<p>I know both are excellent schools. I'd like some personal insights to differences and pros and cons for both schools.</p>
<p>D stayed overnight at both schools and got a very different opinion of both schools. Whitman seemed pretty down to earth, with personally conservative, socially liberal students. Everyone we met was very friendly. </p>
<p>Reed, on the otherhand, prides themselves on quirkiness. The tour talked about many of the quirky traditions at Reed, many which required nudity in one form or another, which was of no interest to my d. The other thing both D and I disliked about Reed is how many people smoked outside of the buildings. The dorms and food were also not as nice as Whitman’s.</p>
<p>Needless to say D applied to Whitman and not to Reed. I think Reed appeals more to a quirkier edgier type than my D is.</p>
<p>(I’m orygunmom’s daughter, so you’re really only getting one opinion.) </p>
<p>Reed is also in Portland, which (I believe) is a really nice city–fairly smog free, and with a nice, and sometimes free public transportation system, at least within the city. It sucks in the 'burbs, though. Portland also has lots of cool shops, eateries, etc. Whitman is in a cute little town in the middle of nowhere, a couple of hours from any city. Whitman brings in entertainment, but Reed does has the city going for it. At neither college do you really need a car. Both Reed and Whitman require a yearlong history of the great books of Western civ–Core at Whitman and Hume 101 at Reed, so before deciding to go to either of them make sure you can deal with it. I sat in on a Core class where they were discussing artistic depictions of a certain bible passage, and it was honestly kind of cool. I don’t know about Hume 101, though.</p>
<p>Although, for me, Reed’s location worked against it, as it is only 20 minutes from my house. ;)</p>
<p>A comment on the extra-curriculars:</p>
<p>Says a friend’s DD, you’re not going find intramural ultimate frisbee league, etc. Reedies are not “joiners”.</p>
<p>Says my DS, autumn at Whitman revolves around flag football, spring around ultimate frisbee.</p>
<p>Whitman kids tend to like group activities. It doesn’t matter if you are good or not. My DD joined an intramural soccer team her freshman year. “We s**k” seemed to be her only comment, but they had a blast. She was absolutely not not not involved in any sport in high school. It’s more of a “hey, we should get together and do (blank)”
If you don’t like that, no problem. It’s more of a feel of if you want to do it, nobody is going to tell you that you aren’t good enough.
On the non-sports side, getting an hour on the college radio station is a time-honored tradition. You and (if you have one) your hour-partner get pretty much carte-blanche to play what you want. It may be 2-3 AM on Monday… It may be Friday afternoon everyone blasts it out their speakers toward Ankeny.</p>
<p>I’ll echo dragonmom’s comments: kids try out all kinds of new things at Whitman because it is fun and open to all. There is a high degree of silliness quotient to the intramurals and they are more like an active party on the quad than intense competition of any kind…Kids also find themselves trying art and music options they didn’t want (or didn’t have the chance at) in their high school. And while it has an “outdoorsy” look and feel there are plenty of couch sitting/theater and debate folks who never camp out…What impressed my son from his first visit was that it is a very cooperative community where there is a balanced emphasis on serious study and real fun. It is also possible to be a science/pre-med major and do theater or music; you do not get locked out because you are not a “major”</p>