Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a lot of Reed grads. Relatively smart, but definitely not brilliant or anything. All come from wealthy families and were able to go into public interest -type jobs because of that. The school is pretty, but very small.

Steve Jobs went to Reed so there are some unusually smart people who went there.

He left after 1 semester

Yes to start apple

Anonymous wrote:Off topic, but occurred to me when I saw the names. Reed was one of the first schools to refuse to cooperate with USNWR rankings. I think they were right to do so, but they have been harshly punished by USNWR for doing it with a much lower ranking among LACs than they would have had otherwise. This may contribute to some of the issues PP cited. It is regrettable that top schools at the undergraduate level have continued to cooperate. If top schools pulled out, it would could break USNWR's damaging hold on many families and their finances.

William and Mary participates in USNWR, but it is probably bad fit for the way USNWR ranks undergraduate National Universities, which tends to favor private schools and schools with more extensive graduate programs.

+1 They are both interesting in that they are rigorous, intellectual schools that don't quite align with the USNWR molds. I am a prof that regularly gets W&M grads in my graduate programs; they are among the most prepared and intellectually curious I've found. I have less experience with Reed so I can't compare on that ground.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Reed had a stereotype of being full of smart kids who were oddball wierdos in some way. Like, let's drop LSD and then read communist poetry while doing yoga headstands, or whatever. You get the point.

Don't know what else to tell you. The campus looked pretty from a distance. My family would never let me go near it.

My friend’s child met some very troubled kids there. And drugs are pretty accepted there I think. See past threads on Reed.

Off topic, but occurred to me when I saw the names. Reed was one of the first schools to refuse to cooperate with USNWR rankings. I think they were right to do so, but they have been harshly punished by USNWR for doing it with a much lower ranking among LACs than they would have had otherwise. This may contribute to some of the issues PP cited. It is regrettable that top schools at the undergraduate level have continued to cooperate. If top schools pulled out, it would could break USNWR's damaging hold on many families and their finances.

William and Mary participates in USNWR, but it is probably bad fit for the way USNWR ranks undergraduate National Universities, which tends to favor private schools and schools with more extensive graduate programs.

Reed is a hot mess, students constantly in revolt, hard drug culture, so busy protesting it's getting hard to learn there. Have a very good friend who teaches there now and they say to stay away. Very sad.

Never heard of Reed. I went to UVA and Yale.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously W&M is bigger. Are they equally rigorous when it comes to the humanities?

I assume you are not in state!?

How so?

Anonymous wrote:W&M has one MacCarthur fellow, she was a Reed undergrad, masters at W&M, Phd Michigan. Now at Chicago. Longshot, but shoot her a line? Anyway, anecdata isn't much use, but I know she came into W&M very well prepared to take full advantage of everything offered. As it happens I met her through another Reedie, after she'd left VA, but before she did her phd and all the rest. Honestly don't remember if she had anything to say comparing the schools, conversation was Reed, Reed, Reed--I've sat through many similar, no complaints, good people all.

Wow. I’m surprised they don’t have more. I have a kid at Oberlin and they have 12 or 13 (had the Nobel prize in Econ last year as an alum). Which is amazing given their size. But Oberlin draws a certain sort of creative, outside the box kid.

W&M has one MacCarthur fellow, she was a Reed undergrad, masters at W&M, Phd Michigan. Now at Chicago. Longshot, but shoot her a line? Anyway, anecdata isn't much use, but I know she came into W&M very well prepared to take full advantage of everything offered. As it happens I met her through another Reedie, after she'd left VA, but before she did her phd and all the rest. Honestly don't remember if she had anything to say comparing the schools, conversation was Reed, Reed, Reed--I've sat through many similar, no complaints, good people all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 Reed is more rigorous. W+M in state is much more affordable, of course.

In what way is Reed more rigorous?

There's a qualifying exam and undergraduate thesis for all students.

There are other liberal arts colleges that do that but it doesn't mean they are necessarily more rigorous--it depends on how challenging the exams are and the level of expectation for the thesis. W&M students all do capstone projects in their majors.

Wooster requires this too. Still would choose Wooster over WM on academic rigor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 Reed is more rigorous. W+M in state is much more affordable, of course.

In what way is Reed more rigorous?

There's a qualifying exam and undergraduate thesis for all students.

There are other liberal arts colleges that do that but it doesn't mean they are necessarily more rigorous--it depends on how challenging the exams are and the level of expectation for the thesis. W&M students all do capstone projects in their majors.

dropping LSD and reading communist poetry dosent sound too bad to me

well portland >>> DMV so there’s that

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 Reed is more rigorous. W+M in state is much more affordable, of course.

In what way is Reed more rigorous?

There's a qualifying exam and undergraduate thesis for all students.

Anonymous wrote:+1 Reed is more rigorous. W+M in state is much more affordable, of course.

In what way is Reed more rigorous?