<p>I have attempted SAT for three times, and the highest score for reading section is only 550... I think that I really have limited amount of vocabularies and did not practice much on the reading section.</p>
<p>Should I still apply to Reed, one of my dream schools? Is there any possibility that the AO will still look at my application?</p>
<p>SAT combined - 2040 (CR 550, M800, W 700)
Should I try ACT to see whether it suits me better than SAT?</p>
<p>Btw, I am an international (Asian) student who need large amount of financial aid.</p>
<p>Reed recommends that you submit the TOEFL if your CR score is below 600. An international student seeking aid needs to apply to as many schools as possible, so if Reed is one of the schools you would like to potentially attend, apply. Yes, try the ACT as the ACT reading is a different type of hard, and it could suit you better.</p>
<p>While there’s a lot of reading at most colleges, it’s pretty intense at Reed. Your CR score won’t do you any favors with the admissions committee, so I would definitely try the ACT. I also would make sure that Reed is the school you want to be at.</p>
<p>Heyo — I’m a recent Reed grad who was an international+aid applicant.</p>
<p>I cannot emphasize enough how competitive the application process is for us. If I recall correctly, Reed takes around 10% of students who are international+aid, out of an applicant pool that is disproportionately strong. </p>
<p>Only one of my friends from Reed (from my year) was another international+aid applicant; he turned down a full scholarship to do physics at Imperial College. I turned down a spot at Amherst. Both of us were competitive applicants for MIT/Caltech-type schools. </p>
<p>So, irrespective of your CR score, if you are not a stellar or otherwise highly unusual applicant, you should consider your chances of getting in to <em>any</em> selective college in the States, Reed included, to be extremely slim. </p>
<p>*Correction: Reed provides financial aid to about 20 international students per year, to the best of my knowledge. The number is certainly higher than 2, in any case.</p>
<p>However, it’s absolutely true that admissions for aid-seeking internationals are as competitive at Reed as they are anywhere in the States. One of my friends was rejected from Reed when she applied, and ended up going to a school in the Ivy League that accepted her.</p>
<p>It’s really tough. And that’s not unique to Reed; admissions for aid-seeking internationals are brutal across the board in the States.</p>
<p>^Indeed, I did not mean to say that it was around 2, but rather that among other Reedies in my year I would count as friends, only one other was an international student who had been granted aid.</p>
<p>But yes, the admissions process is hard nearly everywhere in the States, and it’s getting worse, if anything; Middlebury recently revoked their policy of being need blind for internationals, even.</p>
<p>No, it’s getting better. The application period during the depths of the recession was the worst. In the year 2013-14, 45 internationals were enrolled at Reed w/ aid (so roughly 11 in each class?). Avg award was $49.5k. Reed’s website says that about 20-25 internationals are admitted to Reed w/ aid every year from a pool of about 200-300 students (so 50% yield?). This really isn’t as bad as, say, at Conn Coll, where fewer offers are made to applicants from a pool of around 700 intls seeking aid. Reed is, however, trying to increase its application numbers, so I would imagine the competition in terms of sheer numbers will only get worse. Note that even within the international category, competition differs. You would essentially be competing, firstly, with applicants from your own country as colleges generally try to admit a diverse (country-wise) pool of students.</p>