What are my chances at Reed?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
1

Rising senior, here are my stats:

UW GPA: 3.85 - I’ve gotten two B’s my entire HS career (H Spanish freshmen yr and H precalc this year)
W GPA: 5.383
Class rank: top 10%

SAT Scores: 2050
CR: 670
M: 680
W: 700

SAT II: USH 690

AP Exams:
AP US His (10): 5
AP US Gov’t (11): pending, but positive it’s going to be a 5
AP Lang (11): pending, but positive it’s going to be 4-5
AP Human Geo (11): pending, but positive it’s going to be 4-5

Senior year course load:
AP Economics
AP Calculus
AP English Lit and Lang
AP Chemistry
CP Debate (only level available)

I will also be doing an extended learning opportunity next year, which is an opportunity my school offers where students can design their own class on their own or in a small group of peers that “goes beyond the traditional classroom.” Next year, one of my friends and I will self-study AP Euro history, and use what we’ve learned and make a detailed outline/prediction of what we think Europe will be like in the future (we’re looking at 10 - 20 years now). We’ll also sit for the AP Exam, and we’ll get 4 HS credits for it.

I’m not taking physics senior year because I’m doing an internship at a state uni over the summer that entails a college physics class, so I’m looking to get that credit transferred over to my HS transcript.

EC’s:

Local summer camp planning committee (9, 10, leadership: program chair)
Freshmen basketball (9)
Freshmen field hockey (9)
Math peer tutor (9,10,11,12)
Paid job: soccer ref (10)
Model United Nations (11,12)
Newspaper (11, 12, leadership: editor-in-chief)
Youth and Government Club (11, 12)
National Honor Society (11, 12, leadership: president)
Social Studies Honor Society (11, 12)
Link Crew leader (11, 12, leadership: group leader)
Will be reviving the debate team in 12th grade

Summer activities:
Online coursera course on Astronomy through Duke Uni (before 11)
Online edX course on Global Sociology through Wellesley (before 12)
Project SMART at UNH (summer space science program) (before 12)
Web design and planning out the newspaper’s transition from print to online (before 11)
Link crew prep (before 11 and 12)

Awards
1st place school writing contest (10)
NH Humanities Council Book Award (11)
Holy Cross Book Award (11)

School rec letters - I asked:

  • My honors (basically AP) Human Geo, honors Economics, honors International Relations, and future AP economics teacher who I’ve gotten to know very well (because I’ve had three classes with him this year) - knows how hardworking, persistent, and passionate I am about social studies.
  • My former AP US Gov’t teacher who partially runs gov’t club - knows how passionate I am about learning, and she knows me outside the classroom.
  • My former AP Lang and Comp teacher, who also runs National Honor Society and Model UN - knows how much I care about reading, thinks I’m pretty smart, and knows me well outside the classroom as well.

Subjective/hobbies

  • I love reading, stargazing, citizen science project (like Zooniverse), and drawing.
  • Intended major: Political Science, and I definitely want to get a PhD
  • Common App: I’ve written some drafts of my essay, and they’ve all turned out to be about my passion for reading/learning
  • Why Reed: I love the intellectual challenge & environment, I can find other kids who like reading political sci/ history books for fun there, but not at my high school. These are some preliminary ideas, I still have more research to do.

Chances? I can’t have an interview or visit because it’s on the other side of the country, and I plan on applying ED I. I know my SATs and even GPA scores are low, but hopefully recs and essays can make up for it.

2

I think 50/50. Test scores + rank + GPA together account for only 20% of Reed admission criteria, making it harder than usual to estimate admission chances.

3

I am too lazy to post my full stats, but I was accepted RD this year (and enrolled) with a 3.24 UW GPA, and 1960 SAT score, and I think this was one of Reed’s most selective years (anyone have the official admit stats?). This makes me think Reed puts much more weight on essays and teacher recs than stuff like GPA, probably moreso than other schools (I was rejected by Grinnell and Oxy).

I’d recommend visiting campus, as it’ll give you a very good feel for the school. I loved my visit so much that I ended up using it as the main theme of my essay, and I don’t actually know what I’d have written about if I didn’t visit; at least, it would’ve been much harder. I was able to mention specific memorable anecdotes, rather than just being like “wooh Reed, look here im an intellectual nonconforming leftist,” (though that was part of it)…

Anyway, good luck! Remember that Reed is willing to take a leap of faith in applicants they are excited enough about. As the previous poster said, it is a hard thing to predict just based on what Reed puts more weight on… Your stats are pretty strong, just work hard on your essays. Considering you’re ED I’d say you’re in a good position

4

Sorry I just realized you said you can’t visit. Don’t worry they won’t hold it against you. I didn’t interview either for what it’s worth

5

I was accepted this year RD and I can say that Reed is one of the most interest and fit based schools you can apply to, at least out of the selective schools in the US. I only had a 3.4 UW (My test scores were very high but I don’t know how much they care about them, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to retake the 2050), but I absolutely loved my essay. If you can get a local interview, please try to do that. If you can set one up, think of it as default that you will actually try to get one. Make sure that your essays talk about specific things about yourself or your past instead of just concepts you hold, because many people might have said something very similar to what you said.

Overall I think your extracurriculars are great, and if your essays are great and you maybe improve the SAT (If you can), you would have a very good chance of getting in.