I always hear people on here gush about Reed’s academics and reputation and how many Reedies go on to masters and PhD program. But in my graduating class of 600 in NW Portland, I only knew one kid who actually attended Reed. It doesn’t seem to attract a lot of attention locally. So where is all this recognition for Reed coming from?
The Pacific Northwest is attractive in many ways, but it isn’t regarded as one of the country’s top “hot spots” for highly qualified college applicants. Reed’s academic reputation reflects its ability to draw top students from completely different parts of the country (and the world). Reed probably has a smaller percentage of “local” students (i.e. within a few hundred miles of home) than any school in the US.
Instead, Reed draws heavily from California, the northeastern US, and the southwestern US. One recent study ranked Reed as #1 in the “Students Farthest from Home” category; they found that the average Reed student was more than 1,350 miles from home (this was not including students from AK, HI, or other countries).
Geographic Distribution of Reed 2017 Entering Class:
95 California
31 NY/NJ/PA
29 New England
34 TX/NM/CO
For comparison:
30 Oregon
30 Washington
How many in your class applied to other top PhD producing LACs? If your school only sends one or two students per year to one of these schools, then it may just be that your school is one where LACs in general aren’t on the radar.
Also remember that students in your class who had that stats for Reed also had the stats for other top LACs and universities, so they may have chosen to go to school in a different part of the country over staying in Portland.
For what it’s worth, I think this is pretty common. My son graduated from a high school very close to UC Berkeley and few students in his class had any interest in UCB.
Boomers who remember Reed as a well-regarded peer of Swarthmore, Carleton and other “progressive”, co-ed LACs(back when NESCAC was largely all-male) famous for its heavy work load and high drop out rate (and some say drug use) from all the pressure. and who feel it has gotten a raw deal from USNews.
The ones who love Reed are just more open about it. Not my favorite. Steve Jobs only stayed one semester.
In the 1980s, Reed was a Top Ten “National LAC” in the US News Rankings. Then Reed decided that the rankings were BS, and stopped cooperating with US News. Coincidentally, their ranking suddenly tanked – “the most precipitous decline in the history of the U.S. News ratings” – and it remains low today. It is widely suspected that Reed’s ranking is artificially deflated by US News, due to Reed’s refusal to play ball.
By alumni outcomes, Reed is an Ivy-equivalent:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1893105-ivy-equivalents-ranking-based-on-alumni-outcomes-take-2-1-p1.html
So in my system, I have Reed as a top 14 LAC.
Loren Pope (former NY Times education editor and author of Colleges That Change Lives) referred to Reed as “the most intellectual college in America”. That description, the PhD statistics, Reed’s grading policies, and its refusal to cooperate with the USNWR rankings probably resonate with many people who value learning for learning’s sake. It may also appeal to some people who think highly of small liberal arts colleges but want interesting alternatives to the many LACs concentrated in the Northeast.
My impression is that college applicants today place a higher priority on being in or near major cities than they did a generation ago. This trend may make prospective LAC students look harder at Reed, because so many other top LACs, including those in the Northeast, are in rural or small-town environments. And not only is Reed in a city – it’s in Portland, which is recognized nationally as a cool and desirable destination by the 17-21 age demographic.
I personally have aged out of this demographic, but I like Portland too.
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I realize this is purely anecdotal (this whole thread is, actually), but, city location doesn’t seem to be affecting Occidental in the same way.
I would like to see Oxy get more national recognition as an urban LAC. I think the differences between the Oxy and Reed situations are that (1) Oxy, while obviously an excellent LAC, has never been at the top of the rankings, and (2) Oxy is overshadowed by other elite schools in the Greater LA area, like the Claremonts, USC, UCLA, and Caltech.
Reed, in contrast, doesn’t have as much competition from other schools in the Northwest. If you were to ask top prospective students in (say) New York City to list elite colleges and universities north of the Bay Area and west of Minnesota, Reed might be the only name that would come up.
(granted, they should probably be thinking about Whitman too, but they probably aren’t)
LDS members may answer this question with BYU, and prospective CS and engineering majors may answer this question with Washington.
Reed isn’t the right school for everyone. I certainly always recommend that students visit before applying if possible. It is a great school for a certain type of student. I haven’t seen too many people out here recommending it broadly without some caveats.
OK. Or the CS/engineering types could maybe answer with Colorado School of Mines. Golden is slightly further north than the Bay Area, and Mines has slightly higher test scores than UW engineering.
But realistically, if you are one of the many high-achieving students in the Northeastern US who plan to study Arts & Sciences at an elite university or LAC, then BYU, UW Engineering, and Mines are probably not on your radar.
Granted, you may not be applying to Reed either – Reed definitely doesn’t appeal to everyone. But as a highly regarded LAC, it’s probably on your radar. Lots of high achievers from the Northeastern US will end up applying to schools like Brown, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Haverford, Vassar, Oberlin, and Grinnell, and lots of those people will also seriously consider Reed.
Thanks to all who replied. It may have more of a cachet for students at smaller schools, especially private schools. It also may be more appealing to students who want to work in the Pacific Northwest. Most of the top students from my high school seemed to desire the out-of-state experience. I definitely understand Reed’s highly specific appeal as an intellectual urban LAC now, though.
There are smart students at Reed, but there are lots of idiots too. I also do not think Reed students as a whole could match the work ethic of Swarthmore students. But yeah, other than that, good school.
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I think it is more appealing to students who want to go to grad school anyplace. And it certainly may be true that your HS cohort just wanted to get out of town and try somewhere new.
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@International95 wrote:
I wouldn’t want to be pre-med at either place.
True, but I know of several international students with GPAs above 3.6+ at Reed that were admitted to top medical schools with full financial support. That’s a remarkable feat considering that getting into med school is extremely difficult for international students, and getting funding is beyond that. The point is that if you distinguish yourself here, even med schools will take that into account.
And I mean, obviously. If I wanted to go to med school, I’d avoid lots of LACs, including Williams, Carleton, Grinnell. Probably would pick a school where A’s are handed out like candy, like Mount Holyoke or Brown.
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Reed has the statistical grad school acceptance advantage of other schools that require a senior research thesis of all graduates, showing that they already know how to research and write about it.