Reed College Top Questions

Here's your chance: Say anything about your college!

Emily

I interviewed my friend (and room mate) on some of the things she loves and hates about Reed and I tried to show the origins of most of the hot topics on Reed campus.

Emily

I wanted to capture everyday conversations I have with friends, I overhear walking across campus, or stories friends have told me. I feel like Reed students have conversations like these all the time and we just accept them as typical and don't realize how weird and truly unique they are to our school. I hope these videos provide some insight.

Kelly

Gosh, I don't know what there is left to say. Um, I came to Reed without visiting. That could have been a HUGE mistake, because Reed is so...odd. But it wasn't. I love it here. Seriously, I'm quite rabid about this school. If you're an open-minded person who enjoys the pursuit of knowledge, it is likely that Reed will be right for you too. But come visit if you can! Best not leave these things to chance...

Mary

Reed is academically focused to the point of insanity. The school really does believe in learning for the sake of learning, which means they don't believe in allowing grades to boost your self-esteem by doing things like telling you if you are doing well, or giving out A's for anything short of perfection. As difficult as this can be, the school challenges you to figure out what is important to you, but you have to have the courage to leave if you figure out that academia is not for you.

Samuel

The people and enviroment, lack of grade focus and strong individualism.

Aviva

Reed is a very conservative curriculum with a very liberal student body. No one looks twice if you walk around wearing a toga, or ride on a bike that you've attached a pedal powered boom-box to creating spontaneous sub-free dance parties all around campus. There is a creativity that is unstifled and infact fueled on the Reed campus. I am loath to be graduating after the next year, because I know that it is unlikely that I'll be able to work somewhere as amazing as Reed.

Brittany

A Reedie talks about his favorite movie, class and things to do in his free time.

Brittany

A student talks about her favorite movie, class and things to do in her free time.

Morgan

If you wear polo shirts and plaid shorts, do not enroll at this institution. If you pop your collar without being ironic, stay the fuck out of Portland.

Gina

Reed is a real mixed bag. I can't say I'm not learning, but on balance it's not somewhere I'd send anyone I love.

Erin

Our School President is amazingly presidential. Student/Administration/Faculty Relations are amazing

Owen

Just please, please VISIT! It's soooo much more important than anything, the media, the college counselors or I could ever say. Reed is not a college that will sit in the background while you attend it, it is in your face, so if you love it, great, but if not, then you might regret it. I feel sooo lucky to have found it, and the day I visited I knew it was what I wanted.

Becky

Reed is an amazing place for the right person. If you are for Reed, and Reed is for you then you can't ignore the chemistry!

Celia

I love my professors. I love Portland. I love my classes. I love my classmates. I love Reed.

Marion

After all I've said about how hard we work, we also play hard too. Take that to mean whatever you will.

Michael

No holds barred? My god... Ok. So I'm writing this from the foot of Songshan in Dengfeng, Henan province, China. I left because... well, Reed drives you crazy. I love it though. Not China, China's ok. Reed, is amazing. It's a beautiful, brilliant, sublime little shining light in the world and I hope it always stays that way. If you want to be stretched in every direction you never considered possible, it might be the place for you. You will meet crazy druggies, crazy poets, crazy intellectuals, and just crazies... they all have a right to be there and they are all part of the Reed experience. Love them all. They are all equally fascinating and all have something to add to your education in the subject of... everything. I miss reed. I miss having my ass kicked everyday by a workload that is simply not do-able. I miss the beautiful insane people I interact with on a daily basis. I miss those awkard interactions with people I know, and those I recognize, but don't know. It's a good place but it will drive you totally insane... in a very good way.

Jeremy

Portland weather sucks. Be prepared for that. You absolutely cannot be grade oriented here, and you must want to learn. Reed is a challenging school and most kids drop out their first year. But if you make it, it will change your life in ways that no other school will. Reed will not teach you facts, it will teach you how to learn and before you know it, you're the one people come to for facts because you're the one that found them. If you're really interested in Reed, then leave this website, get on a plane, and visit. Also, if your parents really want you to go here for the name, make sure you really want to go here for a better reason than that. Its going to be hard to beat Reed's academics and few institutions in the US can do it.

Madison

Reed is an awesome place!

Charlie

Overall, Reed can be a really wonderful place, but this is entirely despite the administration. Reed's president, Colin Diver, is pompous, conservative, and far more interested in representing the interests of wealthy board members than in representing the interests of the student body. He has refused to follow through with student supported policy like banning Coca Cola products, or products made using sweatshop labor, citing political neutrality. He refuses to acknowledge that refusing to ban sweatshop labor is not a neutral statement, but a statement that says he supports sweatshop products and does not respect the wishes of the students. Most recently, Reed's history of covering up problems with drugs is coming to light. This is happening only after a student died recently of a heroin overdose. The administration does not report drug overdoses or the prevalence of drug use and drug dealing so that drug culture will not be reflected in any statistics. Instead, they reject applications from students with drug histories, send students with drug problems on medical leave without support, and make every effort to keep things very hush-hush. Sometimes it seems like Reed's only credibility and accountability comes from a small number of conscientious faculty, staff, and students.

Brett

It would take pages and pages and pages to describe Reed here. This isn't even the beginning. Don't come here if you don't have an open mind, or can't get along with a lot of different types of people.

Andy

"Say Anything"? Oh my god, the survey caught the reference before I even submitted the page!

Jamie

Reed is a crazy, incredibly intense place. It is not right for a lot of people. A lot of people leave -- because they can't handle the workload, because they can't handle the pressure, because they slept with too many people and can't handle the social atmosphere anymore -- but the ones who stay are the ones who think it's worth it. The ones who stay are the kind of people who can bury themselves in academia for days on end and love it. If you don't like learning, this is not the right place for you. But if you've ever found a subject that made you spend sixteen hours straight reading articles and journals and trying to find a new slant, a new angle that will make, say, Shakespeare seem new again, then come to Reed. And try not to quote Derrida too much, because Derrida was a snotty, pretentious asshole, and we have enough people like that.

Nell

If I could tell Reed as a whole any one thing, I would tell them to learn RESPECT. I know they all should have learned it in elementary school, but somewhere along the line, that vital part of education dropped out. It needs to make a big comeback.

Christina

Get off campus when you can. Reed's awesome but the highly compressed brainpower makes your head hurt after awhile. Frequent excursions remind you that the real world exists and help you to appreciate campus more when you get back. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Reed, by which I mean that even if I'm hating the work or the stress or the bullshitting intelligentsia, I fucking love the place. There's a swingset. And cold late-night walks to the seven-eleven. And people to get into fun pretentious arguments with about music. There are pot-smokin' hippies (myself included) on the roof. Every once in a while there's a random naked person. Everyone's invincible and awkward and young and smart and insecure. There's always intelligent conversation if you want it. It's not heaven, it's not all I expected, but it's a good place. I've never yet regretted coming.

Leslie

If I could say one thing to convince prospective students not to come to Reed, then I think my candor would be worth it. It would save a lot of students potential headache, heartache, and addiction problems. So please, if you are a parent of a prospective student, urge your son or daughter not to matriculate at Reed.

Alex

Reed makes no sense. It's sort of pretend.

Alex

Reed contains many eccentricities that are not immediately appealing to the average person. However, I feel that for the right students (those with a great passion for something, those who like to have fun, those who care about human interaction, those who are willing to struggle against a rising tide of homework and then RESPONSIBLY *wink* drink the stress away at the end of the week) it is a challenging and rewarding place to study.

Devin

Reed is really awesome. I would not like to go anywhere else. I just wish I didn't have to fulfill the science requirement.

Roy

Reed has a beautiful campus! Every spring, the cherry, dogwood, and magnolia trees bloom in a dramatic show of color. We have no corporate fast food chains, and the campus food service uses locally available food suppliers often. It has a healthy menu. Reed requires all students to take a year of Humanities studies that include the classics of Ancient Greece and Rome, and the Old and New Testament. An alternative humanities based on Chinese culture and history is available as well.

Andy

Awesome. a lot of free food, discussion...work. Love.

April

The social life is really lacking and stifling because of the Reed Bubble. Really think hard if you want to learn anything practical because so much of Reed is about theory. Unless Reed becomes more diverse in the future, if you're a minority of any sort, I'd reconsider.

Maximilian

Renn Fayre happens at the end of the year. It is a time of great madness and trippiness and possible bad decisions. No one should miss it.

Maddy

My biggest complaint about Reed is it's Career Services opportunities. They offer you specific options in certain cities that they know about, but if you're like me and want to go home to Knoxville, Tennessee with an internship, they don't have much for you. They will help you edit your resume, offer you what they've got, and then tell you to use your own resources and social networking. In the end, I had to do most of the work myself.

Tara

Atheism! Communism! Free Love!

Jesse

Reed can be a really hard place to make and maintain friends- but the ones that you do make will likely become really close to you as you carbon bond to each other for dear life over the years. It would be impossible to get through this school without at least one or two close friends to help you through the really tough times.

Aline

In my neuroscience lab, we are currently in the process of transplanting nigral stem cells into a subject with Parkinson's disease to assess the possibility of the disease's remission and even its cure. Just kidding.

Jesse

If you know you will fit in here, then there is no better place in the world for you.