Skidmore vs Reed

SHolmies
Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:44:01 +0000

Reed has a really strong political science department. Intro to International Politics is one of the most popular classes at Reed, for students inside and outside the Poly Sci dept. I have a few friends who are majoring in it and they really like the dept and the professors. One friend who graduated in 2011 worked at the UN for a year and now is doing non-profit work in Uganda.

If you have good time management skills, were already accepted to Reed, and are ‘in love’ with Reed’s academic environment, then I’m sure you can handle the workload. I just wrote an extensive post in the thread “Workload at Reed?” that may alleviate your concerns.

You may have to prioritize and plan a little to make things like study abroad a reality (like making sure you take science and intro poly sci freshman year), but it’s certainly possible. Sophomore spring semester and fall junior semester are popular times to do study abroad, though I’ve known students who were gone their entire sophomore or junior years. If you decide to come to Reed, get in contact with Paul DeYoung, the international programs director, right away-- I’ve only heard good things about him. [Reed College | International Programs | About Paul](http://www.reed.edu/ipo/paul.html)

Reed does have more core/major requirements than most schools, but you get a decent amount of flexibility in choosing what to take. Most of the classes I took to fill requirements were things/fields I was interested in (except science, ugh). But I fulfilled my other core reqs with classes in Theatre, History, French, English lit, etc that I truly enjoyed (though admittedly, I am a big proponent of the breadth of liberal arts education).

Idk I guess if academics is the priority for you, go to Reed. If more free time/socialization is a bigger priority, go to Skidmore. Of course less time studying equals more time to do other things… but I don’t think going to Reed means you can’t have a social life or do study abroad-- you can and other students do. Time management is key.

Obviously, you can get both academics and social time at both schools, in varying degrees. I know a bunch of Skidmore grads and they would agree that while it isn’t as academically intense as Reed, it was still a great education. One guys I know basically wanted to make theatre 24/7 and studying didn’t get in the way of that too much, which probably would have been more difficult to accomplish at Reed. Skidmore is a little more ‘creative’ school than Reed (i.e. the art, theatre, music departments seriously kick ass there), and most of the Skidmore grads I know majored in those fields.