<p>Is this true? Anyone visit the campus? Comments please? I heard it surpasses HYPS and AWS</p>
<p>Reed has a rigorous curriculum on par with the University of Chicago. For example, every freshman takes the same Hum 110 course that meets Monday, Wed, & Fri for a 50 minute lecture with the entire freshman class in attendance. The lectures are team taught by roughly 20 faculty. Immediately after the lectures are discussion classes of about 14 students with a faculty guide. Students are expected to be prepared and ready to argue their point. Papers are frequent, with comments returned but no grade. Grades are recorded, but the students aren't told what they are. Students meet with their faculty discussion guide, who give 1:1 feedback. Students may ask to see grades, but they are not voluntarily offered. If a student is performing C- or below work, they are notified they need to improve. The average GPA of a graduating Reed student is 2.8 out of 4. No grade inflation at Reed. Though GPA's are low, Reed places a higher percentage of students into Ph.D. programs in the life sciences than any other college or university in the country, and is third for all disciplines. </p>
<p>Here is an overview of Hum 110 requirements (Check out the Fall 2004 syllabus for this one course):
<a href="http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/Hum110/%5B/url%5D">http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/Hum110/</a></p>
<p>Reed uses the discussion, small class model throughout the curriculum, and each student is required to do a demanding, year-long, senior thesis, it is not optional. It is much more demanding than many of the Ivy's.</p>
<p>Reed refuses to participate in the USNWR rankings, so it is a school very confident in itself and what it offers students. They are typically punished by being listed in the 40's. I believe in the last year they did participate they were in the LAC top 5. (Show's how "objective" USNWR rankings are.)</p>
<p>idad - point of clarification - Reed was ranked #53 in last year's US News, on par with Kalamazoo & Beloit.
See: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_3217_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_3217_brief.php</a>
<a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/libartco/tier1/t1libartco_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/libartco/tier1/t1libartco_brief.php</a></p>
<p>Not that the rankings mean anything, as you have pointed out. But Reed has never been listed anywhere near the "top" - last year's top 5 were Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wellesley and Carleton.</p>
<p>Reed does complete the common data set and that information is readily available on the web site. Most of US News data comes from the CDS - so with or without participation, US News has most of the numbers it needs. Reed probably falls down somewhat because of factors like its lower freshman retention and graduation rate. But the list doesn't make much sense in any case. Garbage in, garbage out.</p>
<p>"I believe in the last year they did participate they were in the LAC top 5"</p>
<p>Just a point of clarification
Idad didn't say that last year they were in the top 5 but the last year Reed gave information to US news which was 10 years ago.
*Reed president Steven Koblik decided to withdraw the school from the rankings game after he read an April 5, 1995, Wall Street Journal article noting widespread inaccuracies in college rankings. Reporter Steve Stecklow had compared the information given by schools to the Money and U.S. News rankings with similar statistics colleges report to bond agencies and the NCAA. (While there are no penalties for giving inaccurate data to a magazine, lying to bond agencies violates federal securities laws, and lying to the NCAA can also have serious repercussions.)</p>
<p>Stecklow found numerous discrepancies between figures reported to bond agencies and figures reported to magazines. New College of the University of South Florida, for instance, boasted an impressive average SAT score of 1296 in the 1994 Money college guide. Its actual average score was about 40 points less. In what the school's admissions director called part of a "marketing strategy," it had neglected to include the bottom-scoring 6 percent of its student body when reporting to Money. Boston's Northeastern University excluded international and remedial students-about 20 percent of its freshman class-in the numbers it reported to the newsmagazines. Monmouth University in New Jersey overreported its average SAT score by a whopping 200 points, a number the school told Stecklow was fabricated by a former employee. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York reportedly raised its selectivity rate by counting as "rejects" students who were admitted to programs other than those to which they had applied and students who were waitlisted and later admitted.*
<a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0110/features/abuse.html%5B/url%5D">http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0110/features/abuse.html</a>
When Steve Koblik refused to submit info to Us News- it was dropped to lowest tier despite having the 18th best academic reputation of all LACs in the survey .
It is true that Reed has not had the same graduation rate as comparable schools. I looked into this and found several reasons that made sense to me.
One was that Reed takes chances on students who didn't peak in high school, my daughter only had a 3.3 GPA but she is a strong writer, they considered that in admission. Because it is such a tough academic school, that can discourage some students, Reed doesn't coddle and staying in Reed is harder than getting in, the opposite of some schools.
It is also very very small 1300 students, so even the largest depts are fairly small. This can cause problems when you decide you want to change majors to something they don't have or when a professor who is the only one who teaches what you want to write your thesis on goes on leave.
another disadvantage IMO is that is it is very expensive, only has need based aid and has the appearance of being a school for rich white kids. There actually is more diversity than at first glance, but not alot compared to where many kids attended high school. These disadvantages may wear after a while and be behind the decision of some students to transfer or take time off.</p>
<p>The description of Reed in Fiske is an accurate and even-handed description of the college. I loved Reed, but it's definitely not for everyone.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Anyone visit the campus?
[/quote]
I recently visited the campus for my reunion. It's a beautiful campus in a terrific city. Quite a lot of new building in recent years, including new dorms, art and theater facilities.</p>
<p>Reed has a strong curriculum, teachers place high expectations on students, and many students go on to academic careers. It's strong in many areas of the curriculum including biological sciences, chemistry, math, languages, sociology and anthropology, political science, history, and others.</p>
<p>It still has a counter-cultural feel to it. I liked Reed when I attended, have benefited my whole life from the education I received there, and I give it a lot of money every year.</p>
<p>More on Reed and the USNWR, old but informative:</p>
<p>U.S. News and World Report hat trick</p>
<p>By Harriet Watson </p>
<p>For the third consecutive year the college has refused to return surveys to U.S News and World Report for its annual "best colleges" rankings issue. And for the third consecutive year this face-off has put Reed in the national spotlight.
The October 16 issue of Rolling Stone magazine prominently mentioned Reed in "The College Rankings Scam," an article that raised serious concerns about the U.S. News college rankings.</p>
<p>"[The editors at U.S. News] had never met with such a prominent school being so stubborn," wrote Rolling Stone about Reed's refusal to cooperate in 1995. "So U.S. News punished Reed College. They gave it the lowest possible score in nearly every category. The school plunged to the bottom quartile. No other college had dropped so far, so fast." Acknowledging that it was wrong to punish Reed for being the lone holdout in the prestigious national liberal arts and national universities categories, U.S. News editor Al Sanoff told Rolling Stone "Let's just say we did not handle it the right way."</p>
<p>Last year an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times by a leader of the student government at Stanford University (and one of the founders of that student body's Forget U.S. News Coalition initiative, FUNC) praised Reed for refusing to provide information to U.S. News and advised prospective students to go to Reed if they "want to go to a school that isn't interested in selling out its education." (That op-ed can still be found on the FUNC web site, <a href="http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/assu/func/%5B/url%5D">http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/assu/func/</a>.)</p>
<p>The college has repeatedly asked the editors at U.S. News simply to drop Reed from its best-colleges issue, yet they continue to include us and to harvest data from non-college, information-gathering sources. Our subsequent yo-yo relationship with U.S. News has turned into quite a spectator sport: in 1996, the year after Reed was singled out for special censorious treatment and relegated to the lowest tier in its category, the magazine trumpeted Reed in its "best colleges" press release as being new to the "top 40" tier of national liberal arts schools; and this year the college is in the second tier, even though the magazine's sources rate the college's academic reputation as high or higher than half of the top-ranked schools.</p>
<p>Reed refuses to supply the information needed for rankings.</p>
<p>My D is at Reed and adores it. If there are questions unanswered here, I'm happy to answer them directly or by PM, although you should all be aware that I don't give out a lot of identifying information directly.</p>
<p>Reed is extremely demanding academically. My D works at least as hard as my S (who is at MIT). Reed has a high rate of noncompletion for several reasons I've identified: a) they require a thesis of ALL students in every department, b) they require ALL students to pass a qualifying exam before entering their thesis year, c) they have hard courses and no grade inflation (the average undergrad GPA is 2.7) (half of all students never ask to see their grades, BTW), d) they do not guarantee housing on campus after freshman year, e) they take risks on "unconventional" learners, f) they're expensive.</p>
<p>They are indeed a small campus, which is both a plus and a minus. Professors know their students well (my D got an email from a prof asking if she could cat sit this summer; the prof mentioned my D's love of cats in it); opportunities for ECs abound. OTOH, some courses simply aren't offered every year, and there aren't many weird electives, unless a faculty member is interested.</p>
<p>Reed (IMHO) is one of the last bastions of intellectualism for its own sake. They do not offer much in the way of practical majors, which may be one reason so many students go on to graduate school. My D has commented on how many of her classmates are the children of university professors.</p>
<p>dmd77,</p>
<p>It's nice to know that not much has changed in 20 years (except that the cross-canyon dorms are much nicer).</p>
<p>spoonyj, not just the cross canyon dorms but really the fact that there IS a cross canyon beyond what used to be the four small 25-person dorms is new. It was a big surprise to me when I was there last month. One of those dorms looked like a Swiss chalet to me. What I do remember of the old cross canyon dorms is that it was easy to get onto the roof. And that was a both a problem and an opportunity for those who wished to launch water balloons.</p>
<p>mackinaw,</p>
<p>I too was shocked by the chalet, but it's a big improvement; I was impressed. One thing I did regret was the new bridge. Yeah, the old one needed to go, but it was funky, and I remember hearing that it was somebody's thesis project. Of course, the most shocking development in the recent history of the college is the fact that my thesis has actually been checked out. I here offer my offical apology to the poor soul whose intellectual development was momentarily derailed by my contribution to academe.</p>
<p>so what do you think of the canyon?
My dog loves it- she hasn't gone in- but everytime she walks across the blue bridge the yearning is palpable.
<a href="http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=30595%5B/url%5D">http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=30595</a></p>
<p>spoonyj, I agree that the new bridge is very ordinary. The old cantilevered one was special, with that "point" in the center.</p>
<p>Regarding theses, well mine has been checked out too -- REALLY out. It's missing. When I was there 10 years ago I told the library that I have an original copy (and they probably do tool, if I recall correctly). But on that visit I was trying to impress my kids by taking them up to the tower and showing them I had a book in the library. HA! Such hubris on my part. But I was appropriately humbled</p>
<p>The canyon had a fair bit of brackish water in it last month, but it's a natural spring and other than cleaning debris out of it (maybe they found my lost eyeglasses?) they limit what they do to it. Too many senior theses have been based on the flora and fauna in that place!</p>
<p>I notice Zach Perry says what he uses to * get moss to grow<a href="one%20part%20moss%20to%20two%20parts%20buttermilk-%20and%20paints%20it%20on">/i</a> but living in Seattle- I would like to know what he would use to * stop it*!</p>
<p>EK, thanks so much for that link to the article about the canyon restoration. I hadn't read it before my previous post. Now I understand better what's going on.</p>
<p>BTW/ I miss that pool. Not that I ever swam in it, but the amphitheatre above it was always a nice place to be.</p>
<p>I think in Portland moss grows on anything that isn't moving.</p>
<p>Just read the link about the canyon. I'm so glad they decided to build the fish ladder. During my freshman year, I was taking a shower when a couple of friends slid a two-foot salmon under the curtain. That's right. They had found the salmon in the stream below the theater and fished it out by hand. Only later did they consider the fact that it might have been returning to spawn.</p>