<p>Are there other liberal arts colleges like Reed?</p>
<p>St. John’s college and Hampshire (to some extent) come to mind. If you’re a guy and want really alternative, check out Deep Springs.</p>
<p>Like Reed in what sense?</p>
<p>Antioch college in Yellow Springs Ohio. very alternative.</p>
<p>New College in florida might be in there</p>
<p>Reed, St. John’s and Hampshire have very little in common.</p>
<p>It would certainly help if the OP clarified his or her request. What definition of ‘alternative’ are we using here? Alternative to what? The neoliberal world order? Pop music? The patriarchy?</p>
<p>In other words, what makes Reed alternative in your eyes? I suppose the student body does listen to lots of weird music, but personally, I’d call it an orthodox school–because of its broad distribution requirements, senior thesis, heavy reliance on primary sources, small course catalog, lukewarm attitude toward double majors, etc.</p>
<p>Schools like Hampshire, College of the Atlantic, Naropa, Goddard, Antioch, Colorado College and Warren Wilson are much more alternative in my eyes.</p>
<p>^ Colorado College, Naropa, and Warren Wilson don’t have all that much in common, either.
Naropa promotes East-meets-West “contemplative learning”, featuring a small number of majors in areas such as Peace Studies, Religious Studies, and “Disembodied Poetics”. Warren Wilson is a “work college” combining more or less traditional liberal arts majors with campus work and community service. Colorado College is basically a traditional Liberal Arts College similar to a mainstream New England LAC, except that it operates on a one-course-at-a-time “Block Plan” (so you take as many courses as you would elsewhere, but in series not in parallel).</p>
<p>Reed is a traditional LAC (for all the reasons Ghostt points out). Academically, it is really more traditional than Amherst or other “Open Curriculum” schools.</p>
<p>Reed considers Hampshire to be a peer school: [peer</a> institutions](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2008/features/many_apply/3.html]peer”>Reed Magazine: Many Apply. Few are Chosen. (3/5))</p>
<p>Reed and St. John’s share a bit of the “great books” theme.</p>
<p>The Reed student body has been called “a majority of outliers.”</p>
<p>[The</a> Paradoxes of Reed](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/reed_paradoxes.html]The”>http://www.reed.edu/apply/news_and_articles/reed_paradoxes.html): “A traditional, classical, highly structured curriculum. And yet, at the same time, a progressive, free-thinking, decidedly unstructured community culture.”</p>
<p>Found this list of schools with the most “hippies” a while ago for my daughter.</p>
<ol>
<li>Warren Wilson</li>
<li>Hampshire</li>
<li>Bard</li>
<li>Evergreen</li>
<li>Bennington</li>
<li>Sarah Lawrence</li>
<li>SUNY Purchase</li>
<li>Colorado College</li>
<li>UC Santa Cruz</li>
<li>Vassar</li>
<li>Wesleyan</li>
<li>Oberlin</li>
<li>U. of Vermont</li>
<li>Skidmore</li>
<li>Beloit</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Grinnell </li>
<li>Kenyon</li>
</ol>
<p>This is not necessarily a list of very hippy schools, but they have a dominant population of more “alternative” types of students. Keep in mind that Antioch College is reopening with only 11 students. All 11 have been offered full tution scholarships though, so they are really pioneers! It will be a while before they have enough students to really have a college feel. Antioch College is my mom’s alma mater, so I would love to see it grow, but just thought you should be aware of the extreme low population of students. </p>
<p>Here’s a few more schools with more alternative philosophies that aren’t necessarily like Reed, but the student body is alternative.
- Earlham
- Goucher
- The Eugene Lang New School
- Virginia Commonweatlh U. Arts
- Humboldt State
- Hiram
- Guilford
- Eckard</p>
<p>Prescott College</p>
<p>Marlboro College (VT)</p>
<p>Hampshire and Bard</p>
<p>Sent from my iPhone using CC</p>
<p>Brown University – oops, OP wanted LACs. Sorry</p>
<p>If “alternative” means a non-traditional curriculum or organization of curriculum, you might consider Evergreen State to be such a school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Antioch College was historically one of the top LACs in the country, as well as one of the most alternative. But it ran out of money and shut down in 2008, after operating for more than 150 years. </p>
<p>It’s supposed to reopen in fall 2011, with a very small student body and faculty. The school has lost its academic accreditation, but if all goes well, it should be reaccredited when the new students graduate. </p>
<p>So Antioch is definitely an alternative way to go at this point.</p>
<p>I think part of what makes Reed fantastic is that its curriculum is fairly structured but not extraordinarily so. One has the option, for example, of satisfying one group requirement with units in mathematics, foreign language, OR linguistics. </p>
<p>However, there is a thesis requirement, a mandatory freshman humanities class, a “natural sciences” requirement, a PE requirement, etc… </p>
<p>Fair or un-fair, Reed’s structure and rigor lends credibility. Reedies emerge extremely well educated. Graduate and professional schools know this. While I’m not suggesting that it isn’t possible to receive a fine education from Evergreen or Hampshire, I’d hazard to say the names don’t carry the same weight. </p>
<p>Reed, from my perspective, is a unique combination of the creative-- the zany and power house academics. Also, Reed’s student body is statistically stronger than many of the other schools mentioned. The significance of this is debatable, but it’s something to consider.</p>