<p>Anyone else not hear anything?!</p>
<p>wow so much waiting… got rejected</p>
<p>@ashleyz: Check your spam/junk file!</p>
<p>Jmgradon, My son is a current Reed senior, so my answer to your question is going to be from a parent’s perspective. The summary answer: A lot depends on the type of college experience your son would enjoy and benefit most from. </p>
<p>One thing to pay careful attention to is the Hum requirement and Reed’s rather challenging distribution requirements - judging by your son’s inclusion of Cal Tech, I am assuming he is a science-oriented kid. If that is the case, make sure that he will be happy spending most of his first two years taking mostly non-science courses. Hum is a year-long, intensive course with lots of reading and writing, and may not be the right cup of tea for some science kids. </p>
<p>The distribution requirements also eat up more of your courses than one might expect, so be sure your son knows what he is getting into. Read the catalog and academic information on the website carefully. Remember: you only take 4 courses a semester at Reed, so that’s 8 courses a year. Many of the introductory science courses are actually YEAR-long courses, so there is even less flexibility than one might suppose. My son has sometimes been frustrated by not having more flexibility to pursue academic interests outside of his major. He also would have liked to double major, but that is really not an option at Reed, unless one takes one of the pre-qualified double majors.</p>
<p>If your son hasn’t visited and done an overnight at Reed, be sure he does. In fact, even if he has visited and done an overnight, I’d recommend doing another one before making the final decision. Socially, Reed is a VASTLY different world than Cal Tech, Cornell, W&M and Amherst. Your son should be sure that Reed is a social match. Four years is a long time to spend at a small, academically intense school if there isn’t an exact fit socially. You really do spend most of your time in the library, writing papers, and reading at Reed (this is not an exageration), so you better be sure that in the limited time when you’re not in the library, writing papers or reading, you feel comfortable with the people around you.</p>
<p>Finally, if your son sees graduate school or medical school in his future, be aware that it is very difficult to earn a solid GPA at Reed, and the “we don’t tell you your grades unless you ask” policy can sometimes give students a false sense of how well they’re doing. Before my son started, another Reed parent told me to be sure to request my son’s transcript from time to time to make sure he was on track; that turned out to be very good advice. Grading is killer at Reed (the average GPA for graduating seniors is 3.1), which can make it difficult to get accepted into some graduate and professional programs, despite what admissions says about Reed’s reputation or percentage of students pursing doctorates. Another reason for keeping an eye on grades - even if your son doesn’t want to know his grades - is that sometimes students can be prevented from taking their qualifying exams in junior year due to grades, which can result in having to take an extra year of coursework. This didn’t happen to my son (thankfully) but did happen to the child of the parent who encouraged me to keep an eye on grades and progress. </p>
<p>This is not to say that my son hasn’t had a good experience at Reed. Overall, he has. He was very bored in high school, but has been more than challenged at Reed, (although sometimes a little overwhelmed.) Once he settled into the right department, he also found an outstanding faculty mentor, who has been wonderful. However, Reed has not been an easy road, and there have been times when he has openly wondered what college would have been like at a different school where there was more of a work hard-play hard balance. In fact, he considered transferring more than once. But, now, as a senior just finished with the first draft of his thesis (hooray!), he seems to have few regrets. </p>
<p>However, Reed is not for everyone, so make sure you and your son pay close attention to the issues I’ve mentioned, and ask lots of questions before your son decides to choose Reed. It is not a decision to be made lightly.</p>
<p>About the nuclear reactor: In order to play with the reactor, you have to take an intense non-credit course and pass a federal licensing exam. Added on top of Reed’s already intense curriculum requirements, not many kids at Reed get to play with the reactor. It’s cool that Reed has the only nuclear reactor run by undergraduates, but it’s a very select group.</p>
<p>It is my impression that jmgradon’s son has visited all of the schools in question, and knows what their relative strengths and weaknesses are.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say science majors have to spend the first two years of college taking mostly non-science classes, unless they want to; many of the freshmen I know who want to go into science are taking one or two science classes plus math, or one science class and math, in addition to hum. You can easily schedule your time at Reed in such a way that you’ll only have to take two semesters of non-quant classes after freshman year, if that’s what you want–though I think you’d be getting short-changed, just like the people who try to get out of fulfilling their science requirement at Reed.</p>
<p>Some of these freshmen skipped intro physics, math and/or chem with the approval of their professors, and placed directly into higher-level science classes. (Admittedly, some of the people I’m talking about are international students who came in better prepared to handle science at Reed than most domestic students, due to the nature of the high-school curricula they’d been exposed to; that being said, I think jmgradon’s son might also fall under this category, if his science-related accomplishments impressed even Caltech.)</p>
<p>Also, I think the administration is much better about keeping juniors on track now than it was several years ago, and is only getting better at it. Otherwise the graduation rate would not be rising so fast.</p>
<p>By the way, Caltech’s average GPA is around 3.2, as opposed to Reed’s 3.1, so I don’t really see how that would be an argument in either school’s favor.</p>
<p>To all those accepted ; have you received your financial aid awards yet? Because my banner says that my family’s resources are enough to meet 4 years of education @60k, which is more than my family’s total income! ***?</p>
<p>D was checking her e-mail last night and, after a long silence, said “I think I got into Reed”. The video clip that followed made us feel like we were actually at Reed (beauitful, especially for us in the midwest). We need to visit Portland (accepted at Lewis & Clark EA) but looking for any inside info on the music scene and other opportunities for creatively minded students to pursue individual pursuits. Really liked the conservatory and student activism at Oberlin and also looking at Middlebury so any feedback about these alternatives would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Dreamlord: yeah, my son was admitted, and his EFC seems outrageously high. I knew we wouldn’t get much financial aid, but I didn’t expect to learn we could spend 90K a year on college! The only thing I can figure is they count the value of your house equity. If you’ve lived in a high-cost area like California for a long time, even if you have a dumpy house, it can make you seem like a millionaire. I’m hoping when the award letter comes it will give some detail on how they came up with their estimates. </p>
<p>I think as the financial reality sinks in for those of us that don’t make the financial aid cut, a number of waitlist spots will open up.</p>
<p>I agree that while Reed does meet 100% of need, they are need aware in admissions & I think they do also consider equity. D2’s roommate at WWU was admitted to Reed, but she couldn’t afford it, and while she was out of state @ WWU, they are part of the WUE exchange which reduces costs. I hope everyone has an equally affordable alternative.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that at Reed just as at other schools, science majors were best served by hitting the ground running- I mean to say they have to take science & math courses freshman year.</p>
<p>D graduated with a bio major & was much more interested in her music courses than she was in running the reactor, but she had a friend who was a psych major who did. She also loves Portland so much that both she & her senior year roommate still live there.(they are both finishing up grad school)</p>
<p>To all those wait listed, everything I have heard indicates Reed was slammed with an unprecedented number of applications this year. Acceptance rates has been going down every year for the past ten years or so.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son Carolyn, I know it (is)was a long road.</p>
<p>Well I’m an international student, so I have no clue how they estimate my EFC to be 60k when my family doesn’t even earn that much.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m very disappointed. Reed was one place where I thought I could get top notch academics with decent aid. Infact my Why Reed essay explicitly mentioned that Reed’s aid was a factor.</p>
<p>Not sure if 100% need met applies to int’l students.
I would ask.
</p>
<p>Accepted! SAT 2330</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Reed claims to meet 100% of the demonstrated need of all international students it accepts (except for transfers, I think, so that inclusion of transfer students there looks very suspect to me)–and in my experience as an international, that is completely true.</p>
<p>What that passage is trying to tell you is that the admissions process itself is very competitive.</p>
<p>dreamlord, I would contact the financial office and let them know they’ve got it wrong right away. That’s not supposed to happen. I really hope they respond well. Does your family by any chance own any assets, or have other savings, that would inflate your EFC like that?</p>
<p>“they estimate my EFC to be 60k when my family doesn’t even earn that much”</p>
<p>As mentioned, current income is only one component of the EFC calculation. Past income (savings and accumulated equity) and future income (repaid loans) are also part of it. Student loans and campus jobs are usually also expected to contribute.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar situation. They estimate my family contribution to be about $22,000 while the FAFSA estimated it to be $3500 (I’m not sure what the PROFILE said but I don’t think it was much higher) and Grinnell’s EFC is only $5500 with no loans (which is definitely manageable). I love Reed but I don’t think my parents can afford it. :(</p>
<p>The only major asset is my house.</p>
<p>I emailed the Financial Aid Office, and they said that it was either information that was typed incorrectly on the CSS by me (double checked, no errors) or my parents’ assets, which can’t be the reason either IMO.</p>
<p>I will be giving up my spot. Hope someone who wants to get in from the W/L gets it! I’d rather attend Drexel who are giving me 16.5k of merit based.</p>
<p>Huh. Very surprised to hear about the financial aid problems. I’m in at Kenyon, Macalester, Whitman and Occidental along with Reed; Reed’s aid was far and away the best of the bunch (less than half of the total loans+EFC of the next closest). I’m coming from an atypical background (I guess you’d say) and require a bunch of aid, but it am still your standard White U.S. Male. It seems like the general trend of Reed’s aid is strong and it seems like there would be more consistency between the outcomes here. </p>
<p>But truth be told, I really don’t know the first thing about the process – sorry to hear that other people are having issues.</p>
<p>@almost there: I definitely encourage you to appeal your financial aid decision. I did, and it made a <em>huge</em> difference. Someone from the financial aid office informed my mom that the discrepancy between the two EFC calculations shouldn’t be more than 3k or so, so it sounds like you’re a great candidate for FA reevaluation. You also might consider telling Reed about Grinnell’s package (more on that on #9 of this list: [10</a> Things Financial Aid Offices Won’t Say - SmartMoney.com](<a href=“Spending & Saving - MarketWatch”>Spending & Saving - MarketWatch)). Not all hope is lost!</p>
<p>Hi Guys, so I’ve decided. I’m definitely going to attend, and was kinda wondering if I can get to know others who are definitely matriculating in the fall too. (you’re more than welcomed to PM me, if you want to). Facebook/skype/ooVoo, watever!!</p>