Reed College in Oregon - Utopia? Too Unconventional?

Parents Forum
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I’d say that this more or less characterizes students from most elite/top colleges. Frankly, students to to colleges like Reed - and Swarthmore and Amherst and Harvard and Yale - because they are top students who want to be around other like-minded top students and because they want good post-graduation outcomes. I don’t really see much wrong with that, other than the fact that Reed has somewhat interestingly attracted this reputation of being super-hippie. It’s unclear whether they really are super-hippie, or whether their students are just more vocal about being hippie than others. (For example - people have talked about the drug culture at Reed, but drugs were a pretty regular part of college life at my undergrad and my graduate school, too. It was just less open.)

Also, I don’t think Reed is being defensive about the U.S. News ranking; they’ve probably had to explain their place to curious parents and students for decades. Besides, everything they say is true, most of all that U.S. News chose to give them an inaccurate ranking rather than simply dropping them or using an algorithm to impute the missing data (you can use statistics to predict and “fill in” data that they don’t report, or even use averages, which is far more accurate than simply giving them the lowest score in areas they didn’t submit. That seems punitive.) The articles they posted have other examples of that, like Hampshire College being dropped off the list when they decided to stop using standardized test scores in admissions, or Sarah Lawrence and St. John’s shooting up when they decided to start reporting information (and in SLC’s case, it’s because they decided to consider SAT scores from students who chose to submit them, which almost guarantees that their averages are going to be higher anyway since students who choose to submit scores that are not required are going to be the higher scorers.)

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Exactly, @SkyWitness . I read the “What Is a Reedie?” page and posted my inquiry here to find out more about who comprises “a random sample of students off the great lawn” vs. the select few that Reed chose to showcase. From the perspective of parents who had to foot the bill, or know those who did. D is a strong academic achiever but doesn’t drive herself to select-few-ness, so I wanted to know more about the average student and grad.

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All these responses are great, by the way, thanks so much.

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I don’t know much about Reed but my neighbor’s kid goes there and loves it. It’s definitely not a place for everyone.

And Oregon just legalized marijuana…

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Former Reed parent here. Check out the graduation rate and note how few graduate in four years although that is improving. True for many schools and an important figure to pay attention to in general. Very intense place which really works for some kids and not for others. Many requirements. Portland is great fun but long, grey and rainy winters can take their toll.

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As an Oregonian who has lived in various parts of the state for 40+ years (including the Portland area) and parent of a HS SR looking seriously at Reed as the #1 choice, I’d like to chime in.

My daughter and I have visited Reed twice. Once in the summer before her JR year in HS and once this August as she entered her SR year. The 1st visit included the informational session where ‘no grades’ was explained and a tour. We left there feeling like it was way too liberal for our tastes (the parents… not the kid) and then the 2nd time included an interview (requested by our daughter…) and a tour.

It was the second visit where it clicked for me ‘Why Reed’ and why the school would work for my daughter. It’s a small, quirky place filled with liberal intellectuals who love to learn and are socially responsible. ‘Isms’ (sexism, racism, etc…) are not tolerated and political correctness is taken almost to the extreme. For some people, that won’t fit. Frankly, it wouldn’t be where I’d want to go, but for my daughter - it’s perfect. She’s a high achieving student interested in a liberal arts education, who is creative (theater, art and music) and who is deeply committed to social justice issues. She has two former classmates who attend Reed. One is transgender and has found Reed to be a very supportive, accepting place where being outside the mainstream is not just OK - it’s celebrated.

If you are looking for a place with sports, Greek life, and easy classes to pad your GPA - this isn’t it. As for the weather, I guess I’m partial to the Northwest climate. In Portland it can be wet and gray in the fall, winter and spring, but it can also be hot and sunny in the summer with temperatures of 100 degrees. It snows occasionally in the winter (maybe a total of 2 weeks a year), and really shuts down the city as it’s not the norm. All things considered - weather is quite mild - and often beautiful. (FYI… Portland’s downtown is across the Willamette River from Reed, which is in an older, upper-middle class neighborhood. Public transportation is available, and cars really aren’t necessary.)

Regarding studying at Reed, the freshman all do a Humanities class that has them on the same page out of the gate. They study the Classics and discuss in depth what they are studying. Papers are returned with comments and they are encouraged to discuss them with their professors. Grades are not given, but students can ask to learn their grades if they are concerned and will be told if they are not cutting it. Students call their professors by their first names, and the overall vibe of the campus is a friendly, supportive one.

Yes, there is drug use on campus and pot is now legal in Oregon. Drugs and alcohol are on college campus’, but at Reed it may appear to some to be more openly encouraged. There are drug-free dorms, and not all students are into that scene.

I like that the campus has a large wetlands nature preserve in the middle of campus. The school owns a cabin on Mt. Hood that students can use for free - as students or as graduates of Reed, and camping equipment is loaned for free to students if they want to go on a hiking/camping trip. (I think they also have bikes to loan as well.)

Reed has a comic book depository, a ‘meditation’ PE class and dorms that house freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors all together - not separating by classes and sharing co-ed, gender neutral bathrooms.

Reed seniors do write a thesis that becomes part of an extensive library of them on campus when they graduate. The school also has a working nuclear reactor on campus and any student who puts in the work and passes the tests to work on the reactor can do so; regardless of their major.

Most graduates go on to get their Masters or PhD’s, but graduation rates are somewhat low. I think this is due to the demanding intellectual climate combined with the ultra-liberal offerings. Again, this is not a place for everyone. While embracing diversity they may just be doing something that is the polar opposite - creating their own Reedie-hybrid college student that is not seen outside Oregon.

The cost is high, but Reed offers a generous amount of grant money to those with financial need and meets that need 100%. My daughter’s friends who attend said that about half of the Reedies are full-pay students, with many of those students seem to come from the Northeast or are international students. When we’ve worked the numbers it would actually be less expensive for us to send our daughter to Reed than it would be to a state school in Oregon.

As stated before, Reed isn’t for everyone, but if it fits - ‘Utopia’ it may be.

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That was really cool, @OCD123 , thank you for sharing so much.

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Yes OCD123!
I live here and we all know about the huge birds nest that the students built and study in.

The students are more alternative than any other college that I know of but are very sound in their acedemics.
SUPER HIPPIE is not necessariy a bad thing to be in this world now. They are not drop outs but pretty adventuresome in their thinking and studies.

Yes, Oregon is a super liberal state and, therefore, some students might not be comfortable here.
Yet, at OSU and UO, there is Greek and many conservative groups–just not at Reed.

Louis and Clark, a few miles away, is more like a Carlton.

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Another former Reed parent here. Others have discussed the pros and cons of the school adequately, but I don’t believe anyone mentioned the fact that students can–and most do–opt not to see their grades. In this way the emphasis is on learning for learning’s sake, not for the sake of grades. If you are doing poorly in a class, the professor will let you know, but if you are doing okay then you can assume no news is good news. Most students opt not to see their grades, although in the end you can get a copy of your transcript for the sake of graduate schools or whatever. My daughter found it quite liberating not to know her grades, although as parents we weren’t as thrilled since we were full-pay and wanted to keep tabs on how our “investment” was going!

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About Reed and grades, perhaps the relevant policy may be of interest:
https://www.reed.edu/academic/gbook/acad_pol/eval_student.html

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Were your expectations higher than C (not C-) or higher in every course, as needed to avoid warnings from Reed?

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Lewis and Clark. No western pioneers named Louis.

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According to Reed’s 2014-15 Common Data Set, approximately 45% of incoming freshmen received need-based scholarship/grant aid for that academic year (compared to approximately 36% of incoming freshmen at the University of Oregon, or 62% at Amherst College.) Reed’s average need-based award was $43,617 (compared to Amherst’s $48,105). Reed claims that on average, it met 100% of need determined for students who were awarded any need-based aid. No merit aid was awarded to students determined to have no financial need. As others have pointed out, Reed is not need-blind in admissions. So it must be screening out some qualified applicants with high financial need, in order to cover that 100% of need for the students who do get it.

What does covering “100% of need” mean in terms of net costs? According to the Department of Education’s College Scorecard, for families earning $48,001 to $75,000, the average cost per year to attend Reed College is $21,844. The cost for families in that bracket to attend the University of Oregon at Eugene is $16,678. The corresponding cost at Amherst is $10,016; at Stanford it is $6,240. Hmm. Maybe middle-income Reed College hippie families have less “need” than middle income Stanford, Amherst, or U of O families?

Of course, it is expensive to educate undergraduates the way Reed College does it, in very small classes taught only by professors, never by graduate students. Reed’s endowment (at ~$369K/student) is much smaller than Amherst’s or Stanford’s (~$1.2M/student and $1.4M/student, respectively). Private colleges like Reed cannot marshall all the financial resources that a state government can (or that a super-rich school like Amherst or Stanford can). So a typical family may need to pay a premium price to attend a college like Reed; some qualified but high-need students will be shut out.

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My oldest is in their young scholars program, which allows high school students to take one class per term their senior year of high school.

The experience so far has been great, though it’s just one class. The science class being taken has three separate classes to it - lecture, lab and conference. The lecture class is ‘big’ ~ 100 kids but the conference section is maybe 20 kids. The feedback I’m hearing is that the direct engagement between the professor and students in the conference section makes the whole experience worthwhile.

Young scholars don’t get to attend Ren Faire, for fairly obvious reasons.

But it’s probably the cheapest 10 credits my kid will accumulate ever. Sadly my kid won’t likely choose Reed (or Lewis and Clark which has a similar program we’ve been able to use for years) simply because it’s too close to home.

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One of S1’s high school friends chose Reed, which surprised me since most people in our impoverished, conservative area wouldn’t dream of going out-of-state, let alone across the country to a “hippie school.” I asked him about it once - he and his mom saw it in CTCL and were intrigued. He did well for himself, graduated on time, and is moving to New York. FWIW, I’m also pretty sure he was a full-pay student, too.