Chances for admission to Reed!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
1

<p>Hello! I was wondering if anyone could give me a sense of where I stand right now in terms of my chances for admission to Reed. I am currently a junior.</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
School: private, 180 students, rigorous
No GPA or rank, but I am among the top 3 students in my class of 55
Courseload: I have gotten all "As" (no A+ awarded)
APs by the end of my senior year: French Language, US History, Environmental Science, Music Theory, Biology, Calculus, Physics
In my senior year, I hope to conduct two independent studies, in Green Architecture and in Cognition Studies, and Subconsciousness.</p>

<p>SAT: 1910 (Will take the ACT, and hopefully bring this up)</p>

<p>ECs:
Nonacademic in-school:
Founder and editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, (10, 11)
Executive coordinator for the all-school sustainable vegetable garden, (11)
Peer mentoring, French tutor (9, 10, 11)
Peer leader for the Outdoor Education program, (11); led several outdoor trips through Appalachia with 60+ middle school students
High School Forum, elected class representative, (9, 10, 11)
Tenor and piano accompanist, High School chorus, (9, 10, 11)</p>

<p>Interscholastic Sports
Varsity Tennis, No. 3 Singles (9), No.2 Singles (10, 11)</p>

<p>Community Involvement
Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 50+ hours of community service, (9, 10, 11)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Academic Activities
Intensive journalism course, Summer@Brown Pre-college program, (Summer 2010)
Rassias Language Immersion program through Dartmouth College; family stay, intensive French language and literature course (Summer 2009)
Piano student, Peabody Preparatory Institute through John Hopkins University, (5-11)</p>

<p>Employment
Started a photography exhibition business, collect and showcase work from student photographers (10, 11)
Office manager and assistant to the Director of Education at religious school, (8, 9, 10, 11) -- attended the school, had a B'nai mitzvah with my twin brother and was confirmed in May 2010, a culmination ceremony for 12 years of Judaic studies classes every Sunday and Wednesday</p>

<p>Awards:
Very prestigious award from my synagogue for academic and community leadership
Prestigious scholarship for community service and green initiatives
6 achievement awards for piano through Peabody Preparatory Institute</p>

<p>Recs:
I won't read them, but I think they will be excellent. Teachers love my passion for learning, my incredibly strong work ethic, my curious and ambitious nature, and sense of maturity. They also value my leadership in classroom discussion, and engagement and effort to motivate the community to spark others to action.</p>

<p>Essay:
I love to write. It is one of my passions. This will shine through no doubt. As far as topics, not a clue yet...</p>

<p>Interview: I will this year
Visit: I will this year</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>So what do you like about Reed?</p>

3

<p>dam…I was hoping to get into Reed before I read this. If your on the cusp…I’m totally out.</p>

<p>Also, I’m real impressed with “My writing will shine through” its a lot harder to be honest when your good then when you suck. Love it!</p>

4

<p>Elkranger, I think lovinlife118’s stats are a lot higher than the average student admitted (except for maybe his SAT scores, but those don’t seem to be extremely important for Reed anyway). But imo what really matters is if your love of Reed shines through (I think that’s what Francaisalamatt’s post is getting at). So yeah, don’t give up hope!</p>

5

<p>Haha yeah that’s what I was trying to draw out of him. Stat pages are so cookie-cutter, and only the surface of the application. I wanna get him to show the meat of it: Why he wants to go to Reed.</p>

6

<p>Hey everyone! Thanks for the replies – Reed is a very closely-knit community where I would get a chance to spend a lot of time in small groups, thinking creatively, discussing in seminars, and challenging complacency. I relish this affinity and the rigorous academic scene. Also, the most interesting person in my school’s senior class last year enrolled, and loves it. I think Reed attracts a unique crowd, that is, most people who know me wouldn’t describe me as “cookie-cutter”. But I don’t know – your feedback is definitely helpful</p>

7

<p>That’s definitely a good start. </p>

<p>Now that you know you’re interested for the right reasons, find things that are specific to Reed that show it’s the school for you, concrete examples. Like, for instance, I talked about how Reed has a linguistics program, which is perfect for my interests. I also mentioned their reputation for strong humanities studies, and related that to my recent desire to learn Ancient Greek. But, don’t worry about knowing quite yet. Visiting would be the best way to learn about it. If you’re far away, believe me (I came twice from Connecticut) when I say the trip’s worth it.</p>

8

<p>They just created an Environmental Science major this year right? What is life like on campus if you don’t mind me asking? What is it like to be in the shadow of Portland?</p>

9

<p>Lovinlife118,</p>

<p>I think Reed cares much more about test scores than its admissions staff would have you believe. Try to pull your scores up to the 2050+ range, and you’ll be golden.</p>

10

<p>[Every</a> application is rated according to five criteria](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/spring2008/features/many_apply/5.html]Every”>Reed Magazine: Many Apply. Few are Chosen. (5/5))</p>

11

<p>What opps are there for research and independent studies? Do you find the “core” restricting?</p>

12

<p>Going back to life on campus:</p>

<p>The campus is beautiful with buildings ranging in age from “old Reed” (such as the library or ODB - Old Dorm Block, which was built in 1911) to just a few years old (The Grove - four very nice dorms built in 2008). The main lawn in front of Eliot is a great place to study, do personal reading, or just hang out; very beautiful, picturesque area. The food in Commons (the dining hall) is actually pretty good with a good variety each day. There are also themes for certain weeks: we had a New Orleans week with lots of crawfish meals and whatnot (I don’t eat any seafood, but it was a really cool idea to introduce more variety).</p>

<p>The dorms are all very nice and interesting in their unique ways. ODB has very historic dorms with massive divided doubles and the sense of community within the individual sections of the dorm tends to be pretty strong; that being said, the dorms are 100 years old and some rooms lack substantial heating, although it’s not a huge deal. I live in Bidwell, which is a new dorm in The Grove. These dorms (I believe) each have a common room, a TV room with a big screen plasma television on the wall, central air (not really necessary, but a nice feature), a full kitchen, and a study room; however, the older dorms tend to have a stronger community. Sullivan is sub-free on one level and there haven’t been many problems with maintaining that. Bragdon looks like a ski lodge and the rooms are nice. Blah blah blah, go visit the campus.</p>

<p>The sense of community throughout the campus is very nice and makes you feel at home. Most of the people I’ve talked to are as interesting as they are intelligent.</p>

<p>The requirements are not restricting at all; in fact, I’ve found them great for helping me in creating a diverse schedule that stays within my general interests. For instance: Group D is math/language, for which you need two credits to fulfill said requirement. This means that, since I am not interested in being a math/science major, I can take Spanish, which I am interested in learning, instead of calculus/probability and statistics.</p>

13

<p>“What opps are there for research and independent studies? Do you find the “core” restricting?”</p>

<p>Reed is one of the schools that requires a masters-level senior research thesis of all students. I think this is one reason Reedies are admitted to PhD programs at a high rate; they’ve already proven they know how to research.</p>

<p>Many offered courses are of the independent study variety.</p>

<p>The “core” consists of the yearlong Humanities 110 western civilization survey, and distribution requirements insuring a liberal arts education.</p>