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rainstate
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 01:01 am |
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Terrific discussion about Reed! I've always heard -- even waaayyy back when -- that Reedies, more so than any other college applicants, are very self-selecting. It's a unique school for the uniquely Reedie-person.
Carolyn, I, too, would be quite interested in any college-related book that you might eventually write. . . you are so very, very readable!
I think Cool Colleges is quite a gem and I have recommended it to many parents as extraordinarily valuable food for thought -- not so much about any individual college (Asher only reviews a small handful of colleges) or even about the college admissions process, but more about the many diferent educational paths and paths to success that exist. Along with Asher's own insights, Cool Colleges is full of sound-bite facts, quotes (from a mixed bag of sources), cartoons (from a different mixed bag) and larger articles by other writers -- all with some sort of connection to learning / education -- that Asher collected over many, many years. My copy must have at least 30 or 40 different flags marking quite a diverse collection of "aha!"and "absolutely!" moments when I first read the book cover-to-cover, up, down and all around, several years ago. (Those of you who are familiar with the book and it's layout know why I don't just say that I read it "cover-to-cover.)
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 03:09 am |
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rainstate wrote: I think Cool Colleges is quite a gem and I have recommended it to many parents as extraordinarily valuable food for thought
You may be interested to know that the author of Cool Colleges author, Donald Asher, graduated from Reed in 1983. I didn't know it myself until I saw it browsing through the impressive collection of books penned by Reed alumni in the Reed admissions office.
I'd definitely give his comment about Reed academics sometimes seeming "almost butch" more credence knowing that he's had first hand experience. I think his comments about Reed students probably also ring true: "Students who thrive at Reed are often a little more mature, a little better able to take care of temselves, and dedicated to their studies. Students who fail at Reed ofent fail because they can't handle the socil freedom or they lack the self-discipline to keep performking when external motivators are withdrawn...."Last edited on Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 04:07 am by CarolynLawrence
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 03:33 am |
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Just out of curiousity, I googled Donald Asher, the Cool Colleges guy. He's actually written 10+ books on college, career planning, and graduate school. And, I think there are clues into the typical "reedie" personality in his introduction to Cool Colleges (which by the way my son would probably write almost word for word about his own experiences in high school)...
"I didn't really fit in high school. The classes moved along at a glacial pace, until I felt that I'd just pull my hair out one strand at a time out of sheer boredom. the dean of students had a personal vendetta against me. I'd be in a crowd of students and he'd see Don Asher and some nice young people. It was probably some kind of pattern recognition thing.Like that time I wore a Native American getup to western day and got sent to the principal's office for my lack of "spirit"...I never did understand school spirit. I always thought school was about learning, and this spirit stuff was usually some blatant glorification of the very students who weren't learning anything....
My friends and I were always doing the "challenge" problems in the math books. We talked in puns, collected oxymorons, read ahead in the books, wrote poetery, and drew cartoons in class. We gloried in discovering the historical inaccuracies of our texts, and had long arguments about minutiae, often bringing in outside references our teachers knew nothing about. We didn't always get the top grades. We were "difficult." We were trying so very hard to stay interested in an education system that clearly was not designed for us.
And so I went to college. Heaven at last, I thought. A [large] university! Where they'll treat me like an adult! Where learning is the raison d'etre for the entire institution...But I did not adjust well. I was shocked that my fellow students were more interested in dating, sports, and avoiding the real world for four years than they were in learning. Students openly discussed cheating, and professors routinely dismissed class well before the scheduled end. I was so disappointed I dropped out after one semester. ...
My dad was livid. I was going to become a bum, he thought, and I was going to fall in with a bad crowd. I was throwing my life away. In fact, I was on a mission, and the mission was to find a place in this world where I would fit in, where I was the norm, where I was welcome, and where I felt at home. After three years of research, I found it, in one of the schools in this book ... It is absolutely not true that all colleges or the same, or that "the college experience" is largely similar throughout the country. There are very real differences between institutiosn, and even some wonderful experiments in higher education in America. if found the prefect place for me. I hope you find your college, too, a perfect place for you."
Last edited on Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 04:08 am by CarolynLawrence
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leftcoast
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 06:33 am |
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A word of caution:
My son went to a college (not Reed) which also followed the practice of providing students with written course evaluations, with grades reported separately and only provided on request.
Big mistake.
Yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but the problem was that the course evaluations really didn't give a clue as to where the kid stood in class. They were nice descriptions that I enjoyed reading -- rather similar to letters of recommendation in that they seemed to include nice little anecdotes. But they didn't match up to the grades.
So it was probably a big surprise to my son down the line, after he had transferred elsewhere, when he saw the C- & D grades. The D, of course, is not transferrable. The C- was in a freshman course, first semester -- maybe if he had seen that grade early on he would have realized that he needed to work harder?
The problem is that grades are something of a motivator, even for kids who seem to be self-motivated -- and also it is sometimes very difficult for a kid to gauge the difference between high school and college expectations. They may think they are doing well -- but without good feedback, they may not realize where they need help.
One more problem is that without grades -- I didn't know what was going on with my son. He wasn't flunking out, and there were no threats of probation - but he actually had an incomplete in a first year class (and it is unclear to me whether he realized that at the time).
The problem is that financial aid is limited. You can't get stafford loans indefinitely -- the kid needs to progress. Outside scholarships might depend on a certain GPA. Most colleges will not provide need-based aid for more than 4 years.
Which is also something to be very concerned about with school requirements like that Reed comprehensive exam. What happens when the student doesn't pass, in terms of added time in school, school costs, and financial aid?
If I could do things all over again with my son, I would have asked the questions related to anticipating potential problems... rather than finding out the hard way.
Obviously, most kids probably do well at Reed -- it attracts highly driven, highly motivated students. But I think that it is important for parents to look at some of these other issues and, where the school lacks structure in places, the parent may have to impose it in terms of clear expectations for financial support. No one should have to drop out of college because they've run out of money..... but it can happen.
Last edited on Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 06:36 am by leftcoast
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scoop
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 11:57 am |
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leftcoast,
Thank you for sharing this information. These are things I wouldn't have thought of and I appreciate everyone here who willingly shares their knowledge.
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mackinaw
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 01:52 pm |
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I don't think it would be possible at Reed for a student to earn a "D" or other unsatisfactory grade without knowing it.
The procedures may have changed since my day, but when I attended Reed all students were required to have "grade conferences" (meetings) with their advisors each semester. The advisors would let us know if we were performing unsatisfactorily in any course, as well as talk to us more generally about how things were going. In the Hum 110 course (the humongous year-long course that all students take) students met with the professor for "paper conferences" after each paper (and they could also request such a conference with the professor in all other courses in which papers were submitted). Also, when writing summary comments on papers, faculty usually summed up their more extended evaluation with little words like "very good" or "good," which we all could translate. In many subjects, such as math, sciences, and foreign language, it's easy to figure out whether you're getting the problems right or wrong.
In my experience, a big payoff of this grading system (with grades recorded but not automatically reported to students on assignments or at the end of the semester) was that the professors focused on evaluating and communicating about the content of your work. At my big university now, a typical exchange between students might go like this: "What did you get on your paper in HIS 220?" "I got a B." At my little undergrad college, a typical exchange might be: "What did Professor Zarko think about your argument about Sosos?" In other words, the evaluations of work and the discussions between students focused on the ideas and content, not a letter grade.
Students were also notified in writing by the registrar if their overall work was unsatisfactory (below C). If they performed at what at most colleges would be called "honors" level, they would receive a "president's letter" at the end of the year. They also had those "grade conferences" with their academic advisors to go on.
And if they really wanted to get their grades at any time, students could do so. I chose to wait til I had graduated. Others might need this translation if the communication in words wasn't telling them what they wanted to know.
For sure I never knew whether I had earned an A or B or C (or pluses and minuses) until I requested a transcript after I had graduated. But I adapted to the Reed system very readily from one in which I knew my high school GPA to the third figure after the decimal point. I had a good idea whether my performance was good or bad or whether I was mastering the material; and I wasn't driven by the number grades. Under this system I managed to be admitted to every graduate program I applied to (law schools and doctoral programs). Those schools also made adjustments for Reed's low grade inflation.
It seems to me that the main issue regarding this approach to grading is what the parents know about their son or daughter's performance. I certainly looked at every grade report for my kids when they were in college (as I had in K-12). If my kids had attended Reed or another so-called "no grades" school (i.e., where grades are kept for a transcript but not reported routinely to the students) I would have adapted but by talking to my kids rather than relying on a grade report sent by the college registrar.
Last edited on Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 10:53 pm by mackinaw
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 07:16 pm |
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mackinaw wrote: The procedures may have changed since my day, but when I attended Reed all students were required to have "grade conferences" (meetings) with their advisors each semester. The advisors would let us know if we were performing unsatisfactorily in any course, as well as talk to us more generally about how things were going.
Mack, We were told that there are now two "Grade conferences" with advisors each semester - one at mid-semester, one at the end. The other things you mentioned also are still in place. I do think it would be difficult, as a parent, not to have the tangible grades in hand, but, of course, all colleges these days don't send grades to parents automatically anyhow due to privacy laws, so I suppose it would still be possible for your kid to be doing poorly without you knowing about it at a school that gives regular grades as well.
One frustration for me as a parent is that letter grades usually don't tell me very much about how my kids are actually doing. I know they're passing, of course, and it's always a thrill to see a report card filled with A's, but what are they really learning, what does the teacher really think of their work and their efforts? How do they really compare to other students? What is the real difference between an A and a B? Even in parent teacher conferences, I find teachers are surprised sometimes when I ask these sorts of questions. When my daughter told me her college grades last semester, I felt even more out of the loop as to what they really signified in terms of her learning experience.
On the other hand, I find I get quite a bit of knowledge about my son's experience and performance out of the written teacher evaluations that my son receives at CTY. The teachers point out both his strengths and weaknesses, and also really give some examples of what he actually did or said in class that help me visualize what went on much more than a simple "A" or "B" does in his "regular" school.
Maybe, then, the best of all worlds would be being able to read in-depth written evaluations AND get a letter grade. 
Thanks for also touching upon Reed's famous lack of grade inflation. Since my son intends to go to graduate school, I'd been concerned about that, so it is good to hear your personal experience that there is some consideration of the school attended, just as colleges look at the high school in trying to put grades into context.
Last edited on Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 07:50 pm by CarolynLawrence
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 07:25 pm |
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leftcoast wrote:
Which is also something to be very concerned about with school requirements like that Reed comprehensive exam. What happens when the student doesn't pass, in terms of added time in school, school costs, and financial aid?
As I mentioned above, I do know a student who did not pass the comprehensive exam, so I did ask about this. We were told that if a student does not pass the comprehensive exam, they are given the chance to take remedial coursework in the subject (which is what the student I know ended up doing) and retake the exam. They also have the option of switching to a different concentration, which of course is also probably going to extend the length of time they'll be in school. We were told by two students that "almost no one" fails the comprehensive exam, but Admissions put the figure at "less than 5%"
The comprehensive exam also varies from department to department. For example, the philosophy and religion departments give students several essay questions to write over a 72 hour period, while the physics and biology departments have more formal "tests." Admissions indicated that those two departments have a slightly higher failure rate than other departments.
I do think this is something to consider very seriously for anyone considering Reed, especially given the fact that Reed has a low 4-year graduation rate compared to comparable schools. By the way, Reed is not the only school to have a comprehensive exam and/or thesis as a requirement for graduation so, as Leftcoast suggests, it is always wise to ask questions.
Last edited on Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 07:28 pm by CarolynLawrence
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rhumbob
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Posted: Fri Feb 23rd, 2007 07:55 pm |
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I recently read a book titled "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. The book is about his spiritual journey. He spends a lot of time at Reed and the environment is discussed quite a bit. The school comes across very well. (or not...people seem to love or hate the book...I liked it and thought Reed came across well...maybe those who dislike the book have a different take?)
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outwest
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Posted: Sun Mar 18th, 2007 04:16 am |
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Want to mention about Reed:
They were very generous with aid to my #1 DD even though they claimed to not give merit, they must have tweeked the numbers for her. She could have actually attended. She visited it, loved the overall atmosphere, but came home very sad that the music department was so pitiful and chose Mills College instead (awesome music).
One of her very good guy friends went to Reed. He was ultra intelligent and graduated last Spring. He had nothing but positive things to say about it. Last I heard he was taking a year off to work, save money, and then plans to go to grad. school. Reed is one of the top colleges for producing PhD's in the nation and the students get into the top grad schools. That is one thing I think it is important to remember about Reed. They train very good students and I think if your kid loves school then it could be a great place for them. Oh, and the dogs are cool.
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mackinaw
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Posted: Tue Jun 5th, 2007 01:50 pm |
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In Spring 2007, the College broke ground for the construction of a new quadrangle with four new residence halls on the northwest side of the campus, scheduled for completion by Fall 2008. A new Spanish House residence is slated to be completed in early 2009. Together, the five new residences will add 142 beds. This will advance the college substantially toward its goal of housing 75% of students on campus.
For an article on new dorms at Reed, as well as the history of housing at Reed, see "This New House" in the latest Reed magazine (Spring 2007): http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2007/features/this_new_house/index.html
Last edited on Tue Jun 5th, 2007 03:21 pm by mackinaw
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Canadian
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Posted: Sun Jul 1st, 2007 06:13 am |
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| Just chiming in about how good this Reed review is, though we have no interest in it for my S. However, hearing about the dogs, I wish we had visited just for the fun of it!
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emeraldkity
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Posted: Sun Jul 29th, 2007 05:27 pm |
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I will add that it is possible for some students- to not be doing well- or at least to be walking the line between passing and not, a little too finely, without being aware.
My older daughter is very bright, but has learning differences, and although she was able to start out slower in her more difficult courses ( she didn't take Calc until sophmore year, which then brought her to the wonders of Organic Chemistry- junior year).
She did fine freshman & sophmore year, I never saw her grades, although I could have requested them. Junior year, her studies were ramped up in preparation for senior year thesis, including organic chemistry and the junior qualifying exam. She passed her junior qual, but she did not pass spring semester of OChem, even though the prof agreed that she was working hard and for the most part doing well in the class. ( She bombed the final). However, along with a very tough course load, there were emotional/family/health considerations that made it an even tougher year. ( she had mono for example & because that is hard to diagnose & maybe because her mom  wasn't there to take care of her- she kept thinking she would get better sooner)
She was on financial aid, so to be the best plan seemed to be , take a year off and retake Ochem and return to Reed. We didn't have the income to pay for a lighter schedule at Reed, because then that would still have been her 4th year- after which there is no more finaid. The profs at Reed were helpful, they wanted her to be able to come back and finish and were encouraging. Taking a year off in the middle of Reed isn't unusual, possibly because it is such an intense school, some students want a breather, possibly because it is such a small school, some students decide they want a different major and transfer, and possibly because it is an expensive school, some decide if they are going to attend grad school they better save their pennies and transfer to one that has merit aid or a public school.
There was never any question about not returning for her, she loved Reed, although it was deeply disappointing that her advisor and mentor had to leave at the end of her year off. ( he was on a work visa from Canada & he didn't get tenure- tenure is very tight at many schools).
It also was disappointing that instead of being able to take Organic, at the local university, in order to register for class, she would have had to have been formally admitted- but then to reapply to Reed, she would have been a transfer student- instead of just taking a year off and still being considered as enrolled.
So she opted to enroll at a local community college. She already had taken summer classes there & knew that many of the instructors were very good. She decided ( with my encouragement) that it would be best to retake the whole sequence in order to solidify her understanding. She also, in order to not have to start paying her loans, opted to take other courses, checking first with the depts at Reed to make sure she could get credit.
She was a little bemused at some of the procedures at the CC- some corners were cut to save money on materials, but she also had at least one very strong instructor, that she had for spring qtr Ochem & a biochem class that I think she still corresponds with.
( she also worked at the private elementary school she had attended ,running an after school science program- amused that they were now so well supplied that the science lab had micropipettors)
It was an tense, interesting & growth year for her- and she made the best of it- she went down for graduation with her friends, in which would have been her senior year. ( actually, her sister and I went down as well & the dog- Reed loves their dogs!)
Her friends also came back for her graduation a year later.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Sun Jul 29th, 2007 09:39 pm |
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Emerald, thanks for sharing your daughter's experiences again.
Your daughter's experience is one of our concerns about Reed and the other "no grades" schools that my son is considering. Our other concern is just the intensity of the Reed experience. Although my son is attracted to Reed because of that intensity, we can see, and know from other people we know who have had or have kids at Reed, that the idea of academic intensity is often very different from the reality of it.
It is definitely important for anyone considering high octane schools like Reed, Sarah Lawrence, and MIT, to think long and hard about what they may have to give up due to the academic demands. I'm not entirely sure yet what my son's decision will be, but I'm encouraged that he is taking his time and thinking hard about how much thinking he really wants to do.
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emeraldkity
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Posted: Mon Jul 30th, 2007 05:13 am |
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Its the first time I had ever heard SLC described as a "high octane" school, but I am on the left coast, what do I know ? 
But I want to stress that there is no shame in deciding that a school where students don't go back to their dorms to sleep or shower during finals ( they nap in the library), is a little more "academic" than what you are up for.
When my daughter chose Reed- it was from a very small group of schools,and while she liked it very much, it was a reach- & that was 7 years ago. We had a different perspective, since I hadn't attended college, and she wanted something that was challenging, was smallish and had a good bio dept. I don't think we realized the reputation for intensity, because her classmates were attending Carleton or Barnard, and those are of course ranked higher in USNews, and the students who were attending them, we thought had higher grades. ( but that was hard to tell, since her high school, didn't rank or weight, and no validictorians).
I have several aquaintances, with kids graduating last year from high school, who seriously considered Reed. However, the parents thought more of it I think than the kids did, the kids were a little scared off by the grind reputation . But I like it very much, I think it has some great programs & profs and doesn't take it self too seriously.
However- if I had to do it over again, ( and I am- although I would anyway, since this D is very different), I would make her apply to more schools or at least visit & I would try and find one a tad larger- as I think she would have liked a bit more flexibility in classes.
But it is a beautiful school, very easy to get back and forth( without a car- & she still doesn't have a car), she had great work study jobs, made wonderful friends, and even though she did run into an obstacle and had to take time off, that could have happened anywhere & it might have been something that wasn't so easy to take care of.
Her profs through that process were supportive and easily reachable, even though it of course would have been preferable, if she had gotten more help before, rather than after.
I don't blame that on the profs, as she did go for conferences through out the year- however- in retrospect, while I don't blame myself- as not having much knowledge of what is required- I could have also been more supportive and inquisitive in how she was doing, and when her ADD coach left for another job- instead of assuming "everything was going to be alright", I wish I had been more nosey about making sure she got another one.
But I guess thats why I had two kids- so I had one for practice
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mackinaw
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Posted: Wed Aug 15th, 2007 09:53 pm |
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Reed Virtual Tour
This online tour has a lot of pictures, audio, and video and covers a lot of territory.
http://web.reed.edu/apply/tour/index.htmlLast edited on Wed Aug 15th, 2007 09:58 pm by mackinaw
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mackinaw
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Posted: Mon Oct 1st, 2007 02:46 pm |
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Two things about Reed.
(1) I address a question about Reed's retention rate on the "other" board here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=398658
(2) This article in the NYT Magazine features Reed among other colleges in alumni surveys: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30poll-t.html
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limner
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Posted: Mon Oct 1st, 2007 02:57 pm |
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| Mack, I thought this article was very interesting (the "Week in Review" had to wait while I devoured the Sunday Times Magazine). For those who didn't catch it, the other schools were UPenn and UMichigan, and it listed how students from these schools answered questions about how they viewed their college educations.
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Descartes
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Posted: Tue Apr 1st, 2008 03:55 am |
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We (S and I) finished a PNW college tour in the past few weeks, too.
See my posting under Lewis & Clark College for my impression of Portland.
Reed came up last in our tour, and it was certainly well worth the wait:
— By the time we arrived there, we had heard the same story from no fewer than three different sources: the Reed campus was “run-down”. The last person to tell me this was a visiting mother at UPS who shared this unsolicited opinion with us immediately upon hearing our plans to visit.
Well, even allowing for differences in standards, I am left to wonder: What on earth were they seeing? The Reed campus is lovely: well-appointed, well-designed, and well-maintained. I was in almost every classroom building, the student center, library, and one dorm, and saw just about every building from the outside, at least, and nothing I saw explained this opinion. The grounds are, perhaps, not as carefully coiffed as some schools we have seen, but I have had a vague impression that those schools were a bit obsessive in their standards. Safe, clean, attractive, and inviting were all words that applied here. And I have not even mentioned the quiet restfulness of Reed Canyon, which splits the campus into north and south halves, the wildlife and early flowers of which I am sure were serving as a brief but welcome retreat for the students who were sharing its paths with me.
Now it is true that Reed is a little different in some ways: student graffiti and posters are more tolerated than elsewhere. But the graffiti I saw was in chalk, sure to wash off the walls after a few days of Portland rains. And nearly all of the posters (which were everywhere, even right over the split between double doors) were attached with blue painter’s tape, leaving no marks for custodial crews to deal with after the posters were detached. I would say that the balance between student self-expression and respect for the labor of those who have to clean up after these efforts was remarkable.
In fact I was slightly disappointed at how clean it all was, for I had heard stories of the library bathroom graffiti and, upon seeking it out, found the men’s rooms I visited to all have been recently painted off-white. New canvas for the next generation?
— Smoking students? I saw some, more than at other schools (where I have seen very few), but apparently far from “most” and “many”, and not even “quite a few”.
— So far I have not seen another library as intensely quiet as was Reed’s. Part of this was by design: most common areas, such as the main desk and bathrooms, are separated from the stacks and study areas by doors and walls. But most of this was simply due to the individual personal discipline of students, who were typically focused on their work and preferred to signal in gestures rather than whisper when they needed to communicate while in the study areas. I had cause to use a keyboard in one of these areas (briefly signed-on to the account of a friendly student) and my typing noises seemed a sacrilege in this holy space.
Later, strolling the stacks, I found rows of carrels labeled “Thesis Desk” (or similar), apparently personally reserved for this year’s senior thesis writers. On a Sunday afternoon roughly half of these were occupied and most all of them were stacked high with books and papers attesting to the topic that was being researched within their confines.
— Student interns play a prominent role in the Admissions office, leading tours, staffing the desk, and conducting interviews. Apparently the more experienced interns also participate in application review and admissions decisions.
While waiting for my S in the admissions office, a spontaneous conversation between two of the interns arose in which one was decrying the views of a post-feminist legal theorist. It was not the typical banter I have heard on campuses.
— Reed is an “honor” community, but they sustain an “honor principle” of individual respect rather than a more formal “honor code” underwritten by some kind of governing authority. My sense was that the students were both relaxed about and observant of their honor principle.
— These last two observations lead me to a third: Reed students have a lot of say about who will follow them into Reed and, by and large, they prefer candidates who question most everything around them (both in research and social institutions) by natural inclination. However the inclination should not arise from anti-social or anti-authoritarian tendencies but intellectual ones: does what I am experiencing make sense to me? Once reasonable grounds for cooperating have been established, Reed students are happy to do so – just don’t expect them to go along based simply on respect for tradition, authority, or popularity.
Really it seemed to me that Reed students are the smart, non-conforming, think-outside-the-box kids who were alienated by what they saw as the “mainstream”, pep rally, fashion-wearing, fad-following, rah-rah sports culture of their high schools and are bent on preserving a haven for themselves during their time in college. They do not expect alternative views and approaches be taken by all students (so as not to re-create the alienating pressures they once resented), but they do require every student be respectful toward alternative, off-beat perspectives. So, even if they are not directly involved in reviewing applicants, Reed students make sure to communicate to prospects, clearly but not unkindly, the nature of “their” school, and the prospects are free to react to this information according to their individual preferences. This explains the frequent “love it or hate it” reaction many Reed visitors are reported to experience.
— One final observation: a few schools still require all students to take a common course or two (I noted this at Whitman, for example), but Reed is the only one I know of so far that puts all of its frosh into the same class. There is one large lecture hall on campus and its purpose seems to be to hold all the 300+ Humanities 110 students in the same room at the same time. This has to be a defining experience at Reed.
I would describe the prevailing social atmosphere as somewhat introverted but still very welcoming and neither anti- nor awkwardly social; unapologetically intellectual but in no sense “nerdy”. My S told me the students usually prefer small spontaneous gatherings to large orchestrated parties. He was definitely intrigued by Reed (IMO understandably so) and I expect he’ll be doing more investigation.
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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 3329 |
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Posted: Tue Apr 1st, 2008 05:38 am |
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Descartes, I think you captured the allure of Reed for my son to a tee.
I had a good chuckle, however, at your point about Reedies feeling that they have a right, indeed a duty, to identify true future Reedies. This actually seems to filter down to students who haven't yet enrolled in Reed. Both my son and my student who will be attending in the fall have both recently mentioned peers to me that they felt demonstrated particularly "Reedie" characteristics, and indicated that they are already recruiting them to the cause. The funny thing is, each of the select peers they mentioned to me as possible future Reedies really ARE good fits for Reed...so I think your point is right on target.
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