Lewis & Clark Psychology Major

everyone smokes pot, we're all hippies

It does seem like there are a lot of people who smoke pot-- you can often smell weed just walking around the school during the day. And on 4/20 there was a hundred people smoking pot outside in the daytime, while our campus security sat and watched. But, there's a substance free dorm, and you can find people who don't smoke pot all the time or at all. There do seem to be a lot of hippies, but people have recently been complaining that it's becoming more "preppie". I'm ok with that, because the hippies are trustafarians and I find them kind of annoying.

The campus is beautiful and whenever it's sunny (which is very very rare) everyone goes to a grassy area to play. There's a bus that goes to Portland every hour and it takes 30 minutes to get downtown. Portland is amazing! I'm almost going here just for the amazing vintage stores. There's so many awesome vintage and thrift stores and great restaraunts. The biggest recent controversy recently was a junior male was suspended because he sexually assaulted a sophmore at the school. The attitude on campus was that the girl deserved it because she was drunk, which made me really angry. There's a Womyn's Center that does events like "Take Back the Night", but I still feel there's a slightly misogynistic attitude here. But this probably true for most colleges. My biggest complaint is everyone smokes cigarettes. You can't go anywhere without running into a cloud of smoke. Another complaint is that there's really only two kinds of people here: indie and hippie. I really can't relate to either groups, and it's hard to find people who don't listen to weird indie bands. There are cool people here though, you just have to find them. I personally like the people in the substance free dorm because they don't smoke all the time and they're quirky. I think it's harder to find the type of people you like at small schools in general, and at bigger school's there will always be a group of people you fit with. But, it's nice to be familiar with a lot of people.

I feel Lewis and Clark has a relaxed academic environment, yet there are still people interested in learning. People here have a lot more intelligent opinions than I would have thought just by looking at them. Their viewpoints are mostly liberal, but they're very informed and up to date on news. International affairs is a common topic of discussion outside of class. The professors are very accommodating and supportive. I had one professor who crammed seven of us into her 5 passenger car to see a movie. It's nice having small classes, but you should be expected to participate in a lot of class discussions. Class participation is very common since the majority of classes are small. Students are not competitive at all, it's very relaxed. I'm a psych major and I've heard the psych dept is very good. A lot of people come here for the international affairs dept. The academic requirements are mostly reasonable, with the exception of Exploration and Discovery, the core class freshman are required to take. There is a focus on analyzing literature, writing essays, oral presentations, and research papers. I feel like I already had a good foundation from highschool in these areas, especially with taking AP Lit. I think a lot of people already have these skills and it is redundant to take this class. Much of the literature were books I had covered in highschool.

This school is predominantly white, and there are many people from a higher socio-economic group. I think there are probably every kind of person here, but some are harder to find. Anybody who's not into indie or is not a hippie may have a difficult time finding a group. There are definitely groups of so-called "geeks". I was always in a blend of orchestra/choir/band geeks in highschool and I have not found this group yet. Also, preppies may have a hard time finding social circles. Republicans, although there is a Republican club that has, like, 2 people. I feel like most people are friendly, but there are certain people who have a conceited attitude about their music preferences and dress and refuse to socialize with anyone outside of these tastes. Most students are from Oregon or Northern California. Most people seem to have a lot of money, but still insist on wearing the same clothes everyday.

The ultimate frisbee team seems to be popular. There are three a capella groups that are student run and their concerts always get a big turn out. College Outdoors is an organization on campus that has various outdoors activites throughout the year, including over breaks. My roommate went on a trip to the Grand Canyon with them, and I hiked in the Redwoods of Northern California. Their trips are pretty popular. I'm in an a capella group, which I really enjoy, because I've finally found people who enjoy singing as much as I do. There are certain dorms where the doors are always open, like the art-themed dorm called Platt. It really depends on where you live. There definitely are people who date, but because my year is 70% female, there's definitely a lot of guys who are trying to hook up with as many girls as possible. And the girls can get kind of desperate. There are off-campus parties every weekend which are usually close enough that you can walk there. And there's always people drinking in their dorms, because usually as long as you're not too loud, you won't get written up. If you do get caught drinking in dorms, you have to meet with a campus living coordinator. Nothing really happens, basically. A lot of people go downtown on weekends to coffee shops, Powell's bookstore (really great bookstore), clothing stores, restaurants, and clubs. There's two clubs people go to, one is really sketchy and the other is an all ages gay club. There are a lot of concert venues and people often go to concerts. They're usually indie bands, but I've heard about a few big people like Ben Harper playing in Portland. Saturday Market is also really popular-- there's lots of stands with crafts and jewelry, as well as food stands.