They almost named their mascot the Moss.

The rainy, cool climate of Portland provides the prime conditions for moss to grow everywhere at Lewis & Clark College. It’s on the cobblestone walks, the rock walls, the branches and trunks of trees about to bloom. But the L&C colors are orange and black, so the bright green of the moss wouldn’t work. Lewis & Clark introduced their new mascot just weeks ago: the River Otters. 

The address may say Portland, but Lewis & Clark has a fairytale forest for its campus. Brick and wooden buildings mostly blend in with the ferns and firs and cedars. Admissions nestles inside the Frank Manor House, a sprawling structure that served as a dorm when Lewis & Clark was founded in 1867. A pagoda-like pavilion hosts interfaith services and a cappella performances. 

When I toured Lewis & Clark this March with 40 other counselors visiting the Pacific Northwest 5 Consortium of colleges, we started with breakfast in Smith Hall. The beautiful meeting space used to be the stables of the manor house. The stuffed animal river otters on the tables each wore a different outfit and gave us a laugh. 

Rain, typical for October through June, obscured Mount Hood but didn’t faze the students who gave us our walking tour. Not an umbrella in sight! It felt good to warm up by the real fire in the Manor House fireplace when we returned to listen to the student panel, led by Levi, a member of the L&C national champion ultimate frisbee team.

Student life & campus culture

“Everyone wants to succeed together,” said Levi. The atmosphere is collaborative, not competitive. The absence of Greek life means that community develops around shared interests in ultimate frisbee, dance, theater, hiking, or a number of other themes. Students can reach downtown Portland via shuttle in about 15 minutes. Sellwood, a nearby neighborhood, is a favorite with students who eat great pizza and shop in thrift stores.

Lewis & Clark has a first-year transition program led by the First-Year Experience team. In addition to new student orientation, New Student Peer Mentors help incoming students adjust to life as a River Otter. The program hosts specialized trips, often based on an outdoor activity, to build community and a sense of belonging. 

Academics

Students address their professors by first name, implying equality rather than hierarchy. Faculty are mentors, not just lecturers. Using a laddered approach, they train upperclassmen to teach newcomers how to do research or work in a lab. L&C encourages students to take courses outside of their major so that they can bring in a “non-expert” perspective. Likewise, signature courses like Words and Numbers, American Modernism, and History of Portland are interdisciplinary in nature. The Words and Numbers course explicitly incorporates mindfulness, meditation, and self-care, a reflection of the school valuing self-care.

The general education curriculum fosters critical thinking, creativity, and global awareness through the liberal arts. According to the website, “The core experience centers on a foundational ‘Exploration and Discovery’ course, alongside requirements in writing, quantitative reasoning, science, creative arts, language, and cultural studies.” Every student gets a four-year plan and advising.

L&C will offer a new major in 2026, Data Science, a fast-growing field in the workplace. Some popular majors include Environmental Studies, International Affairs, Rhetoric & Media Studies, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.

Learning beyond the classroom

I sat next to Reiko Hillyer, the award-winning professor whose class History of Crime and Punishment is streaming on PBS in “Classroom 4.” She teaches the class inside a prison to Lewis & Clark’s free students with incarcerated students (https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/classroom-4/). The History of Portland course teaches students to read the physical environment as a historical text. For a final project, students create an annotated walking tour. In addition to coursework, the school has community initiatives to improve lives in Portland.

Lewis & Clark takes study abroad seriously; indeed, 60 percent participate in either a semester-long or yearlong study abroad program. Faculty have led programs in Vietnam, Italy, and Japan. They don’t have any two- or three-week offerings because they don’t believe you can truly understand another culture in that time.

Career Accelerator

A $5 million dollar gift set up the Career Accelerator, a program that combines the liberal arts with technical, job-ready skills. They offer one-credit skills classes, paid internships, and interview preparation. Some of the classes that ran this year: AI Prompt Engineering, Data Visualization, and Salesforce. 

Admissions essentials

Lewis & Clark is test free, meaning that they will not consider your SAT or ACT scores. The College of Arts and Sciences houses all of the undergraduate majors and minors, but two graduate schools are on campus: the Lewis & Clark Law School and the Graduate School of Education and Counseling. The law school boasts high marks for their environmental law and animal law concentrations.

For those interested in law, L&C has a 3 + 3 BA/JD dual degree, an accelerated pathway to their law school. While they don’t have a major or minor in education, they do provide support and advising from the Graduate School of Education and Counseling. Students interested in education can pursue a teaching pathway at Lewis & Clark that connects them to the graduate school.

Hollie Elliott of admissions said to be sure to try their net price calculator. Merit aid ranges from $28K to $44K. Need-based aid is based upon FAFSA. The appeal process is simple–it’s right in the portal. Elliott said not to be intimidated by the sticker price and to call if you have questions.

Who would thrive here

You have to be comfortable with ambiguity and appreciate the interdisciplinary approach. If you like finding connections among disparate subjects, if you care about social justice, and if you want access to faculty mentors, Lewis & Clark College could be for you. And if Moss Appreciation Week with a moss petting zoo sounds like fun, definitely check out this gem in the Pacific Northwest.

You can hear about Lewis & Clark’s love affair with moss on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/02/16/nx-s1-5269960-e1/moss-doesnt-get-a-lot-of-love-moss-appreciation-week-in-oregon-aims-to-change-that