Hi all! We can use this forum to post stats/discuss the application process now that the Common App is open!
Here is the format for posting stats - please use it!
Possible major:
Objective
SAT I (breakdown):
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II:
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Subjective
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service:
Summer Activities:
Common App Essay:
Reed Supplement Essay:
Teacher Recommendation:
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec:
Interview:
Other
Applying for Financial Aid?:
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
School Type:
Ethnicity:
Gender:
Income Bracket:
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
Here’s a list of Paideia topics that admitted applicants to the class of 2020 wrote about:
Clouds and how I like them a lot
Star Wars
Nietzsche
Amtrak
Teaching APUSH via raps from Hamilton
Coffee
The movie Clueless
Queer representation in animated children’s TV
Mental health stigmas
Oatmeal
Drug education and safety
Improv
Internet identities and how we represent ourselves on the web
Praxis of drywall
Illusionism
Microethics, the ethics of how we make mundane decisions, such as between two brands of cereal.
The art of making and wearing bow ties
Eco-sustainable living and its benefits for physical and mental health
Chin lone (a ball game in Myanmar played with a cane ball)
Big data in 1839: the exploids of Matthew Fontaine Maury
Using plants as medicine
Living with curly hair: A Latina’s guide to understanding culture and race in a basic white girl world
35mm film photography/developing
Comic books as propaganda and how they are a commentary on the social and political cultures of the time
Lord Byron’s haters throughout history
Tea
History/culture of Taiwan
How authors can be cooler that the stories they write
How to connect with a drug dealer: journalism 101
Wonder
“Don’t jump, little boy, don’t jump off the roof // You got your whole life ahead of you; you’re still in your youth”
The science/math of music
The influence of punk rock on modern culture
Paris is Burning
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Exercising Your Soul
Architecture and gentrification of Los Angeles
Frida Kahlo and the Concept of Beauty (explored through various movements/ideologies i.e., Marxism, feminism, etc)
How to center clay on a pottery wheel
Ghosts and monsters in lit and cultural trauma
Sharing your identity through sharing custom made dumplings
Traditional cultural music/language and the influence of weird factors like geography on them
The Art and Animation Behind Video Games
How to care for goldfish
How to learn math
Writing erotica in the context of erotica about David Bowie
How to look like a professional athlete
Pie
Star Trek and diversity
How to make salami
Flower crowns
Wilderness survival (ie building quality shelters, edible/medicinal plants, planning and rationing for long term survival, basic wilderness first aid, making blowdarts out of regional plants, etc.)
How to get a good workout from tossing pizza
How to win an argument with nothing but blind faith and obscure philosophy
Ceramics
Roman history
Female pop stars and their audience’s reactions as an indicator of social and cultural values
Nonviolent Communication
Sailing
Laughter yoga
Breathing purposefully (running and singing)
Connecting Mahler’s 1st symphony to the different roles you play in life
Teaching a religious studies class in which people would be taught how personal a connection to religion is and kinda How to be open minded
Moral injury in soldiers
How to dance comfortably/confidently at school dances, weddings, and other events where an appearance of having fun is mandatory
Challenging the ethics of animal testing
The history of ground transportation in America / how great trains and bicycles are
Gender identity in native american communities
Growing carnivorous plants
Game of Go, Eastern philosophy, and a little bit geopolitics
Kanye
The power of using meter in modern avant garde poetry
How to call out bs in stats
Morality
The history of Bossa Nova music
Midnight bike riding
Legos
Singing and its relation to confidence
Southern cooking
Factory farming/sustainable eating
Making music with recyclables (glass bottles, tin cans, rubber band Styrofoam bass)
Origami process and design
Fanfiction/fandom culture/tumblr in general
The process of forming and writing creative worlds
Character design, personality-wise and visually
Why people shouldn’t say “The Ukraine”
Playing the balafon
Exploring the simultaneous evolution of Socialist Politics and Realist/Post-Impressionist Art
Snow survival skills
I wrote mine on pop culture tropes (Bury Your Gays, Anyone Can Die, Kick the Dog, etc.)
The wait until we hear back is going to be unbearable! Does Reed have an admissions portal that they send out to applicants to make sure everything’s in and to be able to see the decision when the time comes?
I was just on Reed’s website again, and now I’m nervous because I’m potentially taking a gap year. On the website it says that they approve only about 50% of gap year requests. It also says that students may not receive a decision on the request until June 15th. I applied for multiple scholarships to spend the year abroad, and I could potentially be leaving at the beginning of July, so waiting until June 15th really isn’t gonna fly. Why does their deferral process seem so much more difficult than other schools? >.<
If you get a scholarship to study abroad for a year, the admission office will likely accept your deferral request. I think you simply need to have something organized.
@International95 yeah, I’d assume if I got a scholarship it would be a pretty convincing request but the 50% statistic just scares me, because I’d figure most of the people making requests aren’t just doing it on a whim. Although, I am getting waaaay ahead of myself because likelihood of getting one of the scholarships AND getting into reed is like 0.2%
I’m late to the party, but I wrote my Paideia essay about fixing minor inconveniences in your life by inventing things.
@Fangirl1999 I got an email from reed around 20 days after submitting my app with a link to check my status. I also got a postcard a full month after my submission date.
@theonbaejoy physics! Thanks, I was explaining a thing I made to one of my teachers when I was trying to pick a topic, and he told me that it was the ‘biggest nerd-out’ he’d seen all year, so I figured it would make a good topic.
What’s do you want to major in?
@TreeLights I’m thinking of majoring in physics too actually! I’m not completely decided yet though since I love history and philosophy too, so I’m glad Reed looks like an awesome place to study any of those. If I get it I’m really looking forward to Hum110 it looks super interesting.
Guys, I have been debating whether to send in my resume via mail or not. Reed does not require a resume, but I feel like submitting one will add more substance to my application, since I devoted a lot of time to crafting a perfect one, and given the fact the Activities section on CA does not allow me to include everything I want to show to Reed.
