<p>“Reed seemed to be the best of them all. Son goes to a school of 3500 students hence he may find that a 3000 undergrad to be too small? esp if not near any city.” Reed is in Portland Ore, so it is not isolated like say Whitman. If your S is very smart , loves learning for learning’s sake and has the stats to be competitive for Stanford, Reed as well as U of Chicago might be “matches” for him [students that apply to Chicago also often apply to Reed and VV.]. But do some careful research- both have “core curriculums” and are very rigorous academically. Neither are for the student who wants a “typical” college [ rah rah big sports or lots of frats ]type of experience.</p>