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Inside Scoop

Quick Stats

School Slang
  • Arrête: Greek Virtue.
  • Clevie: Students of local Cleveland High School.
  • Commons: Bon Appetit’s restaurant/campus dining service.
  • Cross Canyon: Across the canyon from the main campus.
  • Dormie: Someone living in your dorm.
  • Gray Center: The Gray Campus Center.
  • Hauser Fundome: The library.
  • Homer’s Hut: The bookstore’s nighttime convenience store.
  • The Iliad: Required reading and bane of freshman year.
  • Kleos: Greek Household.
  • New Reed: Reed today.
  • Nutria: A big rat that comes out at night.
  • ODB Bug: Big bugs that live in the Old Dorm Block.
  • Olde Reed: Reed before we can remember it.
  • PBR: Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
  • Prospie: A prospective Reed student.
  • Quest: Student newspaper.
  • Reedie: A Reed student.
  • Renn Fayre: Year-end catharsis.
  • SU: The Student Union.
  • Timé: Greek Honor.
  • Wimbledon: The near-campus apartment complex.
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
  • A good idea of a few areas of interest. Although you have some time to decide, it’s better if you have some idea so you don’t have to struggle sophomore year to catch up.
  • A solid background in the classics. Few have this background, and they have to catch up during their freshman year.
  • How to adequately write. Humanities 110, the required freshman class, prepares you for college writing, but no high school will fully prepare you for Reed.
  • That getting a job on campus is a good thing. I didn’t get a job at first because I was concerned about not having enough time to study. In hindsight, you can both study and work in unison, and working provides an incentive-laden study break.
  • That having a car is a good thing. Portland, while having a great public transportation system, is a lot more fun with a solid pair of wheels.
Tips to Succeed
  • Be humble and take your intro-level classes. Reed isn’t any old school where a slight working knowledge of a subject qualifies you for upper-division courses. Reed’s intro-level classes are both challenging and thorough. Take them or else face being lost in upper-division courses. However, professors simply might decide to not let you take upper-level classes, anyway.
  • Despite that, know when you need a break, and use those times to not study. Combining a slight degree of slacking with any Reed career is essential for sanity. Know when you have reached your limits and take some time for yourself.
  • Do almost all of your reading. At many schools, students can get away by only doing some of the reading and winging the rest; try that at Reed and you’ll be on a one-way road to failure and academic probation.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for extensions on assignments if you both really feel that you need one and will be able to complete the assignment to a greater and fuller degree if you receive an extension. However, don’t always ask for one or your professors will quickly tire of you and drop your grade accordingly.
  • Don’t lie to your professors. They know when you don’t know what you’re talking about.
  • See Portland as much as you can; it’s a beautiful city.
  • When the time comes, party hard.
  • When the time has yet to arrive, study hard, but with breaks.
  • You can fail out of Reed. Be warned.
  • You can succeed at Reed. Good luck.
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Reed Student ReviewsWhat's This?

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Inside Scoop at Reed College

tbrandow

'14

Religious Studies

5.0
A+

The Honor Principle

If there's one thing you ought to know about Reed before getting there, it's the Honor Principle. Reed doesn't have an Honor Code, but rather an Honor Principle. Basically, this means there is no set penalty for student conduct. All we do is based on the Honor Principle and discussion. Quite simply, we live by a principle that in words is "Be Honorable" or, alternatively, "Don't be a d***." We're allowed to take finals in our rooms or the library, we're allowed to have closed-book tests without supervision, we're allowed to go around campus without cameras watching our every moment or CSO's following us in an attempt to get us doing something against some Honor Code. We do what is good for us and does not harm others, or even benefits others. Also a key aspect of the Reed Honor Principle is that no one suffers alone. We are a community and we wish the safety of all members of our community, and so we will allow our friends and peers to know and help with our problems, just as we will help them with theirs. If there is a major reason I love Reed so much, it is for the Honor Principle--may it live forever.

May 27, 2011

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Inside Scoop at Reed College

Cneumann

'13

Psychology Studies

5.0
A+

Reedies

This school is full of the brightest students in the country (and many from outside of the country), and yet we do not compete with one another. We help each other excel, and favor academic discourse over petty academic competition.

We receive grades, but we only know them if we ask for them (or if we're doing poorly... then the school will let us know). Instead of grades on our assignments, we receive detailed comments from our profs, which is more helpful for future assignments than percentages.

We don't have TA's. We have full face-time with our profs.

Reed is not a punitive community. We abide by the Honor Principle. We don't have curfews, and we are allowed to behave as we please within the extent of the law.

Reed is a place where you can be yourself. We are small, and a very tight-knit community. We love each other.

Oct 24, 2010

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Page 1 of 1

Facts

Traditions
  • The Doyle Owl : Nothing greater than a 400-pound block of stone, the Doyle Owl used to reside on the roof of the Old Dorm Block. Now, students pass it around and fierce battles are waged over its possession. At major Reed events, the owl usually makes an appearance. The ensuing friendly fracas lasts for hours. You’ll know the owl if and when you see it.
  • Olde Reed vs. New Reed : Many Reedies like to compare present-day Reed to a mythical, remembered, nostalgic version of Reed that not even the oldest professors are sure existed. The debate, while not being that serious, is an amusing one to watch.
  • Renn Fayre : At the end of every year, students turn the campus into a giant fun zone, complete with anything you could imagine. The event celebrates the turning in of senior theses and the completion of the academic year. Many say that freshmen are not truly Reedies until they experience their first Renn Fayre.
Urban Legends
  • Howard Vollum - Howard Vollum, the namesake of the Vollum building, is supposedly buried under the front lawn. Sometimes he even rises from the dead to feast on the flesh of the living—or maybe just Reed trustees.
  • Psychology professor Allen Neuringer supposedly created a batch of zombie albino mutant monkeys in his secret underground facility. However, when zombie albino mutant monkey-friendly individuals found out about his experimentations, they came and secretly freed the creatures. In theory, the experiments are still loose in the canyon, harassing poor students alone and disoriented at night. Beware!
  • Some say that bugs the size of Gregor Samsa exist in the bowels of the Old Dorm Block, occasionally entering rooms to terrorize students. They will eat you alive!
  • Supposedly, large water rats live in the canyon that divides Reed. These rats, gigantic specimens twice the size of a grown dog and with noses as orange as construction cones, harass students on the land bridge near the canyon fish ladder. If you ever see one, watch carefully, for you can learn much about yourself through its subtle motions.

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Major: English

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