Reed does place highly in some rankings, just not always those with which many people are familiar. For example, based on standardized scoring profiles, an indication of the academic preparation of incoming students, Reed placed 44th in the US in the below analysis, which compares favorably to schools that may be better known internationally such as UCLA (74th).
https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9