Why keep Reed?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
1

<p>I am transferring next fall. That is, I am applying to transfer for next fall and it's at that time where I am getting my letters of recommendation filled out and shipped out. I have a final list of schools that I would like to apply to except I'm still on the fence about reed. first off let me say I know college is about a lot more than social activities and friends but...I think Reedies scare me! I went through flickr and webshots and many different websites to find out what (my) different campuses, students, and town/cities were like and the pictures of reed kinda got me thinking.</p>

<p>I like free thinking, being an individual and doing what you truly want to do, be it work everyday in a business suit and only pause for coffee, or wax philosophical and discuss the origins of the universe in between 4 hour power naps. My concern is, are Reedies trying to hard? do people tend to get along. if I'm left of center (politically and idealistically) but not super-left, am I going to find my niche?</p>

<p>also...is the school as dirty as the pictures I've seen?</p>

<p>OK, IMPORTANT THING NUMBER...II
I would be transferring into reed as a junior or second semester senior or something like that. is it really worth it to basically know going in that I have at least 5 semesters to go (due to the senior thesis thing)? I'm not poor but I'm not wealthy either and I am basically putting all of this debt on my own back. I plan to go on to get either a PhD or MBA from my economics BA where I will hopefully go on to make lots of money...but from what I hear, grad school isn't free. is it worth it to go reed if it means another 40 grand for an undergrad degree?</p>

<p>anyway, opinions on this stuff would be awesome.</p>

2

<p>I'm a little confused about the comment that Reed is 'dirty'. It seems pretty clean to me. Some of the dorms are old(er), but I didn't get the sense that they were <em>dirty</em>. The campus is mostly wide green spaces, which I would assume become wide muddy spaces frequently given the rain, but I didn't see garbage or things like that.</p>

3

<p>I mean graffiti and a general "live so free we don't care how it looks" sort of thing. just looked very tagged up from ALOT of pictures. the insides of a few places looked very un-cared for.</p>

4

<p>When I visited this summer I didn't see -ANY- tagging. O_o It was very well kept, at least during the summer months.</p>

5

<p>I was just at Reed a few weeks ago, and it impressed me as one of the better maintained campuses I've visited -- and I've visited more than a hundred at this point.</p>

<p>As for the students at Reed, I would describe them as intense, but I mean that in a good way, as in "intense about ideas and life." You will see more individualists at Reed than at many other colleges, but I think Portland itself is pretty much an individualistic city, so that could have some influence. My son has done overnights twice at Reed, and has found Reedies to be uncommonly open to ideas and different points of view, as long as you are able to make a coherent argument for your views. :)</p>

<p>I would try to call admissions and discuss the details of whether you will be able to graduate on time as a third year transfer student. They would be better able to give you the scoop than anyone here can.</p>