What do you think about Reed College?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most famous person to have attended Reed was Steve Jobs who dropped out after a few weeks and then spent the next 18 months hanging around campus, doing drugs and dropping in on classes. That's Reed in a nutshell.

Yeah and he became a total failure in life, too.

Wait.

[Anonymous]

Fantastic academics. More than any other college the program resembles a PhD program with every student undergoing both qualifying exams and a thesis. This is one reason they are always in the top 10 if not top 5 for alumni earning PhDs.

There are no NCAA sports teams, but there are recreational sports.

Beautiful campus located in Portland suburb.

Ultra liberal and politically active, to the point that even some moderate liberals are turned off.

About 80% 6 year grad rate; closer to 70% after 4 years. Both notably higher than they used to be.

Have their own nuclear reactor that students help run.

My DS ended up elsewhere but thought the Reed class he sat in on (a section for a required first year humanities class) had the most interesting and engaged class discussion of any college visit in a long list that included many T10 LACs and universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Reed grad as well. While I agree with everything the other Reedie said, I want to point out that Reed is a Great School for the Right Student. I wasn't the right student, and college felt like the longest, darkest haul of my life.

Reed provides a great environment and rich network for many students, but it can also be disorienting and alienating for other students. I sincerely believe that Reed's academic education is superior to nearly anything else available, and it might be an ideal school for someone who with a strong sense of self who wants a classical education or to go on in academia. However, it's also intense and quirky in ways that absolutely wore me down, and I personally wish I had had the self awareness to transfer elsewhere after a couple of years rather than feel compelled to push through to graduation. I know that Reed is working to improve its support for students, so maybe it's a better environment now - I sure hope so!

Please tell me you made this up and that this is not a thing like "Schools that Change lives"? What a racket. And, yes, I went to some of their 25 colleges in a room presentations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very distinctive place. It's so far left now that it's not as hard to get into as it used to be, but at the same time the academics are supposed to be quite intense and it sends an obscene number of graduates to graduate school. I'd say it's a great place for someone who knows as a high school senior that he or she would like to be a college professor some day, but not a great bang-for-the-buck place for other students.

This.

[Anonymous]

We looked at it and it was too far left for my kid. Who ended up at Oberlin and loves it there. That says something. You can decide what.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Reed grad as well. While I agree with everything the other Reedie said, I want to point out that Reed is a Great School for the Right Student. I wasn't the right student, and college felt like the longest, darkest haul of my life.

Reed provides a great environment and rich network for many students, but it can also be disorienting and alienating for other students. I sincerely believe that Reed's academic education is superior to nearly anything else available, and it might be an ideal school for someone who with a strong sense of self who wants a classical education or to go on in academia. However, it's also intense and quirky in ways that absolutely wore me down, and I personally wish I had had the self awareness to transfer elsewhere after a couple of years rather than feel compelled to push through to graduation. I know that Reed is working to improve its support for students, so maybe it's a better environment now - I sure hope so!

Please tell me you made this up and that this is not a thing like "Schools that Change lives"? What a racket. And, yes, I went to some of their 25 colleges in a room presentations.

Yes the scam of kids getting good educations at places they might like.

What’s next, fulfilling and enjoyable careers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hippy school in the Pacific Northwest. Knew kids who transfered there in college. Have never met a Reed graduate in DC.

A friend of mine went there. I vaguely remember they didn't use grades. Also, I think Steve Jobs may have gone there for a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Steve Jobs is an alum

Not an alum. Took some classes there and dropped out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friend's daughter with terrific academic credentials chose Reed over better schools because of it's uber progressive reputation. She was very disenchanted and didn't even finish the first year. Drugs were out of control.

I know two people who had a similar experience. Very excited to attend, but left after the first year. Left for a few reasons, #1 being the drug culture. It's also not "liberal" in the classical sense; non-progressive views are not well tolerated.

It's probably a good school for the right student, but I'd recommend extra due diligence to really understand the culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at it and it was too far left for my kid. Who ended up at Oberlin and loves it there. That says something. You can decide what.

+1. Way too lefty for my DC. To quote, “too many blue hairs and they/thems.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Steve Jobs is an alum

Not an alum. Took some classes there and dropped out.

Oh so it doesn’t actually matter where you went to school if you are talented?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We looked at it and it was too far left for my kid. Who ended up at Oberlin and loves it there. That says something. You can decide what.

Oberlin has a more radical faculty than Reed. Just look at the professors and course descriptions at both.

[Anonymous]

Reed seems like an ideal LAC and a gem in American education.

You get both depth and breadth. American liberal arts majors generally don't get a lot of depth in their subjects (since they're doing so much general liberal arts education), while in other nations where students do single-subject education you have more narrow-minded specialists with more depth knowledge of their subjects (i.e. "reading" say, history at Oxford or Cambridge, you're not taking physics for poets classes).

Reed gets both right. The students get an intense liberal arts education, but also intense knowledge of the discipline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reed seems like an ideal LAC and a gem in American education.

You get both depth and breadth. American liberal arts majors generally don't get a lot of depth in their subjects (since they're doing so much general liberal arts education), while in other nations where students do single-subject education you have more narrow-minded specialists with more depth knowledge of their subjects (i.e. "reading" say, history at Oxford or Cambridge, you're not taking physics for poets classes).

Reed gets both right. The students get an intense liberal arts education, but also intense knowledge of the discipline.

How is the diversity of thought and the presentation of a breadth of ideas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very distinctive place. It's so far left now that it's not as hard to get into as it used to be, but at the same time the academics are supposed to be quite intense and it sends an obscene number of graduates to graduate school. I'd say it's a great place for someone who knows as a high school senior that he or she would like to be a college professor some day, but not a great bang-for-the-buck place for other students.

I suspect that the fact that it’s not as hard to get into has do more to Reed’s wholehearted rejection of rankings. They have led the charge, vocally, against one-size-fits all numeric rankings. If USNWR assigns them an arbitrarily low ranking bc of their lack of participation (which is exactly what happened), and if fewer people apply as a result, they’re cool with that. Reed does what it does well and with confidence.

Visited this summer with DC. It’s a lovely campus, very classic-college feeling, and the vibe was friendly. DC decided not to apply bc she was worried it was too intense — she doesn’t move through work as quickly/efficiently as some of her peers, and was afraid she’d be overwhelmed.

But a genuinely terrific school for the right kid.