@notsohelpfulmom I was a History English major at Reed and went to Harvard for graduate school. Yes, it is academically rigorous but the grading system is somewhat flexible. We do have an exam junior year which you must pass in order to write your senior thesis. If I say the one thing Reed is good at is getting folks ready for graduate school. By the time I went to graduate school I felt it was easy compared to Reed. Until I arrived at Reed my education experience was somewhat boring and mundane. I graduate at the top of my class from high school getting into 6 of the 8 ivies and including Stanford but chose Reed because I wanted that academic rigor.