<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am currently strongly considering transferring to Reed. I have heard rumors about "GPA deflation" at Reed, so I was wondering, of a typical class, what percentage have a 3.9+ GPA on graduate? Is the grade deflation so bad that it is almost unheard of or is there a small group of outstanding students with it each graduating class? Is their grading system unique in any ways?</p>
<p>Thanks,
The Gracken</p>
<p>In recent years, students with GPAs above 3.67 have made up around 10% of the graduating class. I think we can safely assume that the percentage–maybe even the number–of students who graduate with anything above 3.9 is in the low single digits. In the last 26 years, ten students have graduated with perfect GPAs (and seven of them were transfers, iirc).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.reed.edu/registrar/form_downloads/grades.pdf[/url]”>http://www.reed.edu/registrar/form_downloads/grades.pdf</a></p>
<p>I hope this answers your question.</p>
<p>from my understanding, most students graduate without ever knowing their grades. GPA may be lower due to academic vigor, but when applying to grad school/jobs, there is a letter of explanation that goes out.</p>
<p>personally, i like this approach better. i’d rather know that i gained learning/experience than a number assigned to me.</p>
<p>Most students graduate without knowing their grades?</p>
<p>Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but how is that even remotely possible? I’m a college freshman now thinking about transferring and here people definitely know what their GPA is. Is there something unusual about their grading system?</p>
<p>Also, I don’t understand how they could have an average high school GPA of 3.95 if they accept over 40% of their applicants. Is that 3.95 unweighted?</p>
<ul>
<li>The Gracken</li>
</ul>
<p>At Reed, grades are not given out. We all HAVE GPA’s that go on our transcripts but they are only given to students if you need them to like, apply for grants or grad school or something. At the end of each quarter, you receive a progress report type thing that says ‘satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ for each of your classes. Satisfactory means a C or above. So yeah, the only thing unusual about our grading system is that it’s not made public.
Personally, I think this is a great thing. It takes some elements of competition and stress away.</p>
<p>That’s disappointing. I think that fact alone might prevent me from transferring there, which is unfortunate because every other aspect of the school seems so appealing. I guess you could call me a very grade oriented person, but the fact that your grades are like “hidden from you” seems unfair. It wouldn’t give me a good idea of how well I was doing there. I can just imagine going through a class thinking I was doing great and then ending up with a B or something because I wasn’t able to really understand my actual performance via a grade.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Gracken</li>
</ul>
<p>Hi Greg,</p>
<p>In answer to your points (questions), I can say that I didn’t know either my GPA or my grade in any single course at Reed until I requested a transcript after I graduated. However, I knew whether I was doing well, or very well – or not so well – in every course based on the feedback that I got in the comments from professors on the papers I wrote or on the test scores in more readily quantified subjects (e.g., math, language). And I did receive a couple of “president’s letters” (analogous to being on “dean’s list” at other schools) at the end of the year that told me I was doing well. I also knew that if I were screwing up, I would hear about it during my grading/performance conferences with my academic advisor, if not in notices that I might receive from the registrar for getting an unsatisfactory grade in a particular course.</p>
<p>Grades just aren’t a substantial topic of discussion among students ar Reed. When I did discuss evaluations with other students, instead of asking “What did you get on your paper” (referring to a grade), I might ask something like “What did Professor Smedford say (in written comments on the paper) about your argument?” IOW, there was a focus on the substantive content and not narrowly on the grade. Students could find out their grades if they really wanted to know them. But that would be an unusual request, in my experience.</p>
<p>Regarding grade “deflation,” graduate schools know that Reed has a tough grading scale. Even with what turned out to be a “middling” (read: B+) GPA at Reed, I got into every graduate program to which I applied, both law schools (Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley) and doctoral programs (Princeton and Wisconsin). Why did they admit such a “mediocre” student as me? Because they weren’t focusing only on grades. There are, after all, test scores (LSAT, GRE, MCAT, etc.), letters of recommendation, essays, and the content of your undergrad curriculum (what courses did you take) for them to go on. And those schools are aware that Reed offers a demanding and great education that prepares students well for further study.</p>
<p>Regarding your question about the high acceptance rate even with an average h.s. GPA of 3.95, you should realize that Reed is highly self-selecting. You don’t want to go to Reed unless you’re pretty darn interested in academics as the core of your college experience. Also, in recent years Reed has been receiving many more applicants than it was, say, 10 years ago. So the adcom has been able to be even more choosey in composing its entering class than it used to be.</p>
<p>Finally, let me add that I thought it was liberating to not be focusing on grades but instead focusing on what I was studying or learning or creating. (And of course there’s a lot more to attending college than just coursework.)</p>
<p>@Reedie, When do we get those progress reports? I haven’t heard anything about them ._.</p>
<p>Greg, you can see your grades if you ask, but the culture is not to ask. Grades are not publicly posted nor written on your papers, and there is no Dean’s list. Reedies just aren’t much into grades.</p>
<p>@Francisalamatt
Sometime in the week after fall break. I didn’t actually know we got them until the first one showed up last year. But yeah, professors will just be turning in grades in the next week or so.</p>
<p>@Greg, you will know your actual performance, not through a grade, but from prof feedback. It really is absolutely wonderful here. And instead of a letter, you get told exactly where you’re slipping up and exactly what you can do to improve</p>
<p>Thank you all for your help.</p>
<p>I’m thinking that Reed doesn’t sound like the place for me because I am a very GPA oriented person. It would totally kill me to get a paper back and not know what score numerically I got on it. Pomona, Pitzer, and Wesleyan sound like they may be better fits for me. Hopefully I can get accepted by one.</p>
<ul>
<li>The Gracken</li>
</ul>
<p>Just so you know, you can check your actual letter grades. </p>
<p>You just need to make a request :)</p>
<p>^Yeah, but he won’t be able to see grades for individual papers and such, which is what he seems interested in.</p>
<p>Okay, whatever works for you! Good luck wherever you end up :)</p>
<p>@Reedie Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>It sounds like you have made up your mind about Reed and its lack of grade inflation, so I hope that you find somewhere that’s a good fit for you. I personally love the de-emphasis on grades and the freedom to just do my best without students competing against each other for top grades. I get a pretty good sense of where I stand from professors’ comments. It seems like most people tend to think they are doing slightly worse than they actually are (like I got that president letter thing last year, which was a great surprise).</p>
<p>But in response to your earlier question “Also, I don’t understand how they could have an average high school GPA of 3.95 if they accept over 40% of their applicants. Is that 3.95 unweighted?”
The 3.95 is probably unweighted, because that’s the standard way to report and understand grades (verses dealing with schools’ varying weighting systems). The average would indicate that half of the incoming class is above that (3.96-4.0 on a 4.0 scale) and half is below that. As someone else mentioned, Reedies are somewhat self-selecting and generally know what they’re getting into and admissions is somewhat selective as well.
For transfer students, I’ve heard the acceptance rate is closer to 17%.</p>
<p>P.S. This is a great link that explains Reed’s educational program: [Reed</a> College | Catalog](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/catalog/edu_program.html]Reed”>The Educational Program - Catalog - Reed College) You should check out the “Evaluation” section.</p>