Reed College | Class of 2020 RD | Results & Discussion

ED1 and ED2 are Reed’s only “early” admissions.

Has anyone gotten a postcard from a current Reed student?

Not yet I haven’t! I was wondering what those students were sending out- Reed posted a picture on Instagram with a couple of students mailing out admissions material and such.

@AGoodFloridian can you please give me a link to the picture. I couldn’t find it. Thanks

I see one about “mailings with cool Reed info for our applicants.” Doesn’t sound like decisions.

http://■■■■■■■.com/j8mufzt

^ Yes, that is the picture I meant, sorry for the confusion. Informational material for admissions.

I got one that was pretty specific. Wonder if it actually means anything

@EeveeSpirit by specific, how specific are you referring to? Does it draw reference to something apart from your name, address and school. For instance, your essays or extracurriculars?

It addressed my major. I’m not too sure if it means anything or not. But the student also mentioned linguistics classes? Don’t want to get my hopes up lol

When are the decisions released?

When does Reed send out their early writes?

Reed does early writes? i thought they were never ones to tip their hands after ED1 and ED2 decisions were made?

Our daughter got one of these postcards. It is a tremendous investment of time, money, and effort to invest in applicants who will not be accepted. Why waste resources in that way? In other lines of business, it might make sense–stay in contact with people who may be future customers–but in this case rejected students are HIGHLY UNLIKELY to be future students. So I am 60% sure that this is a signal from Reed to future admits. How’s that for certainty?! Good luck to everyone.

^ I agree that getting one of these cards is a good sign, but not getting one is not a bad sign! Reed will continue crafting the incoming class right up to the end of March, and even later if yield is less than expected (then accepting from the wait list).

I’m inclined to agree as well! It goes without saying that you won’t be denied or accepted solely on the basis of receiving the postcard, but it is a good sign meant to keep your interest in the college of alive. My interest has been there since my interview back in October! Hopefully it’s mutual, eh?

@AGoodFloridian do you know of these postcards are equivalent to likely letters? Further, does Reed still send out early writes or likely letters? I know someone who received an early write last year.

Early writes are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they build affinity among the most qualified candidates, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into yield. On the other hand, the existence of early writes gets out to the candidates in the next most qualified strata and tends to turn them away.

I would guess that the second strata has a much more reliable yield, so why would a college elect to diminish the enthusiasm there in favor of the top strata? For a school like Reed, I would think that yield must trump SAT or GPA.

In a world where almost perfect symmetry of information exists, I don’t understand the place for early writes. Reed has an amazing institutional research dept, so they must be able to predict the impact. Does anyone know how effective early writes are at driving increased yield?

“On the other hand, the existence of early writes gets out to the candidates in the next most qualified strata and tends to turn them away.”

How has this been quantified?

I certainly don’t have data to support that claim, but I imagine that colleges do.

Anecdotally, Smith does early writes, and the kids all know that; they even know what date the early writes are postmarked.

Does that tend to turn away students who didn’t get early writes? Not sure, but common sense would say “Yes!”

Well, a week back my daughter unexpectedly received an early write from Smith. The final offer will be sent later but this was a sweet little handwritten note giving her early notification and talking about them looking forward to meeting and hearing about something unique that mattered to her and they noticed.

This did leave her feeling very warm and fuzzy toward them. She was on their website looking at dorms, figuring out which professors were doing what kind of research and so on and reading up about the college in general - she had not done so prior to this and was planning to research the colleges only after they had chosen her so she would not get too attached to any that rejected her and that would help her choose the best fit for her logically.

I understand why they sent her the early write. They created a nice space for themselves in her mind while she was not thinking of other colleges. In a way they are subconsciously making a kid tense about college admissions like them more because they were first to say I love you. It kind of subverts the admissions process to be honest but well, it did make her like smith more than she did before. They created a headstart for themselves.

As a parent I have mixed feelings about early writes. I worry if that will interfere with a logical decision making process but I do appreciate them making my little girl feel special too lol