<p>As for weather, there is the rain of course. I actually don't think it's too bad. I've gotten used to it, but I have lived here my entire life. I think we get less than Seattle, but the weather is very similar. Falls are pretty mild and it kind of varies between being dry and cold and clear or rainy and cloudy. It really doesn't get that cold in the winter compared to other places and it snows occasionally. It stays pretty rainy until May, although it starts to warm up. Summers are really nice - pretty hot in the mid 80's to low 90's most of the time and not too humid - it never really gets muggy unless it's like 100 degrees, but you get that anywhere. </p>

<p>About the girls in Portland and whether they are hot or not, I can't really say from an accurate viewpoint because I'm a girl and am not attracted to other girls. People are pretty friendly and down-to-earth here though.</p>

<p>I hope that helped! If you have any more questions feel free to ask.</p>

<p>Gawd you are mature high scholar. I assumed either college kid or grown up.
I have a son and have this habit see things from his point of view, sorry about that.
I guess what I wanted to ask is, are you happy where you lived your whole life and stay near home or want to go somewhere far for college?
It must be different for girls but where kids in your HS generally go?
I will change question now, I can see that you don’t have to worry about a lettuce, good for you. OK, how much does movie ticket cost for students? Small bag of popcorn? I ask because when we travel to different states, I’d astound how things are either cheaper or expensive than we are accustomed to.
Now about weather, what do you do with rain? Parka would do or it really pours most of the time and you have to carry umbrella or wear heavy-duty raincoat? What to do with backpacks/ music instrument/ art and science project for school or do you drive door to door to go everywhere?
You have no idea how ignorant people are if they never set foot in northwest.</p>

<p>Yeah I've really liked living in the area. My hometown itself is not Portland, but I live close enough to Portland to visit a lot and I love that - its a great city. I'm not looking to go to school too far away, I'll be staying somewhere in the Northwest so I can be relatively close to home. I would definitely go to school in Portland if I could find a school that has all the aspects I'm looking for.</p>

<p>I go to a regular public high school and most of the kids from my school go to school at University of Oregon in Eugene or Oregon State in Corvallis. Some go to Portland State and I think University of Portland is pretty popular with kids who are looking to go to a private school around here. A lot of kids opt to go to Portland Community College just to get credits out of the way less expensively.</p>

<p>Movie tickets are about 8 bucks, movie popcorn of course is super expensive, like $3.50 for a small or something. It's ridiculous but I always smuggle in my own :)</p>

<p>For rain gear, it really depends on personal preference. Sometimes I don't feel like carting an umbrella around so I just wear a hood unless it's raining really hard which happens once in a while. In that case I would definitely use an umbrella, but for any other type of rain, I guess just what makes you feel most comfortable - umbrella, hood, hat, whatever. I don't think a full on raincoat is necessarily needed on most days. I would recommend something at least water resistant or a thick coat for the wetter days so that nothing soaks through, and a thicker hoodie is fine for the average rainy day - at least for me, anyway.</p>

<p>For art projects/science projects one of those big art portfolios would probably work fine. I like to use a large plastic garbage bag as a cheap alternative for carrying projects in the rain or even on a normal day if I want something lighter to carry. For large instruments like guitars, a backpack-type bag is nice so you can carry it around on your back. I think people do walk a lot, but you could drive as well, I'm just not sure how the parking is - it just depends where your headed and what you prefer. It's definitely not unusual to do either, but public transportation is pretty accessible in the downtown area. Biking is pretty popular though, so I would probably recommend that as a good place between walking and driving. You can take it on the Max train and buses, maybe the streetcar. I think Portland is pretty biker friendly. I like riding the waterfront by the river -there are a lot of festivals and stuff that go on there or just interesting people there to see on an average day.</p>

<p>Cheap! Around here movie for HS kids are same as an adult, $10.50-13 popcorn never below 4bucks.
Thank you, it is very helpful. I can see that how low key and happy kids there are in general.
Best way to know is to take road trip. I am cooking up plans but don't know if it is doable.
Good luck to you.</p>

<p>Wow, "Reed's druggy culture"? I have a student at Reed, and another student considering art schools in the area. You might as well ask if Reed's academic culture has spread, too! Reed's student body may be different from that of the art schools in the area, but it's not that it's some sort of creeping pervasive threat to the rest of the city, or to other students, any more than says, NYU's pervasive culture threatens Pratt or Parsons.</p>

<p>Hi TrinSF
Longtime no see
Have you been to Portland often, then? Tell us more!
What concerns me is size and mentality as Portland proportioned to Reed.
I mean, NY is super diverse ethnically academically socioeconomic and everything no one school can take over, Pratt has river and own campus to separate them, Parsons has 5th Ave and14th street, oh there is building near port authority, well, anyway.
What I should have asked is if Reed is the crown jewel of Portland but nice girl ‘s reply here confirmed it is not so to down to earth-ness of Portland youth.</p>