@InDebtForever (I love your username). It’s always possible your child might be invited to a classmate’s house for the break.
We haven’t received anything since the email of acceptance. We are American overseas, did’t ask for FA. My daughter is a NMF. Will she receive any merit money for that?
No. Reed gives no merit money.
Called my admissions counselor and she said they still had some people without decisions. She said she didn’t have any thing about my decisions. 
@CoolChem, wow that’s kind of crazy, isn’t it?? I’m new to this but why on earth wouldn’t they know if you were a yes, no or WL yet??
Wow! Finally got a Reed decision after a super long wait.
I got wait listed, oh well ?.
@CoolChem , I still can’t get over how crazy late that is!! What on earth could be the reason behind that??
We were unable to attend the admitted student day. Just wondering if anyone here went and what impressions you had, both good and bad. Did the overnight help to cement your decision one way or another? Thanks in advance for any insights and information.
No idea! Reed must be crazy. I won’t be accepting a spot on the WL though. @4sugarplums
@InDebtForever I went to RAD 2!
I loved the students. I’ve seen a lot of negative posts about student culture, but everyone I met there was amazing, and my host (and his roommate) seemed to know everyone. It seemed like on-campus jobs are a social hub, and that people who have them have better experiences than people who don’t. For example, I hung out with someone who worked the reactor, and everywhere we went someone else popped up who worked the reactor. Everyone was very friendly and willing to talk.
I really did get a good vibe off the Reedies I spoke with. Very thoughtful kids. I asked a lot of questions about the school culture and the social life at Reed, and they had very solid answers. I got invited to go see GoT with some people during the overnight and it was very laid back. One girl (a senior) was doing her homework and joined late, but she wasn’t freaking out about the infamous Reed workload or anything. Everyone was pleasantly busy, and made time to hang out, and it was very natural. That was a welcome surprise.
I got the vibe that people genuinely appreciated their courses and their professors. People tend to be very fond of the professors in their department.
The RAD programming itself was a mixed bag. I realized the school shined most when I went off the rails a bit, so I did that, and spent most of my time there speaking with professors and meeting students. Another surprising thing: the campus is way prettier than I expected. Incredibly lush, like, wow. The canyon is stunning and a fantastic addition.
I wasn’t really sold by the classes I sat in on. It was good, but I already get good classes from my state U. Maybe it’s just my department (I only sat in on math classes). It really sucks, too, because I was hoping they would be transcendent and I’d just instantly know, “Reed!” If you’re doing natural sciences or the humanities those departments are really strong at Reed, and this wouldn’t be as much of a problem. Try to find how many faculty members your specific department has and what their interests are. Some depts have as few as three, while others are much bigger.
Instead of academic advisors, you get a professor from your department to advise you as soon as you start at Reed. This can be fantastic. My guess is that being a good advisor is a big part of becoming a Reed professor. The new hires I met seemed smart and enthusiastic, with high standards for their students.
This also means professors don’t have a lot of time to give special attention or do reading courses, because they have students to advise.
One piece of advice: If you want grad school, find out which professors are doing research or who are serious about putting students into grad school, and make those professors your advisors very early on. From what I hear, it’s relatively easy to change advisors.
My overall impressions were very positive, but for a lot of reasons really specific to my situation I’m not really sold. Will continue to think about it.
Best of luck!
Thanks for that review, @OMPursuit
My son couldn’t make it to either of the RAD days, but he will visit this coming Friday, including an overnight in the dorms. He’ll also stay a few extra days to check out Portland and some of the surrounding area.
Although Reed has always been his first choice, my feeling is they will really have to impress him in order to keep him from attending our state public flagship university.
@OMPursuit or anyone else with some first-hand experience at Reed, could you comment on that old stereotype one hears about ‘there are a lot of drugs at Reed’? My knee-jerk guess is that this dates back to pre-legalization days and mostly means that the administration cared less about cracking down on pot there than they do at some other campuses so the ratio of pot to alcohol was higher but the overall use is/ was pretty similar… but that’s just a guess, I don’t really know and the people I hear that statement from aren’t actually Reed students or alums.
@washugrad I mean, drugs are a presence at Reed. I didn’t see anything while I was there (not even pot!), but I have heard stories from current students. I feel like a lot of the heavier drug use happens off-campus. Note that a significant number (like 10%?) of students live off campus, often together.
I did see some (legal) drinking and some cigarette use.
I know for a fact that marijuana is banned on campus, although there is a dispensary a few blocks away. I bet you that most (but not all) of the smoking happens in said off-campus housing, since there are zero repercussions for those of age.
There are also two substance-free dorms on campus. They are the nicest dorms, and you can get into them by request as early as freshman year. During the overnight I stayed in the third dorm in that neighborhood (Sequoia) and it was beautiful, clean, very spacious. Definitely a place I’d want to live, substance free or not.
Honestly, a lot of the drug culture I’ve seen at Reed is very positive. It’s less that people take more drugs (although for all I know maybe they do), and more that they are willing to talk about it. There are publicly available testing kits, so students who do indulge can figure out what they’re actually taking. There’s also a medical amnesty policy that protects students from disciplinary action in a medical emergency-- they won’t be expelled or arrested for calling 911, even if they were using illegal substances. All of this makes for an atmosphere open to talking about substance use in a way I’m not used to seeing, living next to a large public university. It seems like policies are more focused on protecting students than punishing users.
I want to add that the Portland police do not seem well liked by the Reed student body, and the school uses their own Campus Safety Officers instead. I felt really good about the CSOs I met! I encountered them three times on campus and they were always friendly and helpful (they even gave me a little tour of campus when I was lost).
Thanks, that’s helpful. I know some young adults everywhere are trying new things out so just trying to suss out whether the actual level of substance use/abuse is really that much higher than at most other universities.
Funny how some parents on here are worried about their children being exposed to pot at Reed, meanwhile I am more worried about my URM brown skin-toned son getting harassed by neo-nazis and/or the Portland police (some of whom claim to be neo-nazis).
@NMParent000079 The first one is much more likely to happen than the latter. The Reed campus is really safe, some would say a bit of a bubble.
@NMParent000079 I’m sorry you have to worry about such horrible things. I’ve got a trans kid (caucasian) so there are definitely some parts of the country where I fear for her safety. And I get not wanting to send a kid to a school in a town where they felt unsafe, even if the school itself was fine.
It’s a bit of a journey to get from Reed to the downtown encounter areas. With limited available off-campus time, most Reedies seem to frequent the nearby quiet Woodstock shopping and restaurant area.
@washugrad Yeah, on a realistic level I suspect that a great majority of the people in Portland are not neo-nazis, but you know how we let these things exacerbate in our minds. Still, and I am sure you feel the same way, it’s difficult not to worry about our kids when they are so far away and barely out of our care.
hey everyone! i hope you all had a great decision day. i sent in my deposit saying that i’d be committed to reed and haven’t received a confirmation email about setting up a kerebros account to register for a reed email and apply for housing. has this happened to anyone else? do the confirmation papers usually come after? i know that reed doesnt really use online portals like other schools, so do things just run a bit slower? should i email them? thanks so much