<p>I have several gripes about Reed - the fact that it's not a research U, that it makes med school admissions quite difficult, its smallness (sometimes), and some others. But, all of my 'problems' with Reed come with a flip side: if it was a research U, I wouldn't get this kind of attention from professors; if it started catering to med school, it would lose some of its intellectualism, etc. I think that Reed does a particularly honest job of marketing itself. It is what they say it is. If you think you'll enjoy it, you probably will.</p>
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<p>As far as workload, freshman year is great. You'll (assumingly) have a considerable amount more work than your high school friends, to make yourself feel hardcore. Yet, you won't have nearly as much work as the upperclassmen around you - so you'll secretly know that you have it easy. You can certainly go off campus during the weekends, and you'll have some downtime during the week, too. The workload is extremely manageable.</p>
<p>Sophomore year, apparently, the workload will hit you harder. Junior year will be easier than Soph year because you'll have learned how to handle the work. And Senior year is Thesis year. That's what I hear, at least.</p>
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<p>I would tell you not to worry about admissions, since your application is already in, but from experience I realize that's never a useful thing to say. As long as you presented yourself as an academically oriented kid who loves learning, I think you should be okay. They like that.</p>
<p>I don't think my admissions decision can help you at all, unfortunately. I had a low three overall (although I had a 4.0 freshman year, so my academic GPA soph and jr year was like a 2.1 or something), mostly because I didn't go to class because I was doing research and starting a company and random stuffs like that. I had high test scores (ACT high 30s and comparable SAT), and some pending research publications when I applied. I also had a good number of 5s on AP tests which I forgot to mention until they wait listed me.</p>
<p>And since you asked, I know exactly what got me into Reed; my admissions counselor called and told me. After I was wait listed, I sent them another Rec letter, a letter of interest, and my short UChicago essay about my favorite books. My counselor called to say, 'So... I got your package... you had some good books on that list.' So, yeah.</p>
<p>On a semi-related note, we <em>love</em> our books at Reed.</p>