Reed is one of the most unusual institutions of higher learning in the United States. It features a traditional liberal arts curriculum, requiring freshmen to take Humanities 110 - an intensive introduction to the Classics. Hum 110, as most students refer to it, covers ancient Greece and Rome. Its program in the sciences is likewise unusual -- Reed's TRIGA research reactor makes it the only school in the US to have a nuclear reactor operated almost entirely by undergraduates. Reed is also one of the few remaining schools that require all students to complete a thesis (a two-semester-long research project conducted under the guidance of professors) during the senior year as a prerequisite of graduation.

It is a haven for intense intellectuals and idealists. Its small classes emphasize a "conference" style, in which the teacher often acts as a mediator for discussion rather than a lecturer. While large lecture-style classes exist, these are typically accompanied by smaller lab or conference sections. Reed's high admissions standards also contribute to the intensity of the environment. Until relatively recently, the college accepted a large percentage of total applicants, due to the school's "self-selecting" nature - typically, only qualified, highly-motivated students submitted an application, leading to an acceptance rate of over 75%. This encourages the blossoming of many scholars inspired by the extremely intense academic experience, but also leads to some attrition even though the five-year graduation rate exceeds the national average. The class of 2008's average SAT score is 1393 and GPA was 3.95, with 47 percent of applicants accepted.

Reed has no fraternities, sororities, or NCAA sports teams; all of which, in theory, allows students to concentrate as much of their energies as possible on studies. This has contributed to the stereotypes of Reed students being highly unathletic; but in fact many students are excellent athletes. Reed's ultimate frisbee and rugby teams have recently defeated teams from much more sports-centric schools.

Reed is also one of the few colleges operating under an Honor Principle. First introduced as an agreement to promote ethical academic behavior, the Honor Principle was extended to cover all aspects of student life. There are few codified rules governing behavior; the onus is on students individually and as a community to define which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. "Honor Cases" (or discrete cases of grievance) are adjudicated by the "J-Board" (or Judicial Board), which consists of full-time students, and the "Honor Council" which consists of students, faculty, and staff. Commentators have noted that the only other institute of higher education to employ a comprehensive and student-run Honor Principle as successfully is West Point.

The official mascot of Reed is the griffin (pictured above). In mythology, the griffin often pulled the chariot of the sun, making the griffin the symbolic "protector of knowledge and bane of ignorance". The griffin was featured on the coat-of-arms of founder Simeon Reed, and is now on the official seal of Reed College.

The official school color of Reed is called richmond rose, possibly in part because Portland is the City of Roses. Over the years, memory of this fact has faded, and the color appearing on the school's publications and merchandise has darkened to a shade of maroon, which many people now consider the de facto school color.

Unofficial mottos and folklore

The unofficial motto of Reed is "Atheism, Communism, and Free Love," and can be found in the Reed College Bookstore  on sweaters, t-shirts, etc. The accuracy of this phrase as a summary of campus culture is debatable, but it is generally uttered with some sense of irony.

Three of the college's dorms are known on campus as "Asylum Block" because the architect responsible for their construction was discovered to also have designed an asylum and a prison, and furthermore because the buildings' architecture is said by many to resemble that of an insane asylum.

Every year's Reed College Student Handbook (a manual on student life written by students, not to be confused with the College Handbook, which is written by college officials) contains a test called the "Reed College Immorality Quotient" that tests an individual's immorality on topics such as sex, theft, and drug use.

One of the unofficial symbols of Reed is the Doyle Owl, a 300-pound concrete statue that has been continuously stolen and restolen since 1913. The on-campus folklore of events surrounding the Doyle Owl is sufficient large that, in 1983, a senior thesis was written on the topic of the Owl's oral history The original Doyle Owl was almost certainly destroyed many years ago, but a number of replicas (of varying degrees of quality) remain in circulation, contributing to the frequency of its appearance.

Other famous on-campus myths (all untrue) place an intact MG in the concrete foundation of the college library, an underground primate lab working exclusively with snow monkeys under the Psychology building, and a four-story lab/habitation arcology under the Physics building.