Do I stand a chance?

<p>I'm ambivalent about my chances with Reed.
I'm a 2.9 average kid.
I'm involved in Academic Decathlon, Debate, Journalism, and about 7 other activities.
Reed is a galvanizing educational institution.
I just dont want to spark any hope if I wont be able to light a fire.</p>

<p>Frankly, i think the 2.9 is a bit low for Reed, but it sounds like you’re involved in a lot of activities. Reed is known to take some big chances with applicants, and you would hardly be a big chance to take, so I wouldn’t count it out.</p>

<p>I’d worry a bit more about how you’d do when you get to Reed-I’m a 4.0 student and talking with an alum made me second guess whether or not I wanted as big of a workload in college as Reed has-and to be clear, i got the impression you had to study 24/6.5 to maintain Bs.</p>

<p>2.9 is low, but GPA is just one part of the application. If you can compensate for it with strengths in other areas (SATs, extra curriculars, recs, etc.) you might have a shot. Also, if you’ve improved in the past couple years, I’ve heard that counts in your favor. (If this is the case, you might want to address the reasons for the improvement in the Why Reed essay).</p>

<p>As for how you’d do when you got to Reed… well, that depends on you. In particular. WHY you have a 2.9 from high school. If you ARE admitted, don’t worry that you’re somehow inferior to people who had 4.0’s… high school GPAs only mean so much (and how much varies considerably from school to school). If you are accepted, it is because Reed thinks you can make it.</p>