Hi! I’m a high school senior, and I was just accepted into Reed College (although I may be taken off of NYU or Smith’s waiting list). Although I love Reed right now, I may want to transfer to NYU or Barnard if I don’t find it to be my fit after a year. I was wondering how Reed’s lack of grades would effect my likelihood of transferring, and how I would go about transferring. I know this is a lot of planning ahead, but I was accepted into Emerson with $21,000 dollars a year and I wanted to know if Reed was worth it. Thank you!!!
They actually do assign grades, they just don’t routinely show them to you.
You should attend the school that is most affordable to you, keeping in mind that freshman yr aid, is liable to be better than as a transfer, especially for schools that do not attempt to meet need like NYU.
If you work hard, good grades will come by. To ensure this you need to take the classes that interest you the most. I recently checked out my grades and the A’s I have are in those classes that I worked my ass off for. Stuff like HUM, for which I do only 70-80% the reading and dislike because of how it is designed to satisfy dilettantes, are classes that I have B’s in. Also if you are sure about transferring do not heed your advisor’s advice: taking a science class (unless you are a science major).
If you attend Reed, or actually any college, you will want to be mindful of graduation and distribution requirements.
I have no idea why intenational96 would advise you not to take a science class.
If you are majoring in any science or math, you need to start take the basic entry level classes as a freshman, as they are the foundation for your major. You cannot double up on them later.
Well OP could probably get a better grade in a science class elsewhere tbh.
Possibly, but if her transferring school knew anything about Reed, they would consider that her science courses have her depth of knowledge she may not have otherwise, and isn’t the knowledge more important than a grade?
Are you suggesting that intro Reed science classes are better than those at other schools? Even my final two years in high school covered more than what intro bio or intro chem at Reed covers: stuff people take to meet the requirement.
My negativity is driven by my bitterness towards the science requirement when the college and professors recognize that I already have the ‘knowledge’ that supposedly informs the work that I, as a non-science major, will do. At many other schools, I would not be required to take science classes to fulfill the requirement.
Also Reed is probably more aggressive about grades than any other school I know: it regularly monitors grades awarded and penalizes professors who give too many As. Like I don’t support grade inflation but I also don’t think pretending as though they don’t exist helps, given that the real world exists.
I know science majors at Reed, who have graduated in the last ten years, and who had average grades ( for Reed) have no problem being accepted into the grad program of their choice.
Since you undoubtably were aware of distribution requirements when you applied, what made you decide to attend?