College Stuff! (Not for Earthling, Thank God)

[thefourthvine]

The redoubtable Cousin Z, my oldest nephew, is -- oh god oh god -- going to college next fall. He applied to many schools and got into most of them, and now, through assiduous research, careful internal debate, and, very likely, a color-coded spreadsheet with many tabs, he's narrowed down his options to Reed and Whitman. And now he's trying to make that final choice.

Z had very good experiences visiting both schools, including talking with a Whitman admissions officer who described the school in Harry Potter house terms. He also went to an accepted-students reception for Reed where he went to hide in the kitchen because people, and then so many other guests (and also the host) had the same idea that it ended up being a reception-within-the-reception for people who hate receptions, all of them hiding in the kitchen and talking about how much they wished they weren't there.

Z is a very introverted person who is interested in applied math (his intended major), Doctor Who, social justice, Harry Potter, politics, Game of Thrones, and economics. His hobbies are reading fic, playing and writing music for his cello, and spending many hours at Starbucks with his study groups. (Also making color-coded spreadsheets.) He likes both Reed and Whitman because they're smaller schools where he felt comfortable on the campus, in large part because the students seemed like geeky introverts and giant weirdos, so pretty much his people.

It seems like either school could be a happy place for him. But this is Z, so he is in hardcore information-gathering mode. He could use more data. (Z could always use more data.) He needs to know the differences between the two! Find a way to make a choice! My question for you is: do you know anything about Reed or Whitman? Do you have any experiences to relate or any data Z can gather? It would help.

Thank you!

Comments

[klb]

I went to Reed! Mixed feelings: LOVED it at the time, see some of the issues in retrospect (some of which are just issues of Portland culture overall). It definitely had beautiful weirdness and really interesting classes that engaged me and helped me grow a lot as a reader/writer/thinker. It also did have a culture of comparing who slept less/who worked hardest in a way that was not conducive to great mental health for some (though fine for me at the time). The drug culture is a thing but it comes hand in hand with a lot of drug safety education and supports, and also it wasn't universal. I never did drugs there and barely drank and never felt excluded or pressured. More of my friends didn't than did, it's just that the ones who did felt more safe and supported with their experimenting, I think. I still think very fondly of Reed traditions like Renn Fayre and Paideia and people stealing the Doyle Owl and sitting in the comic book reading room to read massive bound anthologies of every X-Men comic ever and then going to the pool hall next door for a game of pool. But I also know others who had a much worse time because of the academic pressure and the culture of competitiveness around that. Overall I think the best thing Reed did for me was introduce me to my life partner, but of course that's just a coincidence and could have happened in any school. Other than that, I don't think it especially shaped me becoming the person I am today but it certainly didn't stifle it, either.