My son, who is currently a junior, and husband went to visit Reed yesterday. He liked it, felt comfortable but I am hearing that the environment is heavy with drugs (not for recreational purposes) but to do better academically. I realize that drugs will be on any campus but we are primarily looking a small schools and don’t know if possibly drugs are more prevalent here??? Any knowledge is welcomed.
IMO they are more prevalent at Reed, but they are also more open and more accepted. With marijuana being legal in Washington, also more available than in some other places.
Are you referring to Adderall and other stimulants prescribed for ADHD but sold for academic performance?
My DD attended Reed College and loved it there. My feeling is that none of the student behavior there was any different from student behavior on any other campus.
Reed is in OR, not WA, but the marijuana comment does apply. Reed was my D1’s first choice. Drugs are available but it’s up to the individual. No pressure.
Washington is just a bridge away. I went to school in Portland and if we needed something available in Washington but not Oregon (Coors Beer) we just drove over and got it.
"My feeling is that none of the student behavior there was any different from student behavior on any other campus.’
There are definitely colleges where drugs are less common and less public than at Reed.
That may be true, but according to several friends who attended Reed, there’s no pressure to partake if one’s not interested.
An atmosphere which is similar to Oberlin which also had campus culture where weed and psychedelics were available and openly used by some students when I was an undergrad in the mid-late '90s. Despite that widespread public availability and use, there was no pressure and when I said “no thanks”, that was fully accepted without negatively affecting socialization.
Some students stand up to peer pressure, others don’t. Whether the pressure is real or just imagined will also depend on the student.
Besides the peer pressure aspect, many (most) non-drug users would prefer to not be around those who are using.
I think the OP was asking about abuse of Adderall and other meds to help excel academically.
“that was fully accepted without negatively affecting socialization.”
If everyone around me is stoned or tripping, that restricts my opportunities for socialization even in the absence of peer pressure. When lots of people are removing themselves from the conversation, it affects me. You can’t connect with those people. This was my experience in high school in a nutshell.
I still love a lot of things about Reed, but colleges really do vary in drug/alcohol culture, and it’s a reasonable thing to take into account even if you are a non-user.
My understanding is that there are plenty of colleges that are worse for those types of drugs. My D was considering Reed for a while. She wasn’t put off by what she read about Reed in regards to drugs, but was put off by what she read about the intense workload and right-on intellectualism. Drugs are a fact of life at many many colleges. My D is stone cold sober, but she has applied to colleges where kids drink and use drugs. She says she was more concerned about reports of various colleges that said there was pressure to do drugs, kids weren’t accepting of those who weren’t interested in drugs, etc… I personally wish she had applied to Reed, seems like a great school in a great location. I think Uni go and niche are two excellent sites where students can read honest student reviews. Your S can see what he thinks.
At Oberlin and what I’ve heard about Reed, the vast majority of drug users weren’t taking them to the point of being stoned or tripping…especially on a regular basis.
The minority who did tended to fall by the wayside within a semester or two due to being placed on academic suspension or sometimes even being invited to leave for failing to make sufficient academic progress.
I would especially expect this of Reed considering the academic workload my classmates had judging by their course syllabi was much heavier than my maxed out semester loads at Oberlin.
Also, there were plenty of students at both institutions who never partook in drugs…such as yours truly. I had no problems finding non-stoned/non-tripping classmates to socialize with.
Also, unlike campuses with heavy drinking cultures, students who partook in weed/psychedelics IME tend to be really laid back and not try to start up BS with non-users such as picking fights as I’ve observed on campuses with heavy drinking cultures and after college in a Boston area neighborhood near at least one private university known for its heavy drinking culture.
As I see it, if Reed had a significant across-the-board drug problem, Reed’s students couldn’t have the significant across-the-board academic and grad-school success they enjoy.