Why is Reed's graduation rate so low?

chaosakita · 08-10-2011, 01:17 AM

I'm just curious and I'd like to see if anyone has the answer to this question. If I remember correctly, Reed's 6-year graduation rate is about 75%. That puts it way below any other academically comparable school. Since the the statistic doesn't count transfers, I'm guessing that these people probably just transferred and didn't completely drop out of college forever. Does anyone have an explanation for this?

vonlost · 08-11-2011, 10:45 AM

The latest numbers are 90% freshman retention and 79% six-year graduation.

For the former, the most common reason given by those leaving is that Reed wasn't what they expected.

For the 11% who returned but didn't graduate we can only speculate: work load, difficulty?

Francaisalamatt · 08-11-2011, 12:35 PM

Yeah, a lot of kids don't adapt well to the stress culture/workload. It's not necessarily a comment on their abilities or intelligence, though.

vonlost · 08-11-2011, 12:50 PM

Yes, I should remove my "difficulty" above. Reed admits only those who have proven (by their application) that they can handle the material.