Reed's Admission Issues (Article from Reed's Newspaper)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
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Hi everyone. As this site it the top place for inquisitive college-centered minds to go, I wanted to post something about Reed College that I think might interest anyone who has dealt or wishes to deal with the admissions department.

I’m posting this not as an angry, spiteful message. I am a current student at Reed College, and I find Reed a wonderful fit for me. I applied hoping for a tight-knit, rigorous liberal arts school that focused on student-lead activities. I do find Reed to be all of these things. However, the same things I love about it can be extremely isolating for many people. If you are applied to Reed with the hope that this school will be like most other LACs, you’re looking at the wrong place. I say this, because on a purely administrative and educational aspect, Reed is not really that spectacular. At least, in recent years it has gotten worse due to some administrative issues. Most significantly, this represents itself in the admissions department.

This week the school paper published a story on the mismanagement in the admissions department. I will link it at the bottom of this post, I think it is very VERY important to read if you plan on applying or attending Reed. The article sites this website many times, as it shows the true fumbles of the department over the past four years or so. I won’t describe the article, however I will say that many students on campus today are excited by the article, as it validates the horrible experiences many of us had when applying.

Reed, and all colleges, are businesses. If the recent college admissions scandal in the news has indicated anything, it’s that institutions are fundamentally corrupt, even if we like to pretend that every student gets in on merit alone. If you have money, you are simply more likely to get in to school. Even at “holistic” liberal arts schools. Reed is one of these schools. The college is “need blind,” but not exactly. When you apply and send in financial aid materials, they automatically put your application in a different pile if you need large financial aid. This doesn’t mean every applicant in need of aid is denied, rather that they are looked at under a much more scrutinizing eye. At this point, it is a numbers game. Of course, most students in America today need at least some financial aid. Where the mismanagement lies is when the department plays with student’s minds by prolonging the process.

This is where many of your testimonials on this website come into play. As the article explains, Reed’s admission department has struggled to act as any other elite college should. They have accepted both too many and too little students at times, they send in all decisions (EA, ED, Regular, Transfer) MUCH later than intended. They are negligent towards prospective students in answering calls and responding to emails. They have not admitted students off waitlists some years. All of this issues are not only due to the Dean of Admission’s actions, but they also reflect a larger issue within the institution.

It’s incredibly disheartening to apply to a college and find it is basically run by children. Reed is heralded as a relatively elite college. There is absolutely no reason that it should be experiencing this many administrative issues. And trust me, it leaks into the every day life on campus. If you are applying to Reed with the intention of having fun, you’re going to the right place. If you’re applying with the intention of attending a serious, academic institution, I would proceed with caution.

I post this not as a deterrent, but a warning. Like I said before, Reed can be an amazing school. But for the cost and administrative issues, I can honestly say there are better schools for some people.

TL;DR: Apply to Reed if you have the time and/or money to get pushed around by a mismanaged institution.

https://reedquest.org/articles/2019/4/26/an-untenable-workplace

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@campuslegend13

Early in the post you state “I applied hoping for a tight-knit, rigorous liberal arts school that focused on student-lead activities. I do find Reed to be all of these things.” Later in your post you say, “If you are applying to Reed with the intention of having fun, you’re going to the right place. If you’re applying with the intention of attending a serious, academic institution, I would proceed with caution.” Could you please elaborate/clarify the disparity in these comments? I read the article you linked to in your post and can understand the frustration with the Admission office . Do you feel the mismanagement in the Admission office is a strong indicator and pervasive of what is happening educationally/academically with the school as a whole?

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It seems to me that the Admissions office was incompetently run. Missing those deadlines is inexcusable, especially repeatedly. For that alone, the Dean of Admissions should have been let go. Other charges need to be investigated but hard evidence with dates and incidences on admissions glitches right there.

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Thanks for posting that.

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“And trust me, it leaks into the every day life on campus.”

Can you expand on this, how problems in the admissions office affect other campus activities?

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Most warnings serve to deter people though. In this case, it would be helpful to know whether you currently would recommend Reed to interested college applicants irrespective of the issues you discussed.

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They either admit you or they don’t. Students that should have been admitted but aren’t might be upset, but I really don’t understand the OP’s complaint. Unless it’s this:

So the objection then is that Reed is accepting too many of the “wrong” type of student.

Edit.

But this OP probably shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

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This is a fairly damning article if true. Reed should fix it. But as we usually tell students out here, you will have little or no interaction with admissions ever again after you arrive on campus, unless you work there. So I don’t see how the average student is heavily impacted by this. So if Reed still feels like the place for a student who visits, I still think they should apply and attend if they are admitted and want to. Meanwhile, Reed should probably fire their admissions director and start fresh.

And regarding admitting students who can pay - someone has to cover the costs of the college.

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My daughter was waitlisted. My daughter liked Reed early in the process – although in the end there were several other schools that she preferred… And, in the end, she got into several schools that were higher on her list. So being waitlisted was not really a big deal – particularly because the decision was so late in the process.

Hopefully this doesn’t sound like sour grapes but I definitely came away with a negative impression of Reed – based solely on the admissions process. There was an unwillingness to deal with 21st century communication methods – ie e-mail. There was an unwillingness to communicate well about decision dates. Reed was the only interview that my daughter had where she felt negatively about the interview. In general, the takeaway was that Reed didn’t care much about reaching out to students and families.

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As the parent of an accepted applicant who’s still weighing college options, the only complaint I have with Reed is that I wish they’d sent acceptance letters well in advance of the RAD days. Even the financial aid package exceeded our expectations. Our EFC is very, very, very low and my son was still accepted, surprising since Reed is a need-aware school.

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“surprising since Reed is a need-aware school”

Like many schools, Reed is need blind until the aid budget is depleted, then only full-paying applicants are admitted.