My son is torn between these two colleges. Can anyone who has considered these colleges or attend(ed) either, please advise? Thx.
Might be thought of as intellectual versus artsy.
Certainly both offer beautiful locations.
What does he want to major in? I know what Reed has to offer as a graduate of Reed. First, we have a beautiful campus with all classes taught exclusively by professors. We are a small student body under 1,500 with room for intellectual banter on a daily basis. We are not racially diverse(room for lots of improvement) but we have an honor code that respects how we treat each other during our 4 years on campus. Lots and lots of opportunity to be your own person with a college that has the financial ability to make it happen. On another note, I can answer specific questions as well.
@notsohelpfulmom Reed has a true intellectual vibe. Some might call it quirky. Others weird. There are literally no varsity sports or Greek life. No cooperating with “best college” rankings.
The most unique aspect noticed, compared to any other school, during an overnight visit was the dining hall where people leave their leftovers for other students to “scrounge” about.
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Thank you for your responses.
He is still decided on a major. He is considering history, political science or philosophy as majors, but he is open to other options. His goal is law school. His main concern is the workload. He is the type of kid who loves learning and he gets bored with what he calls “mundane assignments” and he knows that Reed will not give him this kind of work, but he is still a bit wary of the enormity of it. He is also concerned about getting a good GPA to get into law school.
We are considering Reed too. It may not have Greek life, but we have concern about its reputation for another kind of “party” culture. It is hard to know if the reputation is exaggerated or not. It just feels like a big risk.
@notsohelpfulmom I was a History English major at Reed and went to Harvard for graduate school. Yes, it is academically rigorous but the grading system is somewhat flexible. We do have an exam junior year which you must pass in order to write your senior thesis. If I say the one thing Reed is good at is getting folks ready for graduate school. By the time I went to graduate school I felt it was easy compared to Reed. Until I arrived at Reed my education experience was somewhat boring and mundane. I graduate at the top of my class from high school getting into 6 of the 8 ivies and including Stanford but chose Reed because I wanted that academic rigor.
For a journalistic perspective on this question, this New York Times article may be worth reading:
Reed is on these lists of Yale and Harvard Law School undergrad institutions represented. Skidmore is not.
https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/undergraduate-colleges/
@notsohelpfulmom, these are both fine schools of course, but very different in character. Skidmore has a business major, for example, a discipline that you would not find at Reed (although some Reedie friends of mine have gone on to MBAs). I can’t speak from experience about Skidmore but I can about Reed.
Reed was intense, no doubt about it, but the fact of being surrounded by nerdy students who were happy to hit the books makes for a very welcoming atmosphere if you are cut from the same cloth. I loved it. If you have strong study skills, the workload was not too hard to manage.
I was an international studies major (now called international and comparative policy studies – an interdisciplinary major of econ., history and pol. sci) and like @trippfolsom, found grad school (Johns Hopkins) a breeze after Reed.
In terms of the “party” culture that @sisternight referred to, I spent a semester at Georgetown and found it much worse (particularly binge drinking) at GT. The only difference was that students were far more open about partying at Reed. Frankly, Reed is not the kind of place where you can party hard and still stay on top of your studies. Students figure that out fairly early on.
My son was accepted to Reed. He is super bright and a very deep kid. He could carry his own in any intellectual discussion, but he does not have a good work ethic or a drive for much beyond getting the bare minimum done that’s needed to get an A or B and then getting back to his video game. I am torn about Reed. I wonder if it could be such a great academic environment, that it could inspire my son’s love of learning and get him re-engaged in academia, or if he’ll find it unmanageable, or if he’ll do the bare minimum there and we will have spent a fortune when he could go somewhere else for less than half the cost. Everything I’ve read says Reed is for students who want the rigor. I am hoping it could inspire a love for the rigor. But, I’m not confident. Any thoughts?
A friend’s son, who fit the same description as yours coming out of high school, went to Columbia where he found himself in all seminar classes. It was do the readings and participate in discussions in the small seminars or fail. He fell in love with academics and rose to the occasion.
College is about getting an education, about improving yourself, about becoming better than you are. I think it’s worth the gamble. Reed is the kind of place that can bring out the best in him.
Thanks for your reply. I’m happy for your friend’s son. Made me cry. 
@RachaelK, being surrounded by inspirational profs and peers who are very much into their studies may get that spark and internal drive going for him. With the May 1 deadline behind us, what school did he select?