“Before I came to Reed, I wasn’t sure how a liberal arts school would be able to provide the strong foundation inscience that I wanted. Somehow, the image of me surrounded by test tubes in a lab seemed irreconcilable with the classic ideal of Reedies huddledaround a conference table immersed in the Iliad.
To my surprise, halfway throughmy sophomore year at Reed, I foundmyself surrounded by countless research opportunities and a dedicated scientific community.”
— Avery Van Duzer ’18
• Student body: 1,447
• Percentage of students from outside the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho): 87%
• Student-faculty ratio: 10:1
• Average class size: 17
• The College offers a Bachelor of Arts degree in 26 departmental majors, 16 interdisciplinary areas, and dual-degree (3-2) programs in Computer Science, Engineering, Forestry, and Visual Arts.
• Among all institutions, Reed ranks fourth in the nation of future PhDs. It ranks second in the nation in life sciences and third in the nation in social sciences (source: NSF WebCASPAR; data compiled by HEDS).
• Graduate schools most frequently attended by Reed alumni for Law, Medicine, Business, and other graduate study include the Universities of Chicago, California, Oregon, and Washington; Yale; Harvard; Stanford; Cornell; MIT; and Johns Hopkins.
• Reed has produced the second-highest number of Rhodes Scholars from a small college (32).
Examples of Reed Theses
• “A Tale of Two Proteins: Towards Cloning, Expression, and Purification of the bHLHZip Domains of MondoA and M1x”
• “Action of Cytoskeletal Crosslinking Proteins in Nuclear Positioning and Migration”
• “Tracking Resonances of Dark Matter Particles in Frequency Maps of a Galaxy Simulation”
• “Intersections of Global Capitalism and Indigeneity: Problems of International Environmental and Social Justice”
• “Roots and Wings: Reconstructing the Past in Two American Danza Azteca Groups”
• “Suspending the Plot of the Real: Narratives of Collective Action in Chicana/o Literature and History”
• “Maintaining a Terrifying Reality: Dialogue, Language, and Ethics in the Book of Job”
• “Particle Dynamics in a Time-Dependent Kerr Geometry”
• “Language Revitalization and Its Sociocultural Context: Chinook Jargon”
• “Non-kinship Social Bonds in Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca)”
• “The Dynamics of a Nonlinear Time-Delayed Electronic System”
Reed College is located 10 minutes from downtown Portland, Oregon, a vibrant metropolis of waterfalls, bridges, and parks of every size.
For more than a century, the College has been a haven for a diverse group of scholars who wrestle with big ideas and explore ways to apply those ideas to theworld around them.Learning is cherishedat Reed; it isn’t outside
the norm to talk about
your passions and discoveries. If you’re ready to look beyond the superficial, seek the truth, and discover unlimited possibilities, you’re ready for Reed.
With a student-faculty ratio of 9:1 and all classes taught by professors rather than teaching assistants, undergraduate education comes first at Reed. Theconference method of learning brings together small groups of students to discuss great ideas, read primarytexts by leading thinkers, and formopinions and defend them with skill and nuance. Guided by a thoughtfully constructed sequence of topicsand architecture of ideas, students map an academic course that culminates in the senior thesis. They work alongside their professors, withwhom they share a deep enthusiasm for scholarship, inquiry, and academic excellence.
Asking questions is a social activity for Reedies. You’ll overhear heated debates about Plato in the Sports Center and get caught up in string theory on the Quad. Whoever you are (even if you’re still deciding who that is), you’ll find that the Honor Principle supports differences and creates respect within the Reed community. Reed is a humanizing place of infinite subsets that offer you the opportunity to be yourself across all your interests. You’ll find your tribe in the classroom, exploring Reed Canyon, or hiking in the Cascade Mountains.
Four years of college can seem like a long time and paradoxically like notime at all, but your time at Reed will leave an imprint on you that will extend throughout your life;once a Reedie, always a Reedie. Exposure to the primary disciplines ofhuman knowledge prepares graduates to go on to fascinating professionsin science, art, medicine, global politics, education, and the environment. Reed ranks among the top undergraduate institutions in the nationin the percentage of graduates going on toearn PhDs in Physics (ranked #3) and the life sciences (ranked #2).
Distinguished alumni include Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger ’91; neuroscientist Kenneth Koe ’45, inventor of Zoloft; environmental chemist and mountaineer Arlene Blum ’66; attorneyWilliam Hohengarten ’84, whose arguments persuaded the US SupremeCourt to strike down Texas laws againstsodomy; beat poet Gary Snyder ’51; best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich ’63; and geneticist Pamela Ronald ’82, who developed a strain of drought-resistant rice. (Notable dropouts include Steve Jobs.)
The sciences at Reed
From field work and lab work to conferences and independent research, Reed’s science programs foster a rigorous academic environment of active learning and close collaboration with professors.
Reedie-driven inquiry, such as the independent research done during the senior thesis, often contributes to scientific literature. Of the more than 200 articles published by Reed’s science faculty in the last decade, well over 50% were coauthored by students.
Science majors are prepared for a variety of career paths, including in research and academia. By percentage of graduates, Reed sends thefourth-most students to PhD programs of any institution of higher education in the nation.
Spotlight: science outside of the classroom
Two Physics majors, Anya Demko ’14 and Allie Morgan ’14, used their scientific knowhow to create a temporary musical installation. Anyaand Allie built a series of lasers and phototransistors on a spiral staircase on campus, turning the steps into a giant twisting keyboard spanning two octaves on a C Major scale. Each time your foot landed on a tread, it interrupted a laser beam, triggering a musical tone. Anya wrote her thesison the dynamics of an inverted pendulum, and Allie wrote her thesis on relativistic strings and Ehrenfest’s Paradox.
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