<p>Anyone been accepted to Univ of Portland? If so, have you received any info besides the admit letter???</p>
<p>Why the particular interest in this pacific northwest college? Any interest in Willamette U, George Fox U, Whitman College, Linfield College?</p>
<p>My S liked the campus and the friendly atmosphere. He also liked the courses the philosophy dept offered. We checked out Willamette but it wasn't a fit for him. Whitman is on his list along with Reed. He loves Portland, the skate parks, and that huge book store!</p>
<p>If you like Reed and Whitman- I would also look at Lewis and Clark-</p>
<p>I agree Portland is a pretty cool place but Powells- is way too big for me- the one on Hawthorne not far from Reed is big enough!</p>
<p>Reed and U of Portland are hugely different schools. U of Portland is a jesuit college; Reed's tongue-in-cheek motto is "atheism, free love, communism." </p>
<p>Lewis and Clark is actually about halfway between, IMHO, philosophically. He really needs to visit the schools and spend serious time there.</p>
<p>I also really like Portland, but I adore the hugeness of Powell's. (You <em>can</em> always get what you want--or at least find something even better!)</p>
<p>Although I'm no expert on either school, I've been on both campuses several times and know some graduates. I'm just starting to research U of Portland seriously, so for what it's worth:</p>
<p>It's true that U of Portland and Reed are very, very different.<br>
Reed students definitely embrace the alternative, although I think many of them were fresh faced honor students in high school. It's a freethinking intellectual school and students don't want to be seen as mainstream. I've heard the workload is especially tough compared to almost any college in the nation and some kids do burnout. The campus is absolutely beautiful and the surrounding neighborhood is upscale. </p>
<p>University of Portland is a nice, friendly Catholic school. It's run by the Congregation of Holy Cross (not the Jesuits) the same order that runs Notre Dame. Although the students are probably more liberal than the administration, it's still a Catholic school and that does influence the kind of student it attracts. The middle aged graduates that I know are strong Catholics, very family oriented, successful, and lean to the right politically. Engineering, nursing, education (more preprofessional) majors are most popular. </p>
<p>If anyone knows what the current social scene is like, I'd love to know (i.e. drinking, on campus weekend activities).</p>
<p>Nosee, you forgot to mention U of Portland's nationally ranked women's soccer team.</p>
<p>Noseemom, thank you for the clarification! I guess I thought the Jesuits and Holy Cross were the same. Are there major philosophical differences?</p>
<p>I agree with dmd77. Reed and U of Portland are philosophically worlds apart. Both great schools, but U of Portland's administration is very conservative. For instance, last year there was a big to-do there because some students who were working in an OFF-campus production of the Vagina Monologues were prohibited by doing so by the U of Portland administration. Keep in mind, this was an off-campus activity.
There are also some priests who live in the dorms as "student advisors."
The students we know at U of P are more middle of the road than the administration, however, but there are a fair share of relatively conservative students on campus.</p>
<p>Reed...well, you'd be hard pressed to find them prohibiting their students from doing anything...and you might have trouble finding many "middle of the road" students at Reed, let alone conservatives.</p>
<p>That said, the U of Portland is the only Catholic school my daughter even considered applying to --- of all the campus visits we've made over the last year, their admissions office was absolutely the friendliest and best at answering questions and making prospective students feel at home. I think it's a great school, but as dmd suggested, visit and do an overnight at both Reed and U of P to see which is a better fit. I doubt many students would feel equally at home at both.</p>
<p>If anyone knows what the current social scene is like, I'd love to know (i.e. drinking, on campus weekend activities).>></p>
<p>My daughter knows several current students and she and her friend also spent a good amount of time talking to students we met on campus when we visited. </p>
<p>There is some beer drinking on campus, but wouldn't call it a party school by any stretch. Very little in the way of drugs. Many students go off campus into portland on the weekends. Inter-dorm contests and activities are also big. Lots of kids are involved with community service projects. The dorms we visited seemed very welcoming and homey, although on the older side. When we visited last year, we were told the dorms have restrictions on opposite sex room visits - no opposite sex overnights - but not sure if that's all dorms, or just the two we visited (which were both single sex).</p>