My son is a rising senior who is considering applying to Reed as a history major. Can you guys honestly tell me what you think his chances for admission are based on my current profile.
GPA: 3.79 weighted / 3.4 unweighted
Rank: Probably top 35%
SAT: 2070 as follows 790 Critical Reading; 590 Math; and 690 Writing
SAT II World History Subject Test: 680
SAT II US History Subject Test: 740
ACT: 31 (E 34, M 27, R 31, S 31) - April 2015
ACT: 31 (E 36, M 24, R 34, S 28) - June 2015
AP World History: 5/5
AP US History: score to be released July 9
AP Human Geography: score to be released July 9
Senior year AP course load:
AP Economics
AP Environmental Science
AP English Lit
AP Psychology
AP Sociology
AP Statistics
AP US Govt.
Hook: African-American Male
EC: Track freshmen year; Basketball manager sophomore year; running cross country junior year.
Job: Working at Chick-fil-a since June 2014
Residence: Texas
Thanks in advance for any advice or input.
What would your EFC be?
Reed is need aware, but if accepted, they do give good aid.
Will he have four yrs of high school English, History, Math, Science, and the same foriegn language at graduation?
Has he taken any art/drama/dance/music?
I dont think they have basketball, but many runners.
How does he like rugby or fencing?
Update on Prior Post:
My son received his AP scores for Human Geography and U.S. History, thus his AP scores so far are listed below:
AP US History: 5
AP Human Geography: 5
AP World History: 5
I mistakenly identified the Sociology course as AP, the following is a accurate reflection of his AP schedule.
Senior year AP course load:
AP Economics
AP Environmental Science
AP English Lit
AP Psychology
AP Statistics
AP US Govt.
Respecting EFC, I was unaware that Reed was NOT need-blind in its admissions policy. In any event, our EFC will be around 30K -35K based on the results of several institutions’ net price calculators.
Thanks in advance for any responses.
Based on his academic record and test scores, I think he will get in.
I hope he applied for ROME.
Yes, he did apply for ROME, albeit right at the deadline last Saturday. I thought he had made up his mind that he would simply go the route of attending a public school and enroll in their honors program - he’s been accepted into The University of Alabama’s Honor College with a pretty hefty merit aid package that reduces my nets costs to about $11K a year. He’s also applying to a couple of other public flagship honors schools with the idea of reducing his undergraduate costs and then going on to law school at the best school he can get into regardless of costs.
However, last week he participated in Swarthmore’s fly-in program, (he just got invited to Carleton College program as well). He’s now convinced that he needs to consider LAC’s due to the quality of the undergraduate teaching experience. I think he’d rather go to ROME than Carleton’s program because he intrigued by some of the unique aspects of Reed.
When he submits his application to Reed, we will send both SAT and ACT scores. Does anyone have advice on whether he should submit the 680 SAT Subject test in World History; or should he simply send in only the 740 U.S. History Subject Test score?
I would submit both. If I remember correctly the ROME application asked for ALL scores; so if the directions were followed, they already have those scores…
He already has an excellent opportunity with 'Bama, not to mention the savings… But Reed does offer a tremendous education that only a few schools can match.
Thanks @QuintoSol, I don’t know if he submitted the score with his ROME app; however, I just checked the “See Sent Scores” tab on his college board account and the SAT Reasoning test along with BOTH Subject test scores were sent to Reed back in July.
In the interim period between my last post, my son forwarded to me an email from Oberlin stating that he was accepted to their fly-in program. This will create an interesting issue because now that he’s spent two school days at Swarthmore, his school will only allow him to miss two more days this semester. Thus, its likely that he can only do one more fly-in program this fall. Between Oberlin, Carleton and Reed, his preference would be spend those days visiting Reed. However, we don’t know when Reed will make the decision on ROME and both Oberlin and Carleton need a response soon. Carleton is requesting a confirmation by the end of the month, I’m not certain about Oberlin.
Do you know when Reed typically notifies individuals that they have been accepted into ROME?
I do not know the answer. My DD applied this year. I am guessing two weeks from the deadline.
But I can tell you (from your son’s acceptance to three??? fly-ins; my DD is 0 for 2) that Reed will want him to attend.
Well he was rejected by Williams - they did offer him a fee waiver and an opportunity to speak with an admissions counselor. He was also rejected by Johns Hopkins (fee waiver) and Rice (not even a fee waiver).
Moreover, I know for a fact that kids with superior stats were not accepted into Swarthmore; however, he was. As I once read, admissions counselors at these selective institutions are not seeking to admit the best individual student but rather the best class. I don’t know what made Swarthmore, Oberlin and Carleton accept him into their programs; however, Williams, Johns Hopkins and Rice did not - although I imagine that with respect to Hopkins and Rice his GPA/rank was too much a reach.
Based on his discussions with me, he believes that his scores/high school rank were on the lower end compared to other kids who were invited to Swarthmore. However, he’s identified his preferred major as history and I have to state that his essays were really good - especially the essay he sent Swarthmore. Respecting Reed, he hurried to finish the application on the evening he returned home from Discover Swarthmore and the essays he sent Reed was, in all honesty not his best work.
Good luck to your daughter and I hope she makes it in to Reed. It really seems like a special place and my son is very intrigued about visiting. In fact, Reed is the only LAC that he actually sent his SAT scores to through the College Board, they have always been at the top of his list even before he realized that he really was interested in possibly attending a LAC.
I assume he has not been to Reed yet. Reed is a pretty quirky place – not for everyone. Swat is frankly quite grueling – it seems like a tough place for someone with a 590 M score. Carleton is challenging academically, but not as much of a grind. Oberlin is a good school as well. (We have visited all 4, and my D2 applied to and was accepted at Swat and Carleton, although she ultimately chose another school).
Can you intervene with his school and see if he can get a few more days? My sense is that he would benefit a lot from seeing the other 2 schools as well.
Interestingly enough, my DD was denied for Rice and JHU as well… But she was offered a fee waiver for Rice but not for JHU. Go figure. My DD has a higher GPA but lower scores (except Math). She’s STEM-minded but as her essay to ROME read: “I find Reed intriguing.”
May I suggest he look into Seton Hall… Particularly its Diplomacy program; I’d think your DS wanting to be a lawyer would be a good fit.
Yeah @intparent I don’t know if he has truly thought through the “fit” angle respecting Swat, especially given how much he struggles at math. IF he were to be admitted to someplace like Sawt, we would have to really determine whether he could hack it academically in math. We may need to inspect a little closer how many math credits he would have to complete even though he’s a history major. I would not want to set him up for failure and hopefully Swat’s admission committee would not want to do so either by admitting someone who is not academically prepared and thereby hurting their own retention rate. He did tell me that the kids at Swat told him that the academics are challenging; however, they also told him that it was not cut-throat and that kids helped each other.
Its the quirkiness about Reed that stands out the most from the other schools which is why he’s very interested in attending ROME. I do have some concerns about Reed’s graduation rate as it appears that kids determine to pursue other interest rather than being singularly focused on graduation. On the other hand, that also has us intrigued as to what a special place it is attract smart and intelligent kids with those kind of interests. Unfortunately, the high school policy regarding absences is set by the district and there’s no flexibility in changing it. I’m curious, how would you differentiate between Carleton and Oberlin?
@QuintoSol, my son received two rejections (Johns Hopkins & Williams) before he received his first fly-in acceptance to Swat, so maybe that means the third time will be the charm for your daughter and Reed. Good luck.
Carleton - Somewhat stronger academics. They produce a lot of PhD students. Fairly laid back in spite of the intense academics, liberal but not as “granola crunchy” as Oberlin. Broomball in the winter. 
I personally think Northfield is a little more charming than the town of Oberlin. Carleton campus is more wooded, Oberlin’s more open. There is a nice arboretum near campus. Twin Cities are less than an hour away, and the airport is on the side of town toward Carleton.
Oberlin - Very solid academics. More liberal than Carleton (not saying Carleton isn’t, because it is, but Oberlin falls close to the far left end of the spectrum… but honestly, these days, so does Swat). The conservatory adds a different flavor to Oberlin, with a significant part of the student body as music majors. The buildings at Oberlin (to me) seem a little 60s-ish and rundown in spots.
Your kid could get to law school from either one.
Thanks @intparent, I appreciate your response. If you don’t mind me asking, where did you daughter choose to attend college?
She is at Harvey Mudd. She was accepted at Swat, Carleton, UChicago, Mudd, Kenyon, Macalester, Mount Holyoke, and Lawrence. She had visited all, but went back to Swat, UChicago, and Mudd for accepted student visits before deciding. We live in MN, and she had been to the Carleton campus often for Quiz Bowl tournaments, so was also pretty familiar with Carleton.
That’s awesome!! I believe that I once read somewhere that Harvey Mudd graduates had amongst the highest average starting salary. I guess she’s going to be missing out on those Minnesota winters in sunny California. You must be a very proud parent.
DD just got an email about ROME. Decisions will be sent in early October. The catch is — that application for Fall has to be submitted by mid October.
I am proud of her. And yes, she likes the weather! 
Thanks @QuintoSol my son received the same email.