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.

I don't know, Lewis & Clark is a pretty neat place so long as you're not coming here for sports or fraternity/sorority-type things. If you come to Lewis & Clark expecting mad huge parties and pep rallies/school pride/etc. , you're going to be disappointed, but everyone is very nice. The number of students is pretty small, so everyone more or less knows each other or knows of each other. The campus is absolutely GORGEOUS; the property used to be part of this manor's estate, so the manor house and a lot of the surrounding buildings are just beautiful. The gardens are gorgeous as well; I'm fairly certain (as are many students) that most of our tuition goes towards grounds keeping. Portland is an awesome city though, so having the small campus isn't too limiting or whatever. The one complaint I have is about the food; Lewis & Clark has a two-year campus living requirement, and students that live on campus are required to have food plans. The Bon (the cafeteria) is open at inconvenient hours (it closes at 7 P.M.), and the other options available (Maggie's and the Trail Room) don't count as part of your meal plan and are fairly expensive (especially Maggie's). The Bon's food itself is really lacking in interesting fare; at the beginning of the year they were extremely good, but as the year went on they got worse and worse. I ended up eating cereal every night for dinner.

Lewis and Clark sucks. Its pretty much just a resort for a bunch of rich hippie who never pick up a text book but in four years will somehow manage to obtain their secret dream job in corporate america working for daddy's business upon graduation as they have given up on the socialist ambitions they never had in the first place. Its too small. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone is judgemental. I spent most of my time running as far away from campus as possible. Students tend the mistake of associating Lewis and Clark with Portland, but they should know that just as Portland is a heaven, and Lewis and Clark is a hell. The teachers are fantastic, but the other administrators are not. They are small minded and keep the school from becoming what it has potential to be by imposing conservative academics to a generally liberal student body. There's a huge problem with rape on campus. Lots of Lewis and Clark girls seem to be getting raped, and boys seem to be getting off with nothing but a small slap on the wrist. The most frequent complaints are probably about how the school is not as progressive or liberal as students expected.

The "big picture" is one that can only be painted by the individual. I cannot begin to tell you how you will perceive the school and all it entails. I can, however, tell you what have come to love and dislike about it. The very two things that led me to make the decision to attend Lewis & Clark this past year still stand as the two things that i love the most about L&C. The first of which are the people. Some say there's something in the water and some say we're all crazy, but whatever it may be, the people are remarkable. From the Professors, to the students, to the admissions staff, to the maintenance crew, the people are just good hearted people that are really down to earth. I can honestly say that i have found everyone to be welcoming, honest, and warm hearted. Beyond their personalities, i have met tons of incredible individuals at L&C. Most people are very much involved with what is going on in todays world and are trying to help the world with their talents. The second thing that attracted me to, and is keeping me at, Lewis & Clark is what i call the "mutual benefits." I chose to go to Lewis & Clark because out of the 9 Colleges and Universities i was looking at, L&C stood out as a school i could give the most to and in return gain a lot from as well. That being said, some find it too small, it is only 2000 students. I however, find it to be just right. I don't feel like another face in the crowd, but i don't feel like i see the same people all the time. Along with that, i am fond of the beautiful campus. All my friends who visit who would never go to the school always say the campus is gorgeous. Because it is situated in a quiet neighborhood, you truly feel like you're there to go to school. The nice thing is that there is free transportation to downtown Portland, which is a cool place to explore and hang out. But then again, no school is for everyone.

The best thing at LC is the crowd. It sucks you in, pleasantly, with organic and herbal everything and a comfortable college life. Weekends are social but casual, parties themed or with keggers, always weed, but heavier drugs are avoidable, which is nice. All students are extremely intelligent and well informed, a lot of times in specialty interest areas- people here are multi-faceted and complex in ways that pop out talented and heartfelt individuals. If I had to change something, it would be the guy to girl ratio. Guys are outnumbered, not by much, but I'm used to living with three brothers! The college size is just right, I love it. Not too big to lose yourself, not invasively small, but just right for being able to choose between a night of partying or studying. I spend a lot of my time outside, at people's houses, in the Co-op, at my place, or in the library. The College town is small: the neighbors of the campus, residences and little schools mostly. The area is very nice, with beautiful wildlife and Tryon Park nearby, as well as a crazy-beautiful graveyard that stretches miles. The admin-- a little ridiculous and unnecessarily rude, but I've had many good experiences, too. Unusual parts of Lewis and Clark would be the drug use I think. Not Reed-Style heavy drugs, but just a lot of weed. I've been places where its just alcohol so I have noticed the difference. Its nice though, not an abusive off-putting way, its somewhat of a thinking hobby. Frequent student complaints: too much vegetarian food in the cafeteria, some lame teachers, outrageously rigorous teachers, not enough snow days!

I like that it's a small size because I personally enjoy seeing someone I know wherever I go on campus and I'll always have a friend in class. Plus, if planned right, you'll never eat alone at a meal. When I tell people I go to LC, I pause and then say it's in Portland, OR and they then nod in understandment. I really like when someone has heard of it and they definitely therefore go up a knotch in my book. Portland is an amazing city with a lot to do. It's gorgeous, just like our happy little hill, with a great mixture of city life and lots of opportunities for the outdoorsy types. I wish there was a little more school pride and spirit at sporting events because an empty stadium is discouraging to the athletes and friends of the athletes. I had a ton of school spirit in high school and showed up to the first football game with a poster and hand-decorated t-shirt to find myself among 10 other fans. It was disappointing.

A few impressive things about LC: 1. Promotion of LC overseas programs: Of course, this is partially done out of financial gain for this private school. Even so, I think the wide variety of overseas programs (during the school year and in the summer) offered by LC could provide students a global perspective, practical experiences outside the classroom, and enhanced competitiveness in an increasingly interconnected world. Well over half the student body have either lived abroad or have participated in an overseas program at some point. The administration also tries very hard to attract overseas and minority students to the school. 2. Natural environment: You simply have to see it for yourself. Overall its a great campus. However, there are some complaints about the archaic and inconvenient architecture of the Templeton Student Center. 3. Relatively easy access to downtown Portland: The free bus going between campus and downtown Portland everyday is a HUGE convenience to students who want to hang out or work downtown. Areas in need of improvement: 1. Lack of school spirit: I found very few students who are proud of their school, and who will actively work to preserve and enhance the image of our school. The general lack of successful sports teams is a contributer to this trend. 2. Food monopoly by Bon apetit: I feel that the overall quality of food has decreased year by year while I was there, while prices have slightly increased. This could be the result of the exclusive provider contract between LC and Bon Apetit.

One thing about which I wish the Lewis & Clark College administration cared more is the relationship between our campus and the greater Portland community. Yes, we are geographically on the outskirts of Portland, but that does not mean that we should not interact with the city more. The worst thing is the orange bus that announces to the rest of the city that this school is private and wealthy. It is embarrassing getting on that bus downtown. Last summer when I was working in downtown Portland, I wore my college t-shirt to my first day of work. I never wore it again. People from the Portland community asked me throughout the day: "So, you're really rich, huh?" "So your school is full of hippie rich hypocrites, right?" "Oh...you're the school that has that free bus." The administration, despite their rhetoric, does not care about our reputation in Portland and even does things, like painting the bus an unavoidable unsightly orange color that announces to the entire city that we get free transportation. They do not like us and the administration does not want to do anything about it.

It is a nice college campus. There are very exceptional proffesors, but many unqualified ones as well. Advisors don't have the time or desire to handle both classes and students. This college costs way too much. They do not provide the services they promise. They tell you what you want to hear and then tell you to deal with the situation when they don't come through with their promises. The college is too far away from downtown and their are not enough bus routes, which run after 8 pm. The college is too expensive. They don't give you what you pay for.

I think the best thing about this school is probably the campus aesthetics and the location. Disregarding November - February, L&C is gorgeous and seems like a summer camp type atmosphere. Otherwise it is extremely wet, rainy, and cold all winter. I would say if you don't like rain this place is not for you. Portland is a great city and there are several free school shuttles that run every hour. It is a school that is a bit "different" for me at least but I am from the midwest, so it may be completely normal here. One of the great things is that everyone here is very "real," none of the superficial types I had in high school. There is a hippie presence that can be a bit weird at first but you get used to it. I think that a lot of students aren't happy with the administration... I personally don't pay attention to it and haven't anything really to fight with them about. Sports are almost non existent here, although there are a lot of teams just not any spirit to go with it. I think that the school is a great place to learn if you are interested in being well rounded and have a variety of things you want to learn. Personally, I am not so much one of these people which is one of the reasons I detested my freshmen course schedule.

The campus is amazingly beautiful and with each season it changes. The people are friendly, and the teachers are dedicated to their students growth and development.