<p>It is in the top for me, but we will see come decision time.</p>
<p>Top too, but I'm not anticipating an acceptance.</p>
<p>It's currently son's top choice. His top three are Stanford, U Chicago, and Reed, but he realized that he can attend two of those for graduate school. He hasn't visited Chicago yet, though, and may like it more.</p>
<p>I love Reed, but I don't think it's my top choice (I don't actually have one). However, if I had to guess, I think it's where I'll end up next year.</p>
<p>It is one of my top choices, though I'm not sure how much I want to go there anymore because 2 kids in my class at my small HS are going there. We'll see what happens. I really do like Reed though.</p>
<p>It is probably going to be number one...the only problems are the steep tuition and the fact that it would likely take more than four years to graduate.</p>
<p>Hmm, do you think it takes more than four years for most people, or is it just your degree plan? I don't think financial aid covers a fifth year, and son couldn't afford it otherwise.</p>
<p>Barely any Reed students graduate within four years...isn't it 60% or something?</p>
<p>Do you have a citation? I'm aware of old stats to that effect, but latest numbers have had a higher retention and graduation rate.</p>
<p>60% is HARDLY "barely any" and it's now 73%</p>
<p>This is what my course catalog, which I just found, says:</p>
<p>"Approximately 75% of first-year students matriculating in the fall of 2000 graduated by spring 2006."</p>
<p>75% in six years...if I get in, I need to be able to graduate faster than that for financial reasons.</p>
<p>Thanks. I think that the school is trying to improve this, as part of the consortium of colleges that are addressing this issue. I was also just talking to son last night about how it's better to take a year off (as some Reedies do) rather than failing out. That's separate from the issue of schools not having enough class space for students to graduate on time, though, which I don't think Reed has.</p>
<p>Don't forget that there are a high amount of tranfer students from Reed, so that needs to be considered in that 25% that do not graduate.</p>
<p>Graduation rates for the 2000 cohort:</p>
<p>within 4 years: 57%
within 5 years: 72%
within 6 years: 75%</p>
<p>2005-06 retention to 06-07: 90%</p>
<p>That last figure may be the most telling. Looking at earlier CDS reports, I noticed that roughly half of those who did not graduate in 6 years had left after freshman year. Reed seems to be retaining those first-year students, and that augurs well for continued improvement for the 4, and 6 year rates.</p>
<p>One explanation that has been offered for the trend is greater selectivity on admission. I think another may be that Reed has been improving its financial aid so that financial stress less often gets in the way of progress through the program.</p>
<p>(This will date me, but I recall that my freshman year the tuition was $1,240! And when you added about $600 for room and board, and about $25 in fees, the total cost -- not counting books, travel, etc. -- was less than $2,000. That was about 20% of my family's income, and actually fairly manageable at that time, even though they had two other kids in college. Reed's endowment at the time was less than $2 million!)</p>
<p>Another reason for increased retention is Reed's efforts to reduce the level of surprise students feel upon arrival on campus. For example, Hum 110 is a formidable course with a huge reading list, and is mentioned at least nine times in the new view book. Reed has also made Interview and Level of applicant's interest the most important non-academic admission factors which should favor those who have learned more about what to expect.</p>
<p>Don't overlook the fact that Reed use to pride itself on providing a great education for the B type student who didn't push themselves in HS or felt under callenged. This is sort of supported in the book, "Colleges That Change Lives" by Loren Pope. The colleges in that book are not overly competitive from an admissions standpoint. If habits from HS carry over to college, then part of the graduation rate might reflect effort on the aprt of the students to adjust. It's a great school and compares so well to stanford, chicago and others who have great acceptance rates into post grad programs. Reed was very close to the top of my list until I visited it and Portland. For me, Reed didn't offer enough anything in terms of sports (except Ultimate Frisbee). Even though I am not a competitive athlete, I like the opportunity it provides for other intramural and club sports and the school spirit athletic teams can muster up. I also wasn't crazy about the lack of sun in Portland..over 200 days of rain is not positive for me. In the end, I chose Colorado College..similiar type of student (liberal and different), loved the block plan and the Rockies....and over 300 days of sunshine a year.</p>
<p>DD1 loved Reed and it is currently #1 (with Denison #2). Waiting to hear on admittance or not.</p>
<p>flyboy...could you please elaborate on your choice a little bit? pros and cons of each school. currently im a junior in high school and have reed and Colorado college as my top choices. i have visited Colorado and was pretty impressed. im visiting reed soon.</p>
<p>No problem, Sultan. I knew I wanted a strong, small LAC all along. I looked at Reed, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Colgate, Middlebury, Hamilton and Colorado. To some degree they are all similiar but I felt the ones out East were clones of eachother. So I narrowed it down to the West. Once I did that, Whitman hit my radar as well and I liked it alot too. I am a real outdoormans..went through a NOLS program, Outwardbound...etc. So the other thing I wanted was a school with a great oudorrs club or program. That is when Reed sort of fell offf my radar. I didn't get feel for much else than academics at Reed...which wsn't going to fuel me for too long. Last summer I went to Colorado College and took a summer block course and it sealed the deal for me. There is so much to do in Colorado Springs and Colorado in general with the outdoors. CC also has a good Outdoor program adn run buses to the Mountains every weekend. I really enjoyed studying one thing at a time w/o the pressure of other distractions. Whitman was a close second, but it is toooo isolated and thought I'd go crazy in Walla Walla after a year or two. I'm from the midwest and it literally took a full day to get ther. i can fly direct to the Springs from Chicago. During the summer session I was able to form some good relationships with different folks on campus including a few folsk in admissions. I think that helps alot. Good luck with your search adn don't misundersatnd anything I say here about the other colleges, I truly believe everyone of them are great schools...but they just weren't for me.</p>