<p>Many good (and long) comments above. a couple observations…</p>
<p>Reed is very strong in the sciences - it has one of highest % of graduates going on to PhD level work of any school across all disciplines. I was a biology major - in my 2 years working in an immunology lab all 8 of us went on to at least Master’s degrees (not necessarily in biology). I think you would find Reed, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore rank at the top of the schools that send students on to Masters or PhD programs.</p>
<p>Reed almost prides itself on being quirky. In that sense it is similar to Havey Mudd’s pride in being “nerdy” and the “Swattie” mentality at Swarthmore. I have friends who attended or taught at those schools (plus Williams, Oberlin, Vassar, Whitman, others) and our son is looking at Swarthmore, Mudd, Reed for college in two years. </p>
<p>Reedies learn to think and challenge conventional wisdom in a way that I certainly found stimulating. Other schools do that as well, but perhaps at Reed it is something that you need to have in your make up to be successful at the school.</p>
<p>On grades - your advisor always knows your grades and you typcially meet with them as often as YOU decide you want to. I always wanted to know from mine if I had a grade lower than a B in any course. The metric you set up is up to you. </p>
<p>I have to say that I did take pride in graduating without knowing my GPA or class rank (turns out it was about 3.3). As a point of reference, I was easily admitted to every graduate school I applied to either in science or business. The graduate schools do know Reed.</p>