<p>I would have applied to Brown but it’s really cold up there and I knew I had no shot with a 3.5 UW gpa</p>
<p>DoinSchool-</p>
<p>yes, you sound like my son… 3.6 UW but great test scores. He also wants to look at Berkeley (surprised they accepted him) but I’m not in favor of a big school for him…</p>
<p>he was also rejected from CMC. Still waiting on a couple others.</p>
<p>Yeah I was rejected at pomona, haha we must have had the exact same application :p. </p>
<p>I would advise against berkeley unless you are in state. It’s a great school but they are having real problems now (and I can’t imagine the situation getting better any time soon) so I decided not to apply.</p>
<p>Btw it looks like I wouldn’t qualify for any of the merit scholarships at colorado, but whitman seems to have a plethora of merit scholarships. Hopefully they considered me for some - I spose I will see when the mail comes</p>
<p>We are in CA, but I still agree with you about Berkeley. Also, $ is not irrelevant, but we can pay for either school. He did not apply for merit scholarships- didn’t think he’d qualify. </p>
<p>btw: I have a friend whose son hated CC and the block system- but I don’t know him that well, so it’s hard to assess what that means. Have another friend whose daughter loved Whitman. I don’t know anyone who has gone to Reed, but my son’s counselor said it is where the smartest kids she knows go. Still, I don’t want him to be one dimensional…</p>
<p>DoinSchool; My guess is that the students at Whitman, UVA, and Willamette are likely to be more conventional than those at Reed and CC. Dunno about Hendrix. . .Do their FaceBook pages give you any insights?</p>
<p>DoinSchool, jingle is referring to Brown College at UVa, not Brown University.</p>
<p>Yes, tk21769, is right, ask for more money at the privates. I think faxing them the other offers is a good idea, with a cover letter that expresses a real interest in going to their school. The worst that can happen is that they say no, and if they do, they’ll say it in the most polite way possible. </p>
<p>I love your attitude!</p>
<p>Okay well I talked with my counselor and lots of teachers at school</p>
<p>Basically they just listened me talk and see where I got excited about :p</p>
<p>It became evident pretty early on that I am still jonesin’ hard for Reed. I know that the people there will be so awesome, the professors are so amazing, and portland is the perfect place for me.</p>
<p>However, my counselor pointed out that the block plan at CC sounds so “me”. So I will definitely fly out. and of course later this week I will drive down to uva</p>
<p>I think Whitman is getting canned. Somewhere has gotta go, and it’s the most obvious choice.</p>
<p>I also considered that I don’t want to be around people I already know (uva), it would be more fun to start fresh.</p>
<p>The last order of business will be to investigate which credits each school will accept</p>
<p>Makes good sense. Go and have a good time, this is your chance to get what you want. Go for it.</p>
<p>Yes, go and have a good time. Be sure to take a nice walk up and down Tejon Street (just south of the CC campus). Get up to Manitou Springs, too, if you can. It’s a cool little town in the foothills just a short way west of Colorado Springs. Nearby, if you still have time, you can take a cog railway trip to the top of Pikes Peak (take warm clothes if you do – you pass through several climate zones on the way up.)</p>
<p>I understand that people really love whitman but: 1) I don’t like the location 2) their econ department seems relatively weak …But still I am hesitant to say “no!” even though I already said it! </p>
<p>Jeez, if I knew that thinking was so hard I would have flipped some coins. Is it too late for that?</p>
<p>
I can assure you that Reedies are anything but one-dimensional.</p>
<p>
Reed will most likely accept your AP credits, but they do not allow you to skip intro courses based on those scores. Those credits will go toward the number of credits required for graduation rather than act as prerequisites in the respective fields.</p>
<p>If you’d like to know anything about Reed, feel free to PM me with any questions. I’m currently a freshman here. :)</p>
<p>Sounds like all you need to do now is visit</p>
<p>“He thought Reed oversold its rigor and intellectualism. He was definitely looking for a place with academic rigor (which Reed certainly has), but wondered why they had to keep repeating this over and over.”</p>
<p>Reed’s freshman retention rate used to be much lower; a common reason for leaving was that Reed wasn’t as expected. So I think this is part of an effort to make sure kids know what they’d be getting into.</p>
<p>“Also thought some of the people he met were a bit pretentious.”</p>
<p>I think this is just how some intellectuals come across, and it will put some off. :(</p>
<p>My son is a junior, and we just visited CC today. Our student guide, a sophomore who grew up in Chicago, said he decided to go there because the block plan sounded like a challenge. He said it was a <em>big</em> adjustment but that he really liked it. (Of course, I know a guide is going to say good things about the college.) Anyway, at this point it’s first on our son’s list. </p>
<p>You didn’t mention weather, but the weather in Colorado is much less severe than you might think. The guide said he expected Colorado Springs to be colder than Chicago, and it’s quite the opposite … and much sunnier.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>I visited uva today and it was great! everyone was much friendlier than I expected, it wasn’t nearly as preppy as I expected, the campus was amazing etc. I would save a lot of money even if I spend ridiculous amounts of spending money and I can challenge myself precisely as much as I want to (definitely would consider doing a double major). and of course they will take a lot of my credits.</p>
<p>I think I’m going to cancel my flight to colorado and, well…I’ve sort’ve given up on reed. UVA is a really sure bet, I don’t know what’s keeping me from saying “yes” but there’s like a 90% chance I will.</p>
<p>Also to be frank, I’m legitimately concerned about the type of “in your face” “chip on your shoulder” “something to prove” intellectualism at reed. That is a personal pet peeve of mine and I think it could really get on my nerves.</p>
<p>I think that UVA will offer me the most balanced lifestyle, I will be able to advanced more or less at my own pace, and probably have a healthier social life - and it will also keep my options open</p>
<p>DoinSchool, congratulations, what a great outcome! A fabulous school that costs less, who could ask for anything more? As everyone was discussing Reed I thought about what my son said about it after visiting one of his high school friends there. I asked him what he thought and he said there were a bunch of pompous discussions about very esoteric subjects. He was not Reed material obviously.</p>
<p>Have a great time!</p>
<p>Thanks bopambo :)</p>
<p>for anyone having trouble deciding where to go to school, flip a coin</p>
<p>heads UVA, tails reed</p>
<p>when it came up tails, I wanted to flip again. i wanted it to come up heads. it’s not hard to tell what that means, and it’s a simple technique, but it’s effective in my opinion</p>
<p>
I think you have misconceived the intellectual atmosphere of Reed. While we are definitely set on improving ourselves through intense academic challenges, we certainly are not trying to prove anything to anyone: the students here are all intrinsically motivated, hence why formal grades are deemphasized.</p>
<p>
Was your son using the word esoteric with a negative connotation? If your son visited and sat in on a Humanities 110 class, then it is expected that he would find the topics to be esoteric, considering the course’s focus is the civilizations the ancient Mediterranean. Is the material covered in the course common knowledge? I would say not. Is it common knowledge to those who are taking/have taken the course and have read the 30+ primary sources, plus countless secondary sources? Most likely. We do have papers to write and finals to take on these topics, so we tend to study them quite a bit. The same would logic would apply to most any other course taught at Reed, since your son probably did not have much (if any) experience in the academic environment of college prior to visiting Reed.</p>
<p>Or did he experience these pompous discussions outside of the classroom environment? Is it possible to interpret discussions of significant ideas, philosophical or otherwise, in everyday conversation as acts of pompousness? Sure, but such discussions, and they ideas conveyed, are not pompous in themselves. I will only speak for myself, but I find intellectual conversation stimulating; not all the time (I need breaks from intellectualism every once in a while), but when appropriate and warranted, which happens to be most of the time here.</p>
<p>Trust me, I cast no judgment on your decision, especially when all of your choices are amazing, and any will provide you with an excellent education (some without the $50,000 price tag of Reed). I’m simply posting this to clear any misconceptions regarding the perceived “pompousness” of the general student body at Reed. :)</p>
<p>I’m glad you’ve found your potential niche at UVA and wish you all the best. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for your input zchryevns. I have heard that, if it is a problem, it’s usually only in first year students, but I feel particularly susceptible to being annoyed by intellectual snobbery and so it’s a legitimate risk to me.
I’m glad that you are enjoying reed</p>