Oregon Public Broadcasting

National rankings for colleges and universities underscore the reputation of Portland’s counterculture college.

According to student surveys collected by the Princeton Review, Reed College is a place where students study all the time, but greatly value their academics.

Princeton ranked Reed second in the country for quality of classroom experience, and third in the category called “schools where students always study.”

Dean of the Faculty, Peter Steinberger warns against reading too much into the rankings.

Peter Steinberger: “We do think the student experience at Reed is absolutely terrific, we think it’s second to none. And yes, our students do study very, very hard, that’s what Reed is known for. But to my knowledge, the data are being reported, they’re not very reliable, so we don’t take this stuff all that seriously.”

The Princeton Review survey found Reed's quality of classroom performance second only to Stanford's.

Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington ranked sixth in that same category.