I am an 18 year old African-American female I have an older brother and very religious parents and we are very poor. I live in Massachusetts and have lived here my whole life and I am a undecided major. I am torn between these two colleges because Reed is a 100% need based school while for Bentley with loans I'd be paying under $10,00 dollars per semester. One thing is the money after graduation. Bentley offers more money after graduation $84k than Reed which is $33k.
Also the big factor is that I'm undecided and I don't know if I will be wasting my time at Reed across the United States. I am also concerned about being by myself. I have also heard that Reed is not worth the money to attend for the fact that it is very unheard of and unknown while Bentley is. My main concern if I go to Reed is that no where good will want to hire me for the fact that they have never heard of Reed. Also Ive heard Reed lacks diversity and has no activities to do on campus
I really need help ASAP
For a sense of these schools’ student profiles, compare Reed, #44, with Bentley, #154, in this analysis from a few years ago:
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9
Nonetheless, either college could be the better choice for you depending on your interests and preferences, but I think you will need to do much more research as quickly as possible to determine which college this might be.
These are very different schools. Reed is known as an intellectual school that sends a large number of students on to graduate programs. All students do a thesis.
Bentley is known for its business programs. Although it offers liberal arts those are really secondary to the business courses.
I wouldn’t worry about prestige. If anything the older generation thinks of Reed as more prestigious than Bentley, at least in my experience.
When you say you’ll be paying under 10K per semester does that mean you could graduate with more than 70K in debt? If so, I’d take Bentley off the list. IMO, that’s just too much debt to take on in an uncertain economy. If you mean per year, or if Reed isn’t offering a full ride I’d ask yourself the following,
In your heart are you more of a “I want to study political science (or sociology, physics, economics, etc.) and I’ll bust my butt to get internships and jobs” type of person or an “I want to major in accounting (or a similar field) so I know I’ll be employable right out of the gate” type of person? I can see that it would be nice to be close to home at this time. This time will pass, however, and you’re looking at four full years. Bentley does have good connections in the Boston area, so that would be a nod in Bentley’s direction.
One more question-is there a possibility you could graduate from Bentley in less than four years? That might be a way to save some money.
Regarding religion, if, as with your parents, its practice is important to you, you would need to seek experiences largely independently if you were to choose Reed:
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=least-religious-students
Where would you get the approximately $20,000 each year for Bentley? You can’t borrow that much on your own. You would need to have a qualified co-signer. Please, please, please, don’t do that to your family. If Reed is affordable, go there and do well.
The starting salaries quoted for both of these places aren’t important. What is important is what your own starting salary would be based on the job you land when you graduate. Yes, there are students who graduate from Reed and have good salaries.
I know it is scary to cross the country for college. I did it myself. But Reed is a small enough place that you will make friends there quickly. Chances are that you will get to know people whose families are closer to that campus than your family is. If you are a good houseguest, you will have places to go for short vacations like Fall Break and Thanksgiving. You may even be as fortunate as have been, to have one of those families become your own life-long extra family.
Reed grad here.
Reed is super white and super nerdy. Although the Asian-American percentage is creeping upwards. Suggest you go to the alumni magazine where they have hundreds of profiles and photos of recent grads that you can page through and see if you think you will fit in: https://www.reed.edu/what-is-a-reedie/index.php
Reed is also highly-oriented towards academia. If you want to pursue a PhD and teaching position in an academic field it is one of the top places in the country to go. They pump out more PhDs per capita than about anyplace other than Caltech.
What Reed is NOT is a pre-professional school. If you think you want to pursue an MBA or land an internship with some sort of finance firm, there are better places. Even law school and med school can be a tough road because the grading is so hard at Reed and your GPA is all important for med school apps. Although lots of Reedies go no to med and law school anyway.
Portland is also an extremely white city. If you are cool with that and cool with being everyone’s one African-American friend then fine. But you aren’t going to find much of a black social life at Reed or even in Portland.
I know nothing about Bentley so I can’t comment there.
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Are these your only 2 choices or did you get in anywhere else?
I also got accepted to UMass Amherst and Bryant but they didn’t give me as much money
There is also a possibility that I can graduate Bentley in less than four years because this year they are doing summer semesters free of tuition if I were to attend Bentley.
Have these schools extended the acceptance deadline?
What Bentley “offers” after graduation is very dependent on the type of job you get after you graduate. If your goal is to go right into a reasonably well paid job after college, Bentley might be better for you. I’m confused though. Is Bentley $1000 a semester? If so, I think in your shoes, I would go there. If it’s $10,000 a semester though, No.
Religion won’t play a role at either of these colleges. I think Reed might be a huge culture shock for you and you seem to know very little about it.
It doesn’t necessarily matter how much the school gives you, it’s the net costs that matter.
What is the net cost of each school?
Did Reed offer a full ride, which pays for tuition, fee, room and board? Will they also pay for books? Travel to and from your home 2x/yr? The mandatory $2,800 student health insurance (waived if you are already covered by a parent’s plan)?
Is it an option for you to live at home and commute to either a community college or 4-yr school?
I would hesitate to do this, at least for the summers after sophomore and junior years…that is when you need to work internships to gain experience and earn $.
I just looked up all 4 of these schools and they each had a May 1 deposit deadline…did you accept an offer of admission yesterday OP?
No I have an extension on all of them for the 15th except reed is on the fourth
With loans Bentley is 4,000 dollars a semester and Reed is full tuition and the health insurance is covered by the school in tuition cost
What is the cost at UMass?
Reed will also have the additional cost of cross country travel for you and shipping costs for your belongings.
I don’t understand your comment about the money that each school offers after graduation. Maybe it’s me. Can you clarify? Anyone?
Would you commute to Bentley or live on campus. What can your family afford? So the total cost of Bentley, if you do summer sessions, assuming you can get all the classes you need in those sessions, could be $24,000? But it’s only free for one summer, right? An additional summer could be additional expense. You could be face it a higher debt. The maximum you can take out as a student is about $27,000. I think you might have subsidized loans, but if not, interest accrues right away, which means more money. If you need money beyond that, you will have to earn it, or your family will have to provide it.
Please provide more information. How much can your family afford? How much are your other choices going to to cost? As far as postgrad salaries and reputation, Reed is probably more widely well known and the low salaries probably reflect that many Reed grads choose to continue into academia, research jobs, or similar where they don’t earn a lot of money. They aren’t earning those salaries because Reed is a bad school.
My D is a graduating senior. She has a well paying job lined up, but she would far rather get a low paying research job because she would like to get into a science based career. If she gets the research job, it will pay half of the other job she has lined up. It’s a conscious choice that many grads make, often aligned to their future career goals.
The question you need to ask is what do you want to do AFTER you graduate?
If you want to land a “good” job of some sort after 4 years of college in the MA area near your family then Bentley is BY FAR the better choice than Reed for several reasons. First, the focus at Bentley is in pre-professional terminal degree programs like accounting, finance, and business. And they see their mission as successfully launching their grads into the local Boston area workplace. So they will have FAR better job internship and job placement programs for students than a place like Reed. Second, their course of study is going to be much more aligned with what employers want. And finally, they will have a far better alumni network within the Boston metro area. There will be Reed grads scattered about in Boston, but most likely working in academia at one of the many universities there, not in business. So they won’t be as much help finding you jobs and connections. Bentley is essentially a business school designed to launch you into a career after 4 years.
Reed is very much the exact opposite. Reed is essentially designed to prepare students to pursue PhDs in grad school. They do that better than just about any school in the country. If you want to eventually pursue a PhD in some academic field and spend the rest of your life chasing assistant professorships around the country then Reed is the place to go. But that is an INCREASINGLY difficult and non-viable career path in the 21st century. You really have to be the very best of the best and even get lucky to make that career path work. There are thousands of frustrated PhD holders around the country who can’t find employment in their chosen field. And it is only getting worse.
Things may have changed somewhat since I graduated from Reed years ago. But during my time the career services and job placement services at Reed for students who weren’t continuing on into law school, med school, or academia, were almost non-existent. If you wanted a professor to call up a colleague at Berkeley or Stanford or Harvard and say “I have a student here who would be PERFECT for your research team, let’s make that happen” then Reed is very good at that sort of thing. But if you want help finding an internship or entry-level job at some fortune 500 corporation? Reed frankly didn’t know how to do that and weren’t much help. Yes, students still managed to do that sort of thing on their own. Because Reed students tend to be very bright. And also tend to come from wealthy backgrounds with lots of personal connections. But the school itself wasn’t much help. I hope things have changed but that was the way it was during my time.
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Pick the school that will allow you to graduate with the lowest possible student debt (or NO student loan debt). That should be your priority. You will have a lot more options career-wise or graduate school wise after college if you don’t have to worry about paying off loans.
FWIW, Reed has a better track record for law school admissions, Fullbright Scholarships, and PhD programs, too, so bear that in mind. It is highly regarded.
I disagree. Reed and Bentley are about as opposite as two schools can be. Reed is an academic powerhouse designed to place students into grad school or professional programs like med school and law school. Bentley is a business school designed to place students into business careers in the the Boston-New York corridor. I expect there is virtually zero overlap in terms of courses and majors between Reed and Bentley other than a few required core classes that every school teaches.
Bentley is also one of the more conservative schools in the country. Reed is one of the most very liberal. They could not be more different.
Money is a factor, yes. But pick the school that is best suited to prepare you for the future you are looking for. Both schools are very reputable and both are very good at what they do. But what they each do is two very different things. Don’t pick one school simply based on cost if the experience isn’t what you want.
Well said.
Spending less money on something that is less likely to advance one toward their goal is not money well spent.
I wonder about the UMass option.
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