<p>Thanks for your insights. Mackinaw, it’s interesting that as a student at Reed, you weren’t even aware that it’s graduation rate was low. In the Nov. 2005 Atlantic article about why Reed doesn’t participate in the US News & World Report rankings, the president of Reed wrote that not participating gave them the freedom to worry less about retention and graduation rates. (this was just one of the advantages he mentioned of not participating) He wrote: “Rewarding high retention and graduation rates encourages schools to focus on pleasing students rather than on pushing them.” He went on to describe the rigorous Reed program (which may not always “please” students, including the qualifying exams, senior thesis, heavy workload, and uninflated grades, as well as some other things.)</p>
<p>I’ve read that Reed students may need to take additional courses or change majors if they don’t do well enough on their junior yr qualifying exams. (I’m assuming this would delay graduation) You don’t remember anything like this from your days at Reed?</p>