<p>Is anyone at CC going to any of the RADs? I'll be there for the 16-17th myself.</p>
<p>My daughter is attending RAD on the 17th. She has a big decision to make with several excellent choices. Right now Reed seems to be clearly at the top of the list, with 2 others kind of a distant second (Brown & Wesleyan). The visit for RAD will help finalize her decision one way or the other.</p>
<p>runningmom, your daughter and I are in similar situations! Except the schools I'm deciding between are Reed, Wesleyan, and Oberlin. I'm going to be visiting all three, and will be at RAD on the 17th as well. Reed is the favorite here, too :)</p>
<p>Well, I went. Was good. Am now $300 poorer, and the Reed Admissions Office is $300 richer.</p>
<p>Please share. My D is there now.</p>
<p>Sorry, didn't check the forums over the weekend (turned 18, incidentally, so I naturally had other concerns :P). Thoughts off the top of my head:</p>
<p>There's really not all that much to say. I was choosing between Reed and Boston College, and I had already visited BC just a few days prior and was left with a rather lukewarm impression.</p>
<p>I sat in on a political science class, and while I had no clue what the discussion was about, I definitely didn't get any sense of competition. At the start, the professor lead the discussion with a few choice questions, and the students all seemed very laid-back, a bit prone to goofing off. Toward the end of the class, two of the students got into a more fiery debate (another student commented, "Anyone got popcorn?"), and the professor turned to write on the chalkboard while they duked it out.</p>
<p>I stayed in the Old Dorm Block. Divided doubles, and I got the impression that most of the dorms were divided doubles. Generously sized (ie, twice that of the BC dorms), and everyone on the floor was very friendly. A lot of them stopped by to introduce themselves and stayed to talk. There was a mini-party during the night that sounded like a good deal of fun. Having woken up at 2AM PST to catch the plane, I was pretty damn tired. They invited to join, I turned them down, end story. Very respectful.</p>
<p>Because this may be an issue for some: Never saw pot. Was never offered pot. When we were chilling in the dorms, one of the other prospies brought up the recent death on campus. Bit of an awkward topic, but it was discussed maturely and respectfully. More smoking that I would've liked to see (or am accustomed to seeing/breathing), but if any parents are concerned about this, I'd recommend you take a good, hard look at your child until you realize that they're not a child anymore. I'm sure you've raised them well enough to take care of themselves.</p>
<p>Bathrooms were miniscule (notably, the shower head was REALLY EFFING LOW), but I am 5'10" and quite leggy, so my definition of miniscule may vary from yours. If your daughter's 6'2", she may have an issue. Would be a really bad reason to not enroll though.</p>
<p>As for ResLife in general, I was warned that the "Tea" themed house for next year is more of the "opium tea" variety than "tea". Just a heads up. There's a Safeway and a Trader Joe's very close to campus (bit of a longish walk, but nothing horrible) with plenty of restaurants within a 10 minute walk. Food and dishes can be taken from the dining hall, and there's various bins on campus for you to drop the dishes in.</p>
<p>Food's good enough. Apparently gets boring after a while, but that's inevitable. I don't really want to judge on what I ate since my host claimed that they spiffed up the menu for the prospies, but what I tried was great. Vegans and vegetarians have their fair share of options, and for those environmentally concerned, the food preparation is eco-friendly and the leftovers are composted. It's all on an a la carte basis, and the dinner specials looked a little pricey to me. I forgot to ask if running out of money on card was an issue though. Not too worried about that since I think someone would've mentioned it to me if it was.</p>
<p>Campus is beautiful. Oldschool in the most oldschool sense with it's American red-brick and grassy lawns. I took a brief walk around campus at night and found it very soothing. Mr. Tour Guide claims that there's always a lot of stuff to do on campus, but I took everything Mr. Tour Guide said with a healthy dousing of salt. That being said, I was there to hear Mr. Frank Warren of PostSecret speak, and he was pretty cool. I do get the impression that campus activities (whether actually on campus or off campus fun provided by the school) were enough to keep the average joe entertained.</p>
<p>The pool hall seems like quite the social spot at night. Some of my hosts friends walked me there. Turned down the invitation to play since I suck, and after watching them, I'm sure I would've gotten my ass whooped. Otherwise, the library seems like a hot spot on campus, though I doubt it's for the social scene.</p>
<p>The school is overwhelmingly white. It didn't feel suffocatingly white (thus spake the Asian), but it's worth noting that minority races on campus are very definitely minorities.</p>
<p>Workload related... I don't think it's that much. The reading list for Hum 110 is impressive, but to make a point, my host asked every freshman she came across if they'd read everything they've been assigned thus far and the answers were an unanimous no. One of the girls skipped a class that day because she felt that having not read the article(s), she wouldn't be able to contribute/gain anything out of the class anyway. I took this to mean that you are not royally screwed if you miss a few classes. It's tough, but it won't come anywhere close to killing you.</p>
<p>That's all I can really think of. Oh, math classes aren't required to graduate. You can take either Logic or Foreign Language credits instead. Not sure how that works, but it's important to me since I think 2*2=6.</p>
<p>As a Reed parent familiar with the school, the only thing I'd add to liaku's excellent report is: </p>
<p>"The Class of 2012 is also an ethnically diverse group, with 30.8 percent students of color, which increases to 32.5 percent when international students are included."</p>
<p>From Reed</a> College | Reed College Class of 2012 Competitively Selected, Diverse Group. This is for the just-admitted class, which is not necessarily the mix that will enroll in the fall.</p>
<p>More specific details of the Fall 2007 enrolling class is at REED</a> COLLEGE FIRST YEAR STUDENT ETHNICITY.</p>
<p>Thanks for the post, liaku. It sounds a lot like my perceptions when I visit as a parent. My son lives in ODB, but you know, it's a big dorm. (For Reed, at least.) He's in a divided double, too -- his room is HUGE, bigger than our bedrooms at home. </p>
<p>My son links skipping a few days of course with overall performance in the class -- he's found that he can miss days, but it does affect how well he does. In particular, some HUM 110 lecturers are known for including information in their lectures that ends up on the midterms and exams without being discussed in conference, so when it's one of those people lecturing, he's much more careful to be there. This semester he has tried not to miss days, and seems to think he's done better overall because of it. </p>
<p>As far as running out of Commons cash, some students do, and some have extra. There's a way to transfer between students as the end of the semester nears. The receipts you get for each purchase have information about whether you're "on track" for expenditures or ahead/behind. I think next year I will try to help son pay for the most expensive level of the plan, since he appears to be running a little short.</p>
<p>My daughter always had the cheapest plan & still had points left over.
Senior year- she bought the cheapest plan and shared it with her roommate since they lived in whatever those townhouses are. ( next to the fruit stand)</p>
<p>She was in Chittick and Steele. Always had a single. guess they saw her nest at home!
Steele was not so cozy- but the common room is nice- also their housemother is fantastic- what a great lady-
She would make them cookies and she even lent me her car.
Bathrooms are also very nice- I used their shower since I was staying in the hostel on Hawthorne and theirs was :p</p>
<p>I love the chalk drawings on the blue bridge for O-week
* did you read past page 149?* :o</p>