Chance me for Reed?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
1

Give it to me straight, doc.

SAT I (breakdown): 1230 out of 1600 (710 on CR, 520 on math) however I´m retaking it in October and working hard to improve my score with tutoring, practice problems etc
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II: Will be taking the SAT II for French, American History and English Lit, expected to do pretty well on all of them
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.5? my school doesn’t give me my unweighted, my weighted average is 91/3.7. Low for Reed I know.
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Euro (5), APUSH (5), AP Bio (3)
Senior Year Course Load:AP Chem, AP Stats, AP Spanish Literature, Theory of Knowledge (IB HL), Honors English Literature, Honors Puerto Rican History
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Honorable Mention at NAIMUN and a lot of local Model UN awards
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

  • Model United Nations (member of club directive, have chaired and run competitions in the local circuit, Newspaper (Editor in chief), Science club (member of the club and part of the Family Science Night planning committee which puts together a night of educational activities to get younger kids involved in and interested in STEM every year), Science Bowl (Member of team 2, earth and space category), Theatre club ('ve had some leading roles like Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and been in the ensemble, also competed in Forensics), Piano classes since like 4th grade
    Job/Work Experience: I´m going to try to get a job at a cafe owned by a family friend this semester
    Volunteer/Community service:
  • Shelving books at the local community library
  • Co-founded a winter writing program for underprivileged elementary schoolchildren hosted at another school during winter break of this year.

    Summer Activities: CTY Intensive Studies program in the summer of 9th, 10th and 11th grade. I took International Politics in 2014, Existentialism in 2015 and Politics and Film in 2016.

    Common App Essay: Will probably be writing it about how living in many different countries around the world has shaped me as a person with a global perspective or something along those lines.
    Reed Supplement Essay: Haven´t started it yet.
    Teacher Recommendation: I asked my AP bio teacher who I have a really solid relationship with because she´s in charge of the science bowl team and seen me do well in that, my other rec is by an english teacher I had in ninth grade and will have for this year too who I also have a good relationship with.
    Counselor Rec: Not sure how good it´ll be because he´s new but I´m trying to foster a good relationship with him
    Additional Rec: Model UN coach, should be really good since she also taught a class I excelled in and we´re pretty tight.

Do I have a chance if I pull up my SAT score have a good first semester?

2

If you can get your SAT up to Reed’s 25th percentile, I think you have a 50/50 chance. The problem chancing Reed is that grades + test scores + rank TOGETHER comprise only 20% of admission criteria.

See Reed’s Common Data Set section C9 for test scores and C11 for GPA of the last admitted freshman class.

3

thanks vonlost, do you know how applying ED affects chances I couldn’t find any stats on that for Reed, it’s by far my first choice and ill probably be applying that way anyway bc I feel like Reed really matches everything I want out of a college experience and I’m really interested in it in general, but info on that would help.

4

ED increases Reed general chances from about 33% to about 50%.

5

The acceptance rate for ED is a lot higher at Reed.

6

SAT II is optional for Reed. Focus on bringing up both the math score and GPA.

7

I’m a current Reed freshman and I personally didn’t have a great SAT score when I applied last year. My GPA was fine. Nothing special. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try to raise your SAT score, but I personally think writing a strong essay that makes you stand out is the most important part of any prospective Reedies application in addition to showing a lot of interest. Don’t be weird just for the sake of being weird, but do try to showcase a part of yourself that can’t be found in any other part of your application, and that the admission counselors haven’t heard 1000 times before.

Good luck!