<p>D’s initial offer covered our full need with a combination of an institutional grant and gov’t loans; then she was awarded a $4000/yr private scholarship (not from Reed) and, instead of subtracting that from her Reed grant, Reed generously applied that to the loan portion of her financial aid award. Thus, she’ll graduate in four years with NO loans. We pay our family EFC (about $9000/yr), which was figured on a combo of FAFSA and Profile calculations. So, yeah, we are very pleased with Reed’s FA. As stated in Reed’s official publications, the college would LOVE to be able to offer need-blind acceptances, but they can’t afford it. So instead, Reed has to turn down a few borderline applicants who would have needed FA. And you’re right, Reed does not offer merit awards – they aren’t interested in subsizing wealthy families.</p>