<p>I have posted elsewhere- but a year of
organic chemistry is required for biology majors
D has math and other learning differences, but she found enough support at Reed to not even consider changing her major
However- I believe not routinely getting her grades, made things more diffcult. Because she asked questions, had good communication with her profs, and got good feed back on labs, she apparently thought she was doing better overall than she was.
SHe was hanging on there, but then the final spring semester did her in.( actually it was just the final)
Because it wasn’t financially feasible for her to only take organic, and it wasn’t even a consideration to take it at the same time as she was writing her thesis, she and the college decided it would be acceptable to take it elsewhere.( it also wasn’t a consideration- for her- to transfer- she wanted to finish @ Reed)
What she did was take the whole year long sequence over ( my suggestion) while living at home and working in a science based after school program.
She also used the opportunity to take some other science courses that Reed didn’t offer/she didn’t usually have time for.
Reed approved everything before hand, and she continued to get encouragement from her ochem & other profs at Reed.
Because we live in the Northwest, it still was feasible to go visit and to have friends come up here and visit, so she still kept a strong connection to Reed.
Neither I nor my husband have attended college & while we tried to be supportive, I think we really had no idea of her work load, especially at such a challenging school.There are things we could have done differently in retrospect, but I agree with mackinaw that few fail their qual. Even the students I have known who were double majoring, and had two quals, and possibly could have done much better on one, had a chance to do it over and prove that they were ready for the challenge of senior year.
I have known students that changed their majors and stayed at Reed, but it wasn’t because of difficulty, but perhaps the small size of dept, which can be a issue.
But it has been a good place for her- she likes it so much, she is staying through the summer to work on some projects, and plans to stay in Portland.
I think if it sounds intriguing to students, it is worth a look, you will be able to tell or not in many cases if you are a * Reedie *</p>