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Reed College

How this student rated the school
Educational QualityB Faculty AccessibilityA+
Useful SchoolworkB+ Excess CompetitionC
Academic SuccessB+ Creativity/ InnovationB-
Individual ValueA- University Resource UseA-
Campus Aesthetics/ BeautyA+ FriendlinessA
Campus MaintenanceA+ Social LifeB+
Surrounding CityB Extra CurricularsA-
SafetyA+
Describes the student body as:
Friendly, Arrogant, Approachable, Broken Spirit, Snooty

Describes the faculty as:
Friendly, Helpful

Male
SAT1570
Super Brilliant
Lowest Rating
Excess Competition
C
Highest Rating
Faculty Accessibility
A+
He cares more about Excess Competition than the average student.
Date: Mar 12 2014
Major: Political Science (This Major's Salary over time)
Reed didn't live up to its promises for me. My humanities classes were largely unchallenging and unrigorous and included minimal focus on anything like methods. It's a fact that the science majors work a lot harder than the humanities majors. If you're in all humanities classes, it's possible to take an entire week or two at a time and not do any work at all, and as long as you show up and say one or two things each class you can avoid having your grade suffer whatsoever. Then when you have to write an essay just write it about one of the things you did read. Science is different; it actually requires you to master new material every week without which you can not understand subsequent material. Most students don't do all the reading for any of their classes and seminars vary widely in quality. Another thing they don't tell you is that you really, really have to be an extrovert to thrive in the conference setting. A lot of inquisitive and critically thinking people are attracted to liberal arts schools because of the conference-style setup, but they don't realize it only really works for critically thinking people who are stimulated and get their ideas from others rather than from independent reflection. For me, a more than usually neurotic introvert, going to conference is an emotional burden that leaves me exhausted on the best of days and a nervous mess on the worst, and most of the time does little to stimulate my thinking. I'm the last person to want to be force-fed pedagogy, but I honestly think I would've been better stimulated by lecture-style courses where I could go and reflect critically on the material on my own. My classes did expose me to texts that have improved me but the classes themselves have added only a small marginal benefit. I will say that writing a thesis was the best educational experience I've ever had, largely because it was completely independent and I blew off a lot of class to work on it. Come here if you're an extrovert who wouldn't pursue critical thinking and new ideas on your own. If you're an introvert who would explore challenging new ideas and multiple perspectives on every issue if left to your own devices, unless you really want to write a thesis, I'd give Reed a pass.
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