<p>I'm trying to narrow down my list...so...why Reed over other LAC?</p>
<ul>
<li>Hum 110 and the senior thesis program, in addition to a generally mindcrunching academic experience - Reed is arguably the most academically rigorous school in the country.</li>
<li>The academic honor code creates a huge amount of trust between students and faculty: most exams are take-home, and students receive written evaluations instead of grades.</li>
<li>Portland! (as opposed to many LACs that are in tiny towns in the middle of nowhere)</li>
<li>The Canyon: a 21-acre area of preserved wildlife in the middle of campus. Especially valuable if you're interested in studying biology or ecology.</li>
<li>There are tons of outdoor opportunities in the surrounding area - the Reed Outing Club is a popular student group, and the college actually maintains a ski cabin on Mount Hood.</li>
<li>The Gray Fund sponsors speakers, performances, and off-campus excursions of all sorts, entirely for free.</li>
<li>Paideia and Renn Fayre. Wow.</li>
<li>Athletics are seriously de-emphasized: Reed has no varsity sports, although intramurals are quite popular and six quarters of PE are required to graduate.</li>
<li>Nuclear reactor!</li>
<li>There's cross-registration with Lewis & Clark and PSU, so you needn't be held back by the curricular limitations of an LAC.</li>
<li>The social environment at Reed is unique, to say the least - students are crazy, brilliant, and very unconventional. If you fit that mold, it's a pretty cool experience to be surrounded by people who are exactly like you for the first time in your life. The community on campus is very tight.</li>
</ul>
<p>(In the interests of full disclosure, I will likely be passing up Reed in favor of another LAC; however, those are the things that really stood out to me when I was considering Reed.)</p>
<p>As a parent of a rising Reed junior, I agree almost completely with everything quaere wrote.</p>
<ul>
<li>Reed is certainly one of the most academically rigorous schools</li>
<li>Most of our D's exams seem to be papers (psych major)</li>
<li>Cross registration is with 15 other private Oregon schools</li>
<li>Many students are unconventional, but our (normal to us) D also finds most students to be, well, normal (her word)</li>
</ul>
<p>But I don't think of it as choosing Reed over another school. To me, it's more choosing the school that best fits a student. Reed is one of those schools where I'd say an overnight visit is a requirement; most come away feeling strongly one way or the other about Reed being the right place.</p>