This opinion of Reed College is based on my visit of Reed. And that alone. I don't attend that school, and I'm not planning on it. But I feel as if what I have to say is still good advice considering my visit there. And now on with the story.

My dad suggested Reed when I was looking at colleges. He said it was a "fine liberal arts school". I said, sure why not. I figured I needed to take a good look at different types of schools. Until that point, I had visited Northwestern, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo College and University of Southern California. And of course, Stanford. Since it's in my backyard. Literally. Now I wasn't very smart in my college research. I didn't research them like I should have but I'm glad that I decided to visit because I'm a strong believer in the "gut feeling". I usually like something or don't within minutes.

Let me back up and offer some basic information about Reed College. It's located in Portland, Oregon. It credits itself for being an intellectual liberal arts school. "Reedies" (students attending Reed) come from all over the US, mostly from the Northwest. They are a small school with a 10 to 1 faculty to student ratio. They offer a wide variety of departments from science to English. There is no Greek community. They offer a wide variety of extracurriculars such as literary magazine, dance, drama, radio station or the newspaper.

Reed has a fine reputation. That's clear. I knew that when I visited. Let's talk about my visit and you can tell me if I should apply or not. (Yes, I'm already at college, but this is a fun game!)

First of all. My mom and I got lost. Very lost. The directions we had from our hotel were wrong. But I don't blame Reed for this. The people I asked for directions were also wrong with their directions. But again, I'm not blaming Reed that people living in Portland don't know where places are. It's a lot to ask, I'm sure.

Finally, after much deliberation and driving in circles, we finally arrived at Reed. By that time my nerves were frayed. I was tired of bickering and being lost. So I wasn’t in the best of moods. But I put on my happy face and smoothed my slightly wrinkled clothing. Finding the admissions office was easy. Thank goodness.

Now on first impressions, I thought Reed was a very pretty school. Actually it was gorgeous. Big trees everywhere. Interesting architecture, and big green lawns. It was a very pretty school. And aesthetics are important to me.

So on with the story. I get to the admissions office and told them who I was and apologized for being late. They say it’s no problem and I can join the next tour. But now it’s time for my interview. It’s an interview with a student and we shoot the basic breeze. Where I’m from, what I’m into, what are my activities, favorite subjects. The like. Faily standard for an interview. I was surprised that my interview was with a student, but upon further thought, this is a good idea. They can tell if I’ll “fit in” and I can ask them questions. Now about the “fitting in” part. This is where it starts to get interesting. My five-minute walk around before I got to the admissions office proved to be interesting. I took a good look at the people sitting, walking, and talking. Hmmm, they didn’t look like people I normally associate with.

I’d like to stop the story now and point out what “type” of person I am. I’m no real “type” but I tend to weigh on the more preppy looking California casual relaxed type. That’s how I classify myself. I mean I shop at the Gap (http://www.epinions.com/content_35147255428). That’s how I define preppiness. And yes, I’m preppy. I live in the suburbs. I drive a Volvo. I’m a girl, I’m a chick, I paint my toenails pink. I like to shop, I like to read, I like to be with my friends. Now that I’ve classified myself, I’ll continue.

These people I explained to my mom later, were “earthy”. By “earthy” I mean they had dreadlocks, they wore Birkenstocks, it’s a question if they showered or not. I am not “earthy”. I don’t have dreadlocks, prefer flip-flops to Birkenstocks and shower every day. I don’t have anything against them, it’s just not I’m not really one of them.

Please don’t think I’m remarking on these types of people, I have nothing against them! But for me, it’s really important to have people around me with common interests. So based on that initial impression I asked my student interviewer if there were other people who were “preppy” like me. He laughed and said probably maybe one other person. Oh.

Well, this was based on first appearances so I thought, shoot, I need to get out there and talk with people. And so on my campus tour, I attempted to do so. But the tour guide kept talking and I thought I should wait. The campus by the way is very gorgeous, they have a beautiful outdoors theatre, water is close by and it’s very pretty.

A look at the watch and it’s time for lunch! Yay. I’m starved. The cafeteria is new and offers a great selection of food. It’s been 3 years so I can’t remember exactly what they offer. But I remember being impressed.

My mom ditched me so I could talk sans parent with the students. Sitting down, we start to converse about basic information. The question, where are you from is uttered by one of the tour guides (we had two). During my turn, I utter, Palo Alto, California. And the guy to the left of me, a Reedie and not a tour guide quickly says, Oh, I hate that place! Oh. Well hmm, how do I respond to that? I don’t. I eat my sandwich in silence and let the others finish talking.

By now, my mind’s made up. It’s a pretty school with a great academic program but these aren’t my type of people. And they insulted my hometown. A final nail in the coffin. My gut feeling is saying no and so I find my mom and tell her what happens and we decide to ditch the tour group and leave early.

So we leave and never look back. The next day I visit the University of Puget Sound, fall in love with it and this fall I’ll be a sophomore there. (Another shameless plug, http://www.epinions.com/content_34819313284)

Now that I’ve finished my story, can you guess whether I applied to Reed College? If you guessed “no”, you’re right. I didn’t apply to Reed. It just wasn’t for me.

Reed College wasn’t the school for me, but might be for you. The moral of the story is to visit the schools either you are thinking about applying to, did apply to or have been accepted to. Because visiting schools is the best way to know if you’ll be happy there or not. And I wouldn’t have been happy at Reed. Not to discredit them or their academics. So I give them 3 stars for my not so great visit.

Thanks for reading.




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