Lewis & Clark College Top Questions

LC is a very friendly campus. We have many groups including a unisex group and womens center. Although there are very few minorities here, people are welcoming to everyone. My favorite thing about this school as how friendly everyone is. If this wasn't a factor, my happiness of this school would be a lot lower. A majority of the students are from the west coast, mainly the bay area. It seems that a few people don't receive any financial service from the school sophomore year and therefore have to drop out. It doesn't make sense to me why the school stops supporting students, by the do.

Lewis and Clark is one of the Princeton Review's top rated schools where the students regularly deny religion. Although we do have some religious connections (a chapel, religious student groups), there is not a strong religious base. Although Lewis and Clark tries to boost it's "diversity", there is relatively little ethnic diversity or even diversity of political positions. I feel like there is a competition to be the most "green" student, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I also feel that people judge harshly on other students' efforts to be environmentally conscious.

The students here are mostly super liberal. It's rare to meet a republican or a conservative on campus. But I think that's exactly why a lot of students pick LC to begin with. There are quite a few LGBT students on campus (part of this comes from the fact that the guy to girl ratio is like 35:65, so there are a lot of lesbians, or lugs (lesbian until graduation)). I was surprised at the socio-economic diversity here. I thought it would be a lot of wealthy kids. And while there are plenty of those, I was surprised at how many kids are on scholarship, and how many kids are shocked to hear about my socio-economic status (both my parents are private practice doctors, so we're well off). There aren't a lot of jocks, and the few that there are stick out like a sore thumb. But they all hang out with each other. Students are very politically aware and active. They tend to organize and participate in many protests and marches in downtown Portland.

Everyone mixes and mingles. Most people have their set group of friends, but have no problem meeting new people and expanding their social horizons. Everyone's fairly accepting, and we have our share of eccentrics.

Most students at LC are from California or the Pacific Northwest. I don't really think that any student would feel distinctly out of place, though I know that some of the male athletes complain about the rest of the student body. There are a lot of cliques here at LC, and if you don't find one, then I think it would be easy to feel out of place. Students are predominantly left leaning here at LC and a fair number of them are vocal about politics. I'd say it's a fairly active campus and tends to be pretty liberal on most issues. LC has no religious leanings. Students who have strong religious beliefs are definitely outliers, though they're not treated any differently for having them. There's just not much of a network, I suppose.

Lewis and Clark is expensive and this fact is reflected pretty frequently by the student body. While the school tends to attract "trust fund hippies" and disaffected rich hipsters, there are also a lot of international students. However, on the whole, I would say that while they are of varying ethnic backgrounds, regions of the country, sexual orientations, and religious associations (or usually, lack thereof), it would probably be unusual to find somebody whose families don't at least make six figures a year. They are not your average trust fund kids, though. They tend to play it down really well, and unless you already knew, you'd probably never guess.

LC is liberal. We have Barrack rallies on a weekly basis. We have huge multicultural and gender and religious symposiums. Everyone is pretty open.

You will be told that LC is very diverse, which is true to a certain extent. White people definitely dominate the scene, though there are a large number of Asian exchange students and some from other parts of the world as well. If you're lucky, and you have a lot of patience, you may even see an African American person! Most everyone here is pretty well off financially, don't let the raggedy hippies fool you, they are not poor and you shouldn't give them any money. A very preppy student might feel a little out of place here. Most people come to class in torn pants and a T-shirt. There is a fairly high level of interaction between the various student species on campus, but people also like to stick together. If there were 4 tables in the dining hall, they would be the athletes (fairly small table), the nerds (larger table), the neo-hippies (very large table), and the hipsters (equally large table). There are so many freakin' Californians here, its ridiculous. There are also a lot of people from the Northwest. As far as politics go, most people are pretty liberal, but if you look under some rocks, you'll find a republican.

LC is seriously lacking in diversity... racially, politically, religiously; it is all very homogenous. It would be tough to be a conservative, catholic hispanic student here at LC, just because you might feel a bit out of place. But overall, I think students are open and willing to new opinions, and to other cultures. LC is a very left, non-religious, white, politically active, wealthy community.

LC is mainly white people on the upper half of the socio-economic ladder. Students come from educated, well-off backgrounds, which is good but also means very little diversity. People can tend to be very clique-y, especially at mealtimes. Most students tend to make friends with the people in their dorms and often don't ever break out of those cliques. It's hard to meet new people because you see the same people all the time and everyone has perceptions about people they don't know. The social scene can be a lot like high school; because it is so small, everyone knows who is dating who and has pre-formed ideas about what people are like. It's hard to make a fresh start or meet people outside your group of friends because of this. (The cheerleaders can't be friends with the Goth kids)