<p>I read your question aloud to my Reedie, and asked for his response. He said: "I divide Reedies into three categories:
- People who shouldn’t have gone there in the first place (and are therefore unhappy)
- People who are academic masochists, and secretly enjoy being able to complain about the amount of work they’re doing and how hard it is. (These people look and sound unhappy, but on some level they’re not)
3.People who really, no-shirt-Sherlock really do enjoy learning for its own sake. </p>
<p>We also talked about how even for people in the last category, there can exist a threshold, a boundary past which you no longer enjoy the learning, and it has become <em>too</em> much, even for someone who loves learning. We decided that Reed helps people find the level of that threshhold, because Reed can offer even the most gung-ho student more learning than they want. 
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<p>We also decided that one of the differences between Reed and schools like the one I attend (Big Non-Selective Public U.) is the average learning-for-its-own-sake threshhold level of the student body. At Reed, that threshhold is generally very high. At my school, it’s very low – most of my classmates want to learn material for their majors that they will use in the work world, but nothing else if they can avoid it. As a result, they approach almost every class with a sort of wincing dread about new knowledge. </p>
<p>WRT to a visit, you go and stay in the dorms with a student over night, while your family members stay at a hotel. There are hotels and motels that give discounts to people visiting Reed – that list is on their website. Portland is a beautiful and very approachable city, with plenty to do and see during a short visit. Also, the food is great. :-)</p>