"Why Reed?" essay

<p>What does Reed look for exactly in the "Why Reed?" essay? Quirkiness, intellectualism, that something different that would set apart the Reedies from the Non-Reedies?
Could you give me examples of themes for this essay? What did you write about that got you in? (I know it's not only the Reed essay that gains you admission)</p>

<p>It seems to me that if you’re asking what to write on your essay, you’re already doing it incorrectly. Don’t set abritrarily guidelines for yourself based on what others do, and just write it. </p>

<p>My essay–I think–was a little unusual, as exemplified by this excerpt: “…Reed appears as this iconoclastic, tome-laden, somewhat androgynous figure surrounded by some sort of an academic, divisional sports-repelling aurora. And, gender-confusion aside…”.</p>

<p>And you’ll notice that it is absolutely absurd and I think that’s fine. I had fun with the essay and I think you should too. </p>

<p>Here’s a more serious paragraph (but still, utterly stupid) from it:</p>

<p>“Speaking of paradoxes, here’s one that occurs to me as I write: by selecting Reed as my one and only (I’m applying for early decision, and there is no other school that I’m seriously interested in) am I committing the ultimate, illogical sin—am I romanticizing it? To return to Bierce, he defines “romance” as: “Fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of Things as They Are.” And in truth, for all of the research I’ve done, through my meticulous scanning of various college guides and the Internet, the real reason I am applying to Reed is that there’s something ineffable about Reed that simply resonates with me. If I force myself to articulate this, it’s that I believe I will thrive, intellectually and socially, in Reed’s unique mixture of serious academics and respect and accommodation for the individual. If this be romance,
then logic bedeviled.”</p>

<p>(Bierce is famous for writing The Devil’s Dictionary, and I had picked it up a few days prior to writing this so I just figured what the hell and included a quote or two. Not to demonstrate my oh-so-massive-penchant-for-academia, but just because it helps unify everything and lets you play a bit more with the essay)</p>

<p>Don’t make it into some pedantic thing–if you say why you want to go and have a little bit of fun with it, I’m sure you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input. Your essay was indeed interesting.</p>

<p>“It seems to me that if you’re asking what to write on your essay, you’re already doing it incorrectly.” Sorry. I must have expressed myself incorrectly. I had no intentions in asking for ideas for MY essay. I know very well that an essay written by someone else or an essay written with someone else’s idea is a fake essay. I was just curious to know what others wrote.</p>

<p>Yeah, the point of the essay is, well, to write about why YOU are applying to Reed. There are many, many different reasons why people arrive at Reed as somewhere that they’d be happy.</p>

<p>But if you’re looking for examples, I wrote about how I discovered I had a distant relative who did original meter translations of Homer from a log cabin in rural Washington state, and stumbled across Reed when I dredged the internet for stuff about him and a page from the Reed Archives website came up - then I looked at a forward to one of the books by him I have in my possession, and it mentioned that he graduated from Reed in during the depression. I started to look into Reed a bit more out of curiosity, and things just snowballed (once I figured out that it wasn’t a community college).</p>

<p>On the other hand, I know someone who looked into Reed because he felt like the school and his combination of unbelievable brains and libertine personal conduct were a good match for each other. I know someone else who looked into Reed for their fantastic Bio department and grad school placement. I know someone else who was sick of conforming and wanted to come out of the closet as a hopelessly eccentric nerd. I know someone else who looked into Reed because they felt like Portland would be a good place to come out of a more rainbow-coloured closet. And someone else who fell in love with the honour principle. Reed is so special in so many ways, that whatever reason you’re looking into Reed should be fine as long as you’re honest and articulate in your essay.</p>

<p>Oh, and the Reed Archives keep immaculate records on this sort of thing, so anyone who tries to copy my personal anecdote for a Why Reed essay will probably be insta-rejected.</p>