Reed College

Reed taught me to learn how to learn and to enjoy doing it for the rest of my life. 25 years later, I can still say it was the most challenging and enjoyable time of my life. You don't go to Reed to become employable, you go there to develop your mind. Reed's legacy never leaves you whatever you decide to do, from homelessness to CEO, it is a way of being.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Reed was where I started learning how to really think. Lo these many years later, the process is continuing. There are also an expanding opportunities for community-building within the larger Reed community/alumni - far more than there were back in the days of the generation gap.As far as who should go to Reed, I think it all revolves around one question. Do you really, really love ideas?

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

Reed reed reed... when i got out of the college and realized that the alumni network was a wee bit behind that of harvard, stanford and yale, i was frustrated and angry. hard to get a job on wall street without a little alumni sponsorship (fwiw, the alumni network in business is a lot stronger in the last ten years than when i was coming up). then i went off to a top 2 business school. y'know what? most of those harvard, stanford and yale guys (well, maybe the yale guys) couldn't hold an intellectual candle to the folks i went to reed with. i was no longer angry and frustrated.

an earlier reviewer likened reed to SEAL training for intellectuals. right on. reed is a remarkable experience, and one i wouldn't trade for anything. you get beat up, pounded, put through hell week like every other week, but when you come out the other end, you have a pretty great sense of what's real and what's not. and, some amazing work gets done at the college. reed is not for everyone, but for those for whom it is, it's a hell of a college.

socially, i couldn't even comment here on what the environment is like these days. one of my contemporaries said, with respect to our own time, "there's stuff that goes on here that just doesn't go on anywhere else." i imagine that's still true, though perhaps in different ways than when i went to college. if you want a challenge and a chance to spend four years at a TEACHING college, reed is worth a look. if you value intellectualism, reed is worth a look. if you're interested in learning and in learning how to lear, reed is worth a look.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000