Reed College Top Questions

1. No. Some Reedies do tons of drugs, but that holds of a subset of the students at most universities. Psychedelics are possibly more readily available than at other schools. The big difference from other schools is not the frequency of drug use, but the general attitude toward drug use. Drugs are out in the open here. A minority of my friends use drugs with any regularity. 2. This is closer to the truth, but still misses the mark. Most people have a lot of work, and so spend most of their time doing it. Most people don't get much sleep. However, the majority of students find ways to relax - student organizations, parties, etc. There is a lot to do on campus pretty much every weekend. Reedies probably work more and socialize less than students at most schools, but that comes with academic excellence.

for the most part, yes.

Though there are many "nerdy-loser" types, there are a lot of hipster kids around too, along with other less stigma-attached personality types. Everyone is addicted to cigarettes. There's a few hippies, but not very many dedicated ones. I spend all my time in the library, but a lot of people study in their rooms. People do get naked on nice days, but only four people showed up to the "no pants" dance party in the student union. There are less than 1.5 thousand kids, everyone does hook up with everyone, and then in less than three hours, everyone else knows about it. This is so true. The majority of students are quite intelligent, though a few... not so much. In terms of drugs, I live in very proximity of two floors of substance-free kids. I know a total of three of them. Not everyone does drugs, though many people do, but if you're totally straight-edge...you may not have many friends.

Stereotypes accurate? Of course not! Regarding socioeconomic status, Reedies include a good percentage of students who do not come from rich families (myself among them), and in fact, Reed provides an astounding amount of financial support for a private school. I would say that about half receive Financial Aid of some sort. Nevertheless, there are Reedies from the upper crust, but most are well-behaved. Do Reedies respect the establishment? Well, they certainly have a strong tradition of critical thinking - no one just accepts things as they are! That is refreshing, and if you intend to be a student here, you will be challenged to tear the veneer off everything - and do so in essays and in class conferences. No wallflowers allowed! As far as geeks are concerned, that is true, more or less depending on your definition. We have Mac geeks and PC geeks! Lastly, some Reedies think they know everything. That usually lasts for one semester - then they are chastened! Seriously, Reedies study hard, and do incredible amounts of work, and after a while they do gain a degree of competence and a habit of questioning everything. It may seem blasphemy to some when a Reedie questions a well-considered author or highly-placed scientist, but this is the tradition here. By the time we graduate, we have the intellectual habits to be leaders in our fields. That's the goal here!

I would only argue against the quirky label. I think it is a terrible misnomer that trivializes the school. Yes, Reed gathers in misfits who push their boundaries, but we are pretty serious about how we do it.

Sure, there are a fair amount of dirty kids. But Reed has gotten more and more cleaned up and hipster-ed out these days. The Bug eating contest happens once a year, we don't stuff our faces with bugs all the time. There is a very relaxed policy and atmosphere concerning drugs at Reed. i think that it is best to explain this through Reed's honor principle. There aren't a whole lot of set rules at reed, but you need to be responsible for yourself and for the school. If you eat a lot of drugs, you won't be able to function successfully in the community at reed, and you especially won't be able to handle the workload. The kids that i've seen go overboard and abuse the drug policy are the kids I haven't seen around campus after Freshman year. At reed, you need to honor the honor principle and conduct yourself in a respectful and conscious manner.

There are people who do drugs, there are a good number of atheists/agnostics, and there are a few hippies. Really though, I would say the stereotypes are wrong. There are plenty of people who are totally sub free and most are not so into drugs that they can't function. I think the reason for the stereotype is that people here don't have disdain for those who do drugs, but this does not mean that we do more drugs than people at other schools. I've never even had alcohol here. As for atheists/agnostics, yeah, I think that there are a lot of those here, but I live in science themed housing and I have several dormies who actually go to church on Sundays. Our Christian groups are liberal and tolerant, but we do have them, and I think in general bigoted atheists are called out for it as often as bigoted Christians. As for hippies, personally I think there is a shortage. We have some people who like to be naked, but only a few. The college needs more hippies.

It's quite inaccurate to call Reed "Weed College." Drug use is present on campus, but it isn't at any unusual level, compared to my friends' colleges. A lot of Reed students are, truly, geniuses, but a lot of them are the more run of the mill type of genius that just genuinely works hard. In fact, it's hard to be a druggie at Reed - you'd fail out. While there are a lot of rich kids at Reed, not everyone is rich: there's a lot of financial aid available and it actually works out to be cheaper to go to Reed than to a UC for a lot of students from California. Finally, the stress thing is completely true, although you can avoid it if you're careful.

as for the hype surrounding drug use at reed, yes, much of it is justified. you can pretty much find anything here, including a few things i'd never even heard of before coming. and you can always find someone who's tried them. as damning as that may sound to some, the fact that reed's drug culture is so out in the open and upfront about itself tends to create an environment of concern and understanding, both among students and faculty, rather than one of fear. nobody's afraid to call campus security if a friend should pass out at a party because they're here to protect us, not punish us. i think many other schools could take a cue from this radical concept of taking care of your students rather than reprimanding them. as stupid as i know this will sound, if i were to drop acid for the first time, i'd rather do it here than anywhere else. i know there is no such guarantee of safety when taking drugs, but to do it in a place where people--and i mean even students and staff you've never met--will come to your aid if you should fall out of a tree and break your arm when tripping on a sunday afternoon. and for the most part, people won't look down on you for it. anything you see going on here--from weed to coke to all kinds of fun hallucinogens--is going on at every big ten school in the country, plenty of other liberal arts colleges, and of course art schools. the drug scene here is really no worse than anywhere else--it's just not underground.

In certain cases. I know many people who wouldn't call themselves intellectuals, non-believers, hippies, party animals, druggies, or anarchists. There are certainly more straight-laced workaholics here than most people would suppose. Maybe its because that although a bunch of people come expecting to party there are quite a few that come for the school's reputation for academic excellence. It's sadly kind of true that Reed's social environment is pretty awkward. Even the social butterflies among us can be dampened by the presence of so many kids that are socially inept. Most who come here become more awkward in their time at Reed, I think, although some are so shy to start with that Reed makes them more social. Reed is hard academically, although grade pressures are a bit more present that advertised. Reed's informal intellectual environment isn't as healthy or as diverse as I would like, but I am occasionally impressed and reminded of one of the reasons that I came to this school. I would love it if the students, myself included, would seek out and instigate intellectual conversations more often, but keep them polite. The proportion of non-white or male faculty is ridiculously low and the number of non-white students is equally laughable. Reed still resembles the all-white private school with a conservative curriculum that it used to be, but some of the traditional ways that have stuck around aren't necessarily bad. The lack of grade inflation and academic difficulty are a couple. I also feel that if the curriculum was expanded a little bit, it would be just about perfect. Anyway, although Reed is not without its issues, it is still extremely easy to fall in love with and can be an amazingly inspiring environment to live and work in.