Some background info: I am an international student from Canada that currently resides in Asia. Reed and Wake Forest are the schools that accepted me that I’m currently considering. I applied world literature for Reed and undeclared for Wake Forest. I’ve visited wake’s campus and loved it, but I’ve never visited reed. Anyway, I really like both schools but think I’ll be more comfortable in Portland, being a hardcore liberal, singer-songwriter kind of kid. Any thoughts guys?
From your description of yourself, I think you’d be great at Reed! I hadn’t visited Reed either when I was deciding, and I just went with my gut and it was a /good/ decision. Just remember that Reed is a much smaller school so you have fewer options, but I encourage you to look at the kind of literature classes that we offer that you may like: https://solar.reed.edu/class_schedule/
I am not sure what languages you speak, but do look under Russian/Spanish/German/Chinese lit in translation.
I live in NC and my daughter is likely to attend Reed College. Wake Forest is pretty, but the college is not on the calibre of Reed in any way – not even close. In addition, if you are even remotely liberal, NC will be stifling to you. Seriously racist and homophobic. Portland is a more open and accepting community, and Reed is an amazing learning environment.
@International95 I am really considering Reed, but am a little worried about the work load. How is that?
@ISpy42 Thank you for the insight. I was under the impression that North Carolina isn’t necessarily liberal, but not very far on the other spectrum either. I’m Asian-Canadian so your statement of North Carolina’s environment being “racist and homophobic”, if true, has a large impact on my college decision.
The workload is really not that bad; it’s not easy, but it keeps you busy. First year though is very easy, and it gets harder as you go up, but you become more capable of handling it. I would also point it out that from your sophomore year, you tend to take classes that you are /actually/ interested in. I personally have found the upper-division literature classes to be very challenging – the material is difficult, moves fast as the semester gets going, and you have to write responses to your reading before every class. My french literature class, for instance, covers two times the material an average school in the US would offer. But if it wasn’t challenging, there would be no point in doing it. I have taken upper-division classes in the social sciences, and they are easier than the humanities classes – at least for me.
@International95 thanks again for the response. Not that I am one to indulge in prestige, but how prestigious do you consider Reed college? How do graduate schools consider it? Can you give me some examples of schools around Reed’s tier?
Reed is a grad school prep college; because of the thesis requirement, grad schools know you know how to do research and write about it. See http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html
Here are what Reed considers to be peer schools:
http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/december2012/articles/features/diversity/diversity1.html
I went to undergraduate at Wake Forest University back in 2002-2006 as an international student from Asia. My experience at Wake Forest had been great, people were friendly and willing to listen to diverse opinions. The academic quality was superb, and the business school education tied in the #1 with Wharton on academic quality. It was great experience. I also participated in the debate club, Model United Nations, Mock Trial, which made my days eventful and fun. I would recommend Wake Forest for any international student.