Lewis & Clark College Top Questions

Lewis & Clark College has a great, liberal community. Its welcoming, friendly atmosphere makes it easy to meet and talk to new people.

Overall, the school has a very friendly student body with a gorgeous campus with awesome access to Portland which is one of the best cities in the country. There isn't a whole lot of school pride, this probably derives from our lack of competent sports teams. This is an okay thing. In fact, my fear right now is it seems that the administration is putting greater emphasis on our sports teams and this seems like the wrong move since it causes for a strong disdain for the athletic minority that is populating our campus. There seems to be a developing rift in the student body between athletes and intellectuals which is no good. Sports are great, but they are wasting their money trying to bolster the athletic program here; athletes come here because of scholarship and then find themselves hating it here because there's so much subtle hostility towards them. It sucks. It's a very subtle thing, nothing to worry about really, but hopefully it won't get any worse.

I definitely should have visited before I decided to commit. While the campus is stunningly beautiful, the social scene is very stifled. Groups form so quickly and it's best described as being "clique-y." I don't feel that a lot of the students are very accepting to new-comers... However, the professors are extremely knowledgable and the majority have earned the highest degree in their field. Don't be surprised to hear your professor talk about his graduate experience at Stanford or Berkeley.

I LOVE LC. There are so many good things about it! One of my favorite things is that I have such a wonderful relationship with my professors. I've been to four of my professors' houses, some more than once! Another thing is that it is so easy to form a club and get funding. I started a dance team to dance at home football and basketball games, and we got three hundred dollars for next year. LC's size is perfect because there are enough people that you can always meet someone new, but there aren't so many people that you can't find a group of your own. I spend most of my time on campus since I'm involved in so many on-campus activities, but it is easy to get off campus if I want to go somewhere. We have a free shuttle that goes every hour from campus to downtown Portland, and Portland is incredible. There are so many things to do there! I love going downtown to the Saturday Market (which is actually open Saturdays and Sundays). It's a wonderful street market with local bands playing, and sometime even juggling! One experience I'll always remember: As a prospective student, I had an interview with an Admissions Counselor. I was dead set on going to LC, and she could tell. We had a wonderful half hour talking and laughing about anything and everything. Thank goodness I got in! When I went to the New Student Orientation with my mom, I was nervous but excited at not knowing anyone and meeting new people. But when we went into the cafeteria, the Admissions Counselor hugged me and said, "Lauren Brown! I'm so glad you came here!" She proceeded to meet my mom and tell me how excited she was that I came. How amazing that she new my name, recognized my face, and sought me out! That's what LC is all about- personable faculty and staff.

The best thing about Lewis & Clark: the professors One thing I'd change: the cost of tuition is too high School: a bit small but good for student/teacher ratios Most people in the NW know Lewis & Clark, but many are unfamiliar with it. Most of my time was spent in my apartment or the library Definitely not a college town--Portland is huge The administration didn't generally impress me, especially Residence Life Controversy: the state of the International Affairs Department There doesn't seem to be much school pride; there isn't a big interest in sports

Many times I felt kind of isolated on the L&C campus. I guess it depends on the person, but I found it difficult sometimes to get off of campus. The school is located in a beautiful area, but it's kind of far from anything fun. To get downtown you either have to take a car or take the hourly shuttle or city bus. Most people don't have cars, me included, so the bus was my only option to get around. It's not THAT inconvenient but it was impossible to just run to the store or take a short trip when the minimal time you had to spend out was like 2 hours because of the bus schedule, so often I would decide not to go anywhere because of the inconvenience. The shuttle can get pretty crowded at peak times or right before breaks. I thought it was kind of inconsiderate of the administration to not increase shuttle service at break times at least. It happened every year, same as always. My first year I nearly missed my train home for Thanksgiving because there was no room left on the bus and I was left standing on the sidewalk as the bus drove off. It takes some getting used to as I was accustomed to having my own car to get around back home.

I have a lot of things I really like about Lewis and Clark. One of which is my experience with my professors (mostly from the Computer Science, Mathematics, and Economics Department). They seem to genuinely care about their students well being. I've had entire classes go to my professors house for dinners, deserts, board games, etc. They care about you outside the classroom. People on the West Coast are finally starting to hear about LC and they seem to think fairly highly of it. Rightfully so, I feel like I'm being challenged and receiving an excellent education. My economics professor even stated that the quality of students at LC seems to be growing each year, and he isn't the type of guy who would just make that crap up. I like going to a small school but the atmosphere isn't for everyone, there aren't huge social events every weekend or anything like that. Portland definitely isn't a college town, that is one of the best things about LC. You can take the free shuttle to the city almost anytime yet we are outside the city so you don't have the city noise.

LC doesn't have a huge sports following. We don't have a good dating scene. Sometimes working with the administration is difficult and frustrating, but there are a lot of resources on campus that students and apply to use. There are many different kinds of clubs, and when an enthusiastic group of students come together, then the clubs can be fun to participate in. Portland is an amazing town to live near, the LC shuttle runs every hour between campus and downtown, so getting around without a car is easy... a lot of students and Portlanders ride bikes.

The campus is really beautiful, but isolated. Freshman can't have cars on campus, so one must take the bus everywhere. This is easy in theory, but it was way more time consuming and exhausting in practice. And I felt like there wasn't much to do on campus. I took a lot of walks around the campus and no one was hanging out in the fall, I guess because of the weather. Lewis & Clark is very small. I didn't like the size as much as I thought I would. And the student body was not as diverse as I imagined. They have a lot of foreign exchange students but it seemed like they mostly kept to themselves. When I started telling people I was going to LC, everyone was very impressed. Apparently, it has become very prestigious over the past couple of years. Someone even referred to it as second tier ivy league. I spent a lot of time walking around the South part of campus where the chapel is. It is practically abandoned because the one classes taken over there are education degree classes. It was very nice. There is no town connected to LC. Don't be fooled. The Fred Meyer's area is not that accessible, nor is it any fun. The administration is awful for the most part. I realized pretty earlier on in the second semester that I really didn't want to continue at LC. So, I went to the registrar's office to ask about how to take a leave of absence, and they treated me really badly. They told me that I was lucky to be going to their fine institution and that if I was unhappy then that was my own fault for not studying at coffee shops downtown, or not wanting to pay $45 buck to take a snow boarding class so I could break my neck on mount hood. They told me to join clubs or do community service, but I just didn't see anything worth while. So I left. Now it's June 13, 2008, and the school just accepted my withdrawal. I've been trying to withdraw since January. I've been e-mail everyone I could think of that could help me complete the withdrawal and one would respond. It was such a nightmare. Then I got an email that said I had re-registered for classes for the fall. I wrote back to the person who had sent the email explaining all the trouble I had been having, and they finally accepted with my withdrawal. It has been really frustrating dealing with the Administration. I guess everyone has school pride but everyone laughs about how the football team hasn't won in decades. There are a lot of unusual things about LC. It's a really strange place. In some ways, it's a good thing and in other ways, this place is just weird. I'll always remember going ESCAPE which is a gay all ages club my friends and I went to once early in the semester. It was the only club we could get into in Portland, but I had a lot of fun. Also we took a road trip to the beach with my roommate's aunt. The coast is beautiful. A lot of students complain about THE BON, which is the dining hall. It is gourmet cooking about sometimes, it's really bad food. But I got used to the bon. At least you have options in there. I think most people just resent that everyone must have a meal plan with the bon for the first two years.

The students at Lewis & Clark are some of the most eccentric, beautiful, intelligent and interesting people you will ever meet. There are a million things to do in and around Portland, Oregon and on campus as well. The administration is cracking down on the party stereotype which is really unnecessary. For the most part everyone is extremely respectful and just looking for a good time. The administration has recently been putting a lot of money into varsity sports that are notoriously bad. The 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} female student body is the best thing that has ever happened to a Lewis & Clark male student. The school newspaper is hilarious. Dorm food always gets old but ours is bearable. Mt. Hood is an hour away and the Oregon coast is an hour the other direction.