I was so interested in reed, it seemed too good to be true. Now I’ve been reading some posts that say how stressed their students are, how annoyIng everyone is, the small student body leading to drama, and it all seems very hyper-intelligent high school.
Interests: law, literature, teaching, reading, writing, humanities, art history, film making, art, fashion.
I wasn’t always a dedicated student but I am now. #honorroll. I have ADD and love learning but I needto give myslef a kickstart - I’m afraid i would be at the bottom of the pack there and feel bad about it.
About me;
Politics:
- pro women’s rights / equal pay
- don’t mind going to school with people with opposing views as long as they aren’t cruel
- would rather be surrounded by PETA lovers and eco terrorists than one-track conservatives That would laugh at the topic of racial or gender oppression.
- BUT I need the reassurance of something a school that would have frat boy jerks - a reassurance that everything is normal, mainstream, connected.
- I like to have new views and ideas come at me
Personality:
- ENFJ - sensitive, not good with excessive alone time as I turn to dark thoughts, passionate, and stubborn.
- I love film and art and reading books.
- I love rap music
- fav artists: santigold, MIA, vampire weekend, 3oh!3, ke$ha, kanye west. Sorry that Im not into folk music or the head & the heart, this is who I am.
- would like to be able to do fun things with friends - clubs parties concerts restaurants diners, etc.?
Please tell me if I should go to reed! I won’t judge you or look down upon you if you go to reed and are Unsatisfied.
It is true, Reed is a very hard school. That is why so many of their graduates go to graduate school. It promotes a very intellectual environment and graduate schools know how rigorous Reed’s education is. A whole load of intensive writing and reading, and a required senior thesis.
I don’t think what should determine if you’d succeed at Reed should be your specific political beliefs. Reed is known for being politically very left, frequently verging on the radical. Portland is also a very leftist city. Since Reed is in fact in a city there are plenty of things to do with friends, as in any large city. What you think of “fun” may not be what other Reedies think of “fun”, though. Nonetheless I don’t doubt you’ll find anyone who shares interests with you.
You said you originally thought Reed would be a perfect school for you. What compelled you to make that assertion? Why exactly are you attracted to Reed in the first place?
Also–what do you plan to major in?
Reed is famous for as a welcoming place for angular edgy non-conformist, self-motivated (and yes, very bright) students. It has all the upsides and downsides that you’d expect to find with a LAC full of these types. If that sounds like a potential fit, then it’s mostly upside.
There are other schools that have at least some of Reed’s characteristics that you might want to consider: Hampshire College and Colorado College (the block program might be a fit for you) for starters.
For freshmen, Reed isn’t hard at all as long as you come from a good high school background (I had an easy time through first sem of HUM, but not everybody comes from my background of formalist training in reading texts). I suspect 300-level classes are what make things tough, but I won’t get a taste of one until next semester. From what people tell me, sophomore year gets ‘suddenly’ much harder, but then you get used to it.
There are annoying people, yeah, but no, everyone isn’t annoying. There is drama mostly online; I haven’t seen much of it in person. It is not like high school.
Are there ‘jocks’? Some, yeah, but few. There’s this one guy in my freshman guy (direct quote from him: “dudes, Achilles was a total bro!!” – I’m not making this up) who is ridiculously ripped and disappeared for one week this semester (he went for some sort of a waterskating contest idk I wasn’t paying attention). There are prep school kids too if that helps your need for ‘normal’ stuff.
I feel like all my friends are obsessed with rap music–or indie songs. Some of us like to get together and blast pop music against the behest of musical dilettantes (our ‘friends’) who despise our taste. However, the Chittick group–the musical appreciation society or whatever-- is surprisingly receptive of our taste because they, as one guy put it, are interested in all kinds of music (and they actually create music so they know what they are talking about). I mean, you have to be really pretentious to leave a room just because your friends are playing pop songs or something you don’t like. Unfortunately, there are those kind of people as well. Don’t worry, though, we’ll listen to Ke$ha with you.
What am I unsatisfied with? The casual attitude of many of the students towards hard drugs (this can deceive people into thinking that they have no negative consequences). The so-called ‘detailed’ feedback instead of grades does not work for freshman year (hopefully just for this year); I got way more feedback in high school. As a consequence, my writing has not improved at all, and this has forced me to ask for my grades from my advisor because I have no idea about how I did this semester in most of my classes, perhaps except math (I am also trying to switch my HUM conference to that of a philosophy professor or something). That is all that sticks out to me right now. Other issues are mostly small, and I’m mostly satisfied with Reed and am looking forward to an intentionally difficult spring semester.