<p>I've heard several people say that Reed can be "a high stress environment." I know the academics are great, and I like that. But I've read about other schools with high academic standards, like Stanford, who say they pride themselves in their "laid back, low stress attitude". Thoughts?</p>
<p>I think this is a hard question to answer. Reed is certainly stressful, with the Hum 110 reading list, junior quals, and the defense of a senior thesis. If Stanford says they're less stressful, I can't argue with that. Both schools clearly have high academic standards.</p>
<p>Stanford is stressful in a different way. Are you familar with the "duck" analogy? It's the oft-stated idea that Stanford students strive to be like ducks on a pond: they appear to be gliding along, but under the water, they're paddling madly to create that appearance. Because of that, students sometimes are both very stressed, but try to hide that and appear laid back. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Reed students are much more likely to talk about what horrible courseloads they have, how much reading, how many papers are due. There's a bit of stress "ducksizing", if you know what I mean. That said, I think students tend to be more open about feeling stressed out, and receive more peer support around that. At some schools, saying, "My courseload is stressful" is equated to saying, "I'm not as intelligent as my peers, so I can't handle it as well as they can", so students may not be as open about their stress level. At Reed, it seems like students are more honest about stress levels.</p>