<p>@granny2: I have my eye on Sewanee for my older girl…great natural science program down there, I’ve heard. And the Southern schools seem to be making a push recently to attract Northerners.</p>
<p>SevenDad, I have never visited Sewanee, but for those-who-know, it has always had a great reputation. I would not hesitate for a second to add The University of the South to a college list. My son at Exeter had a classmate who selected Sewanee, and for what I understood at the time, he had opportunities at other ‘better-known’ schools. If one looks closely to the matriculation lists BS provide, you will more times than not find The University of the South. The robes they wear are neat, too…gotta love that.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As an Exeter grad very happily doing a doctorate at Oxford (in the wonderfully unemployable field of Theology, after having done a BA and master’s in same), I never once thought of myself as “unable” to gain employment or a business/medical/law degree - I simply chose the career path and interests right for me. (As for gainful employment - I’ve been working as a part-time freelance writer since '08 during my undergrad, and saved up enough to fund my MSt - a career for which my unemployable, writing-intensive major prepared me quite well).</p>
<p>I hope this isn’t indicative of the HADES culture overall - in my day (and yes, I’m old enough to say that), Exeter was a place for scholars, not businessmen.</p>
<p>PS: One of the coolest people I knew (an Exonian who graduated years before me, but whom I met when she was doing her second master’s at Oxford in Medieval Irish lit) was a Reedie. The school sounds fantastic!</p>
<p>Reed considers itself to be a grad school prep college (said its president).</p>
<p>[STUDENT</a> OUTCOMES](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/outcomes.html]STUDENT”>Outcomes - Institutional Research - Reed College)</p>
<p>In a perfect world, it would be wonderful if education were an end in itself. But we don’t live in a perfect world. And not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth. </p>
<p>Most kids graduate college deeply in debt. They simply do not have the luxury to divorce their education from the financial necessity of supporting themselves and paying off their student loans after they graduate. </p>
<p>Nor do most college graduates desire to enter PhD programs. Why would they when an alarmingly high percentage of those who graduate from those programs fail to land tenure track teaching positions? </p>
<p>Those who regard college education as an end in itself sometimes experience life as a dead end after college. I wish it were otherwise. But if wishes were wings, we would all have trust funds that would insulate us from the harsh economic realities of life.</p>
<p>“Why would they when an alarmingly high percentage of those who graduate from those programs fail to land tenure track teaching positions?”</p>
<p>Most don’t try that route (there aren’t that many retiring profs); most work in research or industry.</p>
<p>As to debt, Reed meets the full need of all admitted students; most schools don’t.</p>
<p>Reed seemingly meets financial need through a mix of grants and loans. The recommended loans appear to average about $16,000 per FA student. </p>
<p>Assuming this student debt is easy. Paying it back is considerably harder, especially when one of two college students apparently can’t find work. Total student loan debt is $1 trillion and counting. Some think it is the next bubble to burst in our fragile economy.</p>
<p>Contributing to that burgeoning level of student debt is a financial necessity for many students; it is not a badge of honor. If anything, it is a drag on upward mobility.</p>
<p>Look at it this way: A need-aware school with a limited endowment (like Reed) that requires 10% of subsidized tuition be paid by loans can offer 10% more seats to students needing financial aid. $16K cumulative indebtedness is relative low and is considered easy enough to repay, and well worth it if the alternative is no college education.</p>
<p>“Another possibility is that those waitlisted weren’t quite as qualified (according to whatever criteria Reed used–this can be based on features as well as stats) as those accepted.”</p>
<p>Haha, yes that makes logical sense. I would just like to think that I am qualified to attend Reed and the other schools that I got waitlisted at. Although maybe I was underqualified because I have no experience with illicit substances.</p>
<p>The kids I knew at Reed from Andover and Exeter had a strong interest in mountain climbing and the outdoors. Sadly, the Pacific Northwest is not part of the known world to many in the Northeast U.S… Reed is a great school for the right kid: small seminar classes with great teachers and a core curriculum. The school has a small nuclear reactor on campus (manned by undergrads) and a strong science program.</p>
<p>note of interest: Outgoing Reed president, Colin Diver, is from one of the three families profiled in J. Anthony Lukas’ book Common Ground, which covers the decade of school desegregation in Boston.</p>
<p>^ Note that Reed’s “core curriculum” is one course (Hum 110) and distribution requirements (a course from this group, that group–classical LAC).</p>
<p>I may be out-of-date, but I think most kids take Humanities 210 as well. Together Hum 110 and 210 are a two year survey of Western Civilization using original sources. I may have used the wrong term to describe this.</p>
<p>“I would just like to think that I am qualified to attend Reed and the other schools that I got waitlisted at.”</p>
<p>You had to be in order to be waitlisted. Really!</p>