Lewis & Clark College Top Questions

compared to other schools that we are compared to (reed, evergreen, CC) we are incredibly diverse. Very jocky and people who are too caught up in social heirarchies and looking "cool" don't fit at our school. People who want to get to know people and are down for whatever work much better. most people come from fairly wealthy backgrounds, but it never shows. No one ever flaunts money and it rarely ever comes up. Students are very politically aware and active. Many travel around PCNW for protests. More are very liberal. actually, we are all really liberal. Most students here will not be wealthy themselves later in life. Most people would rather explore more of the world and understand themselves better, settling for a job with a non-profit in nepal over a law intern in california. issue of money and class never talked about.

Students at Lewis and Clark are predominantly Left. Many students are liberal voting members of society. As someone who is different from most of the population, I have come in contact with people who say they are very open to new ideas and different views, but when someone has a different view from their own, they get very defensive and upset about being different. There are some who are moderate and take both sides into consideration and like where they stand, but that number is very small in relation to the number of people who get really upset about people not having the same view as their own.

All international students live in one dorm together, seperated from LC community. This is really stupid of Campus Living to organize it this way because international students can't benefit from as many close relationships as they would if they were integrated with the other students. LC students are also deprived because they do not get to learn the finer subtleties of other cultures. You can wear whatever you want to class and always be confident that someone looks more unkept and ridiculous than you do. No one cares what you wear. Athletes tend to think they run the joint. They are responsible for most of the off-campus parties. Most students are politically and environmentally aware, if not activists. I don't think I am exaggerating when I say that everyone is liberal. Students are generally not interested in a lucrative carear, but are more interested in making a nice life forthemselves in general. Students are often interested in unique lifestyles and many of which do not plan to enter the work force directly after college.

A conservative Republican who hated diversity, gay rights, and being green would feel very out of place at LC. There are however groups for pretty much religion and activity. Most students are politically active to some extent and are left wingers. Students wear everything from sweats to skirts and blouses to class. Students don't really talk about making lots of money.

Very accepting of anything not Republican. Extremely vegan and gay friendly. Most students wear outdoorsy clothes. But there is a real mix. You can't put LC in a box. Most people are from Oregon or the bay area. However, there is an extemely diverse international community here as well. I am from New Jersey and I have met so many east-coasters too. My favorite thing about the students here is their active and engaged nature.

I feel pretty out of place here even though i racially fit into the large white majority. Being queer on campus tends to really suck. the community is nonexistent and the small amount of queer kids all seem to have slept with eachother at one point or another. i also am here on a lot of financial aide and i don't feel like most students here understand the value of money and how hard things can be. There are also very very few black or hispanic students. which is awkward coming from Arizona. Most students wear trendy hipster clothes or outdoors clothes (northface etc). Most students seem to be from California or at least the western part of the country. Most students are pretty rich and seem to be a rather hollow left. most students dont talk about money because that isn't "hip."

Being that LC is expensive, and in Oregon, it is definitely a white campus. I know the school is making an attempt to change that, but I can understand if you were hispanic from southern california and came and visited LC how it might make you feel like an outsider. Being from a conservative area in Texas, I was taken aback a bit at how some kids dressed, talked, acted, etc... but it is a great experience to live somewhere different than you are used to and it helped me become more comfortable in who I am. I think most importantly, as long as you are willing to stretch your boundaries, it is rewarding to interact with kids that have different backgrounds, political views and all around lifestyles than yourself, and that is a big part of what college is all about.

I think that most students would fit in at Lewis & Clark. I think just about the only kind of student that may not feel comfortable here is a very conservative one. We are a very liberal student body and also have many very liberal professors who do their best to keep politics out of the classroom, but sometimes it comes up and must be talked about. Admissions is doing everything they can to get the student body more racially diverse and it does not seem to be working. My feeling is that the student body is more geared towards helping others and making the world a better place after they graduate as apposed to making a lot of money.

Lewis and Clark talks about being diverse but the majority of students are rich white students. Almost all the students are liberal and quite a few have forgotten what a shower is since coming to college. The styles are diverse but in that way they are all the same. The students try to dress excentrically but in that way they all blend together. Most of the students are from the Northwest and they all fit that stereotype. Everyone is a relaxed dresser and jeans, a sweatshirt, and converse are the most common dress you see.

Although the student population itself is not very heterogenous, it is very open to any sort of race or religion or socio-economic group. The only type of students who would feel out of place at Lewis and Clark are the ones who do not like small schools. I don't know what the students wear to class! That all depends on the type of person you are, it varies! Different types of students do interact, to a certain extent. I don't quite know what you mean.... I would say that the dining hall is separated into (generally and stereotypically) the different sports team and the people who hang out with them, the "hipster"-type people, and everyone else's groups of friends. Most Lewis and Clark students are from the West (California, Oregon, and Washington). I don't really know what financial backgrounds are most prevalent. There are quite a few students who are very politically aware and active but not all. I'm not, for example. As mentioned earlier, they generally tend to be left.

Racial: Majority of students are white, but not in a creepy, better than thou kind of way. Religious: Not really. Probably a handful of each religion represented, but nothing you really notice. LGBT: Kids are way more open-minded about sexuality here. Not perfect by a long haul- there are always assholes in the crowd (read adminstration: thanks for hauling in the jocks) But, it's nothing like the ridiculous nature of close-minded high school drama. Socioeconomic: It's hard to tell, actually, cause kids don't seem to flaunt any wealth they have. There are exceptions, but for the most part, you have no idea whether a kid got a full ride from the government or are here on mom and pop's pursestrings. Who would feel out of place here: Evangelists, racists, conservatives, Nazis... Ask yourself if you are hateful, rude, or superior to a lot of people: if you answer yes, I hope you feel you'd be out of place here There are a good number of kids from California, which can be weird since I've never been around a bunch of people from SoCal before, but they're good people, so whatever.

Students who are politically conservative would feel out of place at LC. Certain groups of students are very politically active, and everyone else pretends to be up on politics even when they're not. There are a lot of international students at LC, and a lot of students are interested in international affairs or the soft sciences like anthropology. There isn't much cliquieness going on, except that the hardcore athletes seem to really have their own clique, probably because they all have morning classes while the majority of students have most of their classes in the afternoon. LC is extremely supportive of LGBTQ students. Being a queer student myself, I was overwhelmed with how accepting students, professors, and staff were of my sexual orientation. United Sexualities (LC's gay-straight alliance) is very active on campus, and provides resources and a safe place for LGBTQ kids and their allies -- not that a safe place is really needed. Your sexual orientation/gender identity matters about as much as your hair color or what brand of shoes you wear to other students. It does not seem to affect how straight students or professors treat you. I have encountered zero hostility for being queer. So if you're hoping to find some place where you can rally together with other LGBTQ students and lament your oppression together, LC is not a good place for it. This "bubble effect" can make it kind of a shock when you shoot back out into the "real world" and discover that your sexual orientation/gender identity DOES matter to other people, and may even be a liability. (Although most of Portland is like LC, in that people either don't care if you're queer or are supportive.)

Barely any diversity--no matter what they say! There is quite the typical LC student, leaving very few options for difference in opinion or taste. The dining hall situation is fairly structured and many people sit in the same areas daily, kind of clique-ish. A lot of the food is vegetarian/organic which is awesome but it doesn't taste very good and is heinously expensive.

There is a wide variety of the kinds of people here on campus, especially in terms of sexual orientation. Most people are not religious and most people are white, but people come from all different economic and sexual backgrounds. People complain about there not being enough diversity in terms of race here and I admit it is not ideal, but there is enough diversity in other areas that it is okay. I am not sure anyone would feel out of place here. There are exchange students from Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, even one boy on my hall from Muldova. The exchange students are, however, not integrated very well into the general population. They kind of have their own population going on and this is something I would really like to see change. The language assistants (who are from the country usually whose language they teach) are luckier because they have to interact with the general, American population of students here in class so integration is easier sometimes. There are definitely students here who do the sweatpants thing for class, but mostly people get dressed nicer than that not because they need or want to look good, but because it is more respectful to their professors and the overall learning environment. There is a boy named Chris in one of my English classes who wears a suit with a tie and a briefcase to class everyday. There are obviously a lot of students from Oregon but I think there are as many students from California, actually, including myself. It's very west coast oriented. There are people from other places in the US though, all over the east coast, Minnesota, Virginia, and Ohio. There are is a nice handful of people here from Hawaii. A lot of people want to be politically active but aren't. They like to talk but don't do much (me, perhaps). There are the students who do things, like the ones who organized Focus the Nation, which turned into a nationwide event (and I think even Edward Norton participated in a symposium via satellite). I think people like myself are okay with not being active but still being supportive of those who are because our primary goal in life, at this moment, is to learn and go to school. For some people that is not as much of a priority and that is good too.