<p>From what I'm hearing, Reed is a lot like Uchicago in terms of academic strenuousness, which is I guess a good thing. The only thing preventing me from going there (if I get in) is the idea that its overrun with hippies who have idealogical oppositions to daily showers and non-secondhand clothes, and have never picked up a "Ball" of any sorts in there life. The stereotypical Reedie to me sounds a lot like the group at my high school which thinks they're better than everyone else because they've done shrooms, don't match their clothes, and one time read a Jack Kerouac novel. Please tell me that some people at Reed are actually smart, interesting people with hygiene and athleticism, who read On The Road because its a good book, not because their dealer on Haight Street said it 'blew his mind, man'.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for people having different lifestyles, I would just hate to be surrounded by these kind of Pseudo-intellectuals.</p>
<p>Maybe it might be worthwhile for you to visit Reed and see for yourself.</p>
<p>You DO need to visit. You'll either feel like you fit, or you won't - I don't think there is much middle ground.</p>
<p>"The only thing preventing me from going there (if I get in) is the idea that its overrun with hippies who have idealogical oppositions to daily showers and non-secondhand clothes, and have never picked up a "Ball" of any sorts in there life. "</p>
<p>Used to be true before. Not now..</p>
<p>Reed is a school you HAVE to visit if you are considering going there.</p>
<p>Some observations:</p>
<p>Very independent minded school, refuses to participate in USN&WR surveys. Strong academic reputation, physical plant looked a little more weathered than Swarthmore, Haverford, Grinnell. Nice wilderness area on campus. </p>
<p>Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickle and Dimed, is an alum. Library looked good. Beautiful city, area. Nice neighborhoods. Public transportation not up to Philadelphia, Boston, Cambridge coverage. Very quick drive to real country. Wildly varying landscapes - mountain, river, etc. Good air travel connections. Bike friendly city. Great waterfront district.</p>
<p>Unusual student work opportunities: We were on the campus tour with a great student guide (is there a gene that enables one to confidently walk backwards?)who, when asked about student work opportunities, said she was a student supervisor for the atomic reactor. That sent my mind into rewind mode. Say what?</p>
<p>Silly me asks "You have a reactor? Where is it?" Answer, "you're standing on it. It's below the science building." Nice photos in the science building lobby of the blue glowing cooling water (Cerenkov radiation). Radiation gives me the creeps like little else, too many duck and cover drills in the '50's and 60's, I guess. That's not rational and there is no risk, low power research reactor, no need to worry about kids bringing home things that glow in the dark and make big bangs. <grin></grin></p>
<p>Seriously, students looked pretty much like students elsewhere. </p>
<p>See: <a href="http://reactor.reed.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://reactor.reed.edu/</a></p>
<p>Big downside for us: Won't guarantee 4 years of on campus housing for all students. This may not be an issue for others, though.</p>
<p>Do visit. Great school but everything seems to be set at just a bit of an "angle" from what you find at other schools.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Bill</p>
<p>I wonder why Emeraldkity is not weighing in? I love the fact that Reed refuses to participate in the USNWR games.</p>
<p>Funny about the reactor. Students in my high school built one as a Westinghouse Science Project in 1963, in NYC, four blocks from the main Con Edison plant. Virtually as soon as it was completed, the government stepped in and permanently cordoned off the basement, which we thought was kind of funny, like they could erase the memories of the students who actually built the darn thing.</p>
<p>I'm not a Reed fan, but I can easily see why there are students who are "insanely" happy there. And they do have four "ball" club sports, with the three season basketball finalies being Messiah College, Eugene Bible College, and Multnomah Bible College. (It is said that cheerleading can be a hoot!)</p>
<p>Go visit.</p>
<p>My son goes to Swarthmore now as a freshman. He applied at Swat sort-of at my insistence and happened on the college rather than visiting and planning this thing to death. But now he says he wishes he had looked at Reed. Not that he is unhappy where he is.....but given that he'd applied to U Chicago and Swat and he liked these kinds of schools, Reed would have appealed to him a lot, especially it's reputation for creating independent minded students.</p>
<p>Thanks all, I did visit the campus, fell in love with its location and facilities (the nulear reactor, thats just crazy) The city of portland is one of only a handful of places in the World that I think can compare with San Francisco, my home now. I know the school itself is exceptional, all of my misgivings about it relate to the sort of "holier-than-thou" snobbish intellectualism that might erupt when you isolate 2000 eccentric dopers from any sort of jock or pretty-girl influence. Forgive me if I'm being overtly judgmental here... the point that I'm trying to make exactly is that I hope these conclusions that Ive jumped to are all wrong, please, will somebody, a parent of a student there, or a student there, tell me if Im wrong?</p>
<p>On my visit I only met with one student, he seemed ordinary enough, except for his exceptional brightness.. there were only a handful of people on campus that day because it was during summertime. If I am accepted, I plan to visit again and stay in teh dorms, that whole bit.</p>
<p>My daughter (at Reed) considers her morning shower the highlight of her day. </p>
<p>It may be one of the last bastions of well-rounded intellectualism. Make sure you're up for that.</p>
<p>She is doing both yoga and skiing for sports right now. Neither involves any ball throwing. </p>
<p>Visit some classes, check out the Reed community at LiveJournal.</p>
<p>The City--have you tried asking to correspond with any Reed students? A few years ago when my oldest was looking I recall a tear off in a Reed mailing that you could send in if you wished to correspond with a Reed student--they called it "write a Reedie."</p>
<p>TheCity, you need to know that Reedies are not snobbish intellectuals. It's not their style. Thyey are rather egalitarian in their thinking in general. They don't run around proclaiming "I'm an intellectual, I'm an intellectual." They just read a lot, think a lot, research a lot, write a lot. They generally have eclectic interests. They never were nor are they now all counter-cultural types. But they are well practiced in questioning the conventional or acceptefd wisdom about things.</p>
<p>(is there a gene that enables one to confidently walk backwards?)</p>
<p>haha, I don't think so.</p>
<p>when I visited someone actually asked our tour guide about this and she said that she kept walking into stuff when she was first starting out...</p>
<p>I can't help it - my impression of Reed was forever tainted when I read the student newspaper that discussed how some students, whose board allowance had run out, hover at the tray drop off spot in the cafeteria and scavage leftovers. :)</p>
<p>I would recommend that you go online and read as many back issues of their student newspaper as possible - that can help paint a picture for you. In addition to the online "ask a Reedie" thing, I'd also suggest doing an interest search on livejournal.com for Reed College and seeing what pops up. Email as many folks as you can and ask them about what they do for fun, what type of music they listen to, etc.</p>
<p>Carolyn, what do you do for fun? Write to Reedies?</p>
<p>When I went to Reed in the 80's I first encountered an abbreviation that I'd never heard before but which had been around the campus for quite awhile: "AC/PC." The abbreviation, always uttered with a hint of mockery, stood for "art-conscious/politically correct." This was long before the term "politically correct" made it into common parlance, and it speaks to the questioning nature of Reed students, people who have the ability to question not only others, but themselves. In my experience at Reed, the intellectual posers--people who went to Reed because it seemed like a cool, alternative place--were quickly done in by the college's intellectual rigor and the self-discipline it required. This doesn't mean that Reed students can't be pretentious--believe me, they can--but whatever pretense there is is tempered by a genuine seriousness of mind that makes Reed an exciting place for those who are inclined toward all things academic/intellectual. That said, I'm a proud alum of the Reed College basketball program. I played on the team for three years. We had regular practices and a full schedule of games. We even went out of town for weekend tournaments. This was one time when the perception of Reedies as intellectual snobs served us well. I'll never forget the surprised looks on some of the teams we beat. They didn't like losing to us, but they usually got their revenge when we met again--and we always had fun afterwards, the jocks and the snobs, drinking beers together after the games.</p>
<p>Mack, HAHAHA. No, actually I really do have a life beyond college (although my daughter suggested today that I should buy a copy of the new Sims University computer game so I could be all-college-all-the-time :)</p>
<p>To the original poster, I just checked and I can't find the newspaper, the Quest, on line any longer. But you might be able to track it down if you poke around.</p>
<p>"I can't help it - my impression of Reed was forever tainted when I read the student newspaper that discussed how some students, whose board allowance had run out, hover at the tray drop off spot in the cafeteria and scavage leftovers."</p>
<p>I second that. I found it very disturbing when we visited...
We also picked up a copy of Quest while on campus. It was fun to read. One of the articles described the student body as a "very diverse group of white liberals", which I think, happened to be pretty accurate. We spent a whole day on campus (including two meals in the dining room), and saw only one non-white student...</p>
<p>"AC/PC." The abbreviation, always uttered with a hint of mockery, stood for "art-conscious/politically correct." >></p>
<p>Spoon, loved this! It has always been clear to me that Reedies have a sense of humor...even when it means laughing at themselves. Not something you find at many colleges.</p>
<p>Where IS Emerald? She usually has some interesting insights about Reed based on her daughter's experiences.</p>