In this article, we’ll be covering everything you need to know to write the Reed College essay.

Don’t let the school’s unconventional culture and laid-back environment fool you. Reed is a rather selective school. If you want to get accepted into Reed, you will need a strong high school profile. You’ll also need to know how to write the Reed College essay well, so as to stand out amongst the other students.

Reed boasts an average acceptance rate of 39%. For the class of 2024, the average high school GPA was 4.0. 68% of Reed students were in the top fifth of their high school class rank, and 43% were in the top tenth. 6% of students at Reed were Valedictorians at their high school.

You can find more info on their freshman profile here.

With that said, let’s cover a bit of the Reed College Essay Prompt and how to write it.

Reed College Essay Prompt

Note: both the Reed College transfer application and regular admissions application have the same essay prompt.

For one week at the end of January, Reed students upend the traditional classroom hierarchy and teach classes about any topic they love, academic or otherwise. This week is known as Paideia after the Greek term signifying “education” – the complete education of mind, body and spirit. What would you teach that would contribute to the Reed community? (200 words minimum, 500 words maximum) *

Reed College Application Essay Question –Common Application

Tips on How to Write the Reed College Essay

1. Find a Unique Topic
2. Reed Takes on a Stance Against Tradition, So Act Like It.
3. Make Sure Your Topic Says Something About You or Your Values
4. Reference How Your Class Would Contribute To The Community

Find a Unique Topic

In a university as competitive as Reed College, this is critical. If you do not have a unique topic in your Reed essay, it’ll be hard to stand out from the rest. For a school with so many competitive students, standing out is vital to getting accepted.

So, what about a topic like Environmental Justice?

Normally, this sounds like a good topic. Besides, Reed leans rather liberally on the political spectrum. This makes Environmental Justice a good topic, right. Well, sadly no. There will be more than enough applicants covering this topic, so standing out will be next to impossible.

Here’s a good rule of thumb: If it’s trending on social media, then it’s probably not a good topic.

Let’s say you really, really want to cover Environmental Justice. Perhaps you’ve done a lot of projects and non-profit charity work around the field, or you have a great passion for it. You can still cover the topic if you get hyper-specific.

Here’s an example of a topic that works: Startups in Environmental Justice.

This topic, despite the fact that it covers something already covered by others, is still good. That’s because we focused in on the business and startup aspect of Environmental Justice. By doing this, you’re effectively zeroing in on a subcategory instead of a large cliché.

Reed Takes on a Stance Against Tradition, So Act Like It.

Traditional classes: you get a syllabus, participation points, homework assignments, one lab, one midterm, and a final.

Boring!

Reed prides itself on its defiance of tradition. Say goodbye to all the dead old white people stuff –unless you’re an English major. If you want the class you’re teaching in Paideia to be interesting and fresh, and more importantly attractive to the admissions officers, you’d want something that parallels Reed’s unconventional culture.

Let’s take the “Startups in Environmental Science” course. Instead of having courses that assign True or False assignments, you may take away the assignments completely! Instead, you’ll have students work in groups of 4-5 throughout the whole time and have them simulate what it’s like to create their own startup. Guiding individual groups of students through the business creation process would be much more fun and exciting than just learning about them on paper.

Make Sure Your Topic Says Something About You or Your Values

Okay. This one is going to be important. When writing the Reed College essay, it’s critical that your topic demonstrates something about your character.

If you’re going to talk about gender studies as a whole, one may determine that you have a fairly strong sense of justice in the world of gender identity. However, this is going to be rather common and it makes it difficult to stand out at all.

Let’s look back to “Startups in Environmental Science”. A person with an interest in Environmental science and startup culture may be seen as both empathetic and practical. They use the productivity of startups to build something that will solve a solution –environmental catastrophe. They also have the empathy and compassion to focus their efforts into something that will save the planet.

Reference How Your Class Would Contribute To The Community

We feel that this is a part of the essay that can get easily looked over and forgotten. However, it is part of the prompt and therefore important.

In the Reed College essay, you need to show how the class you teach will benefit the Reed community. This first implies that you need to understand the Reed community to begin with. Think about the times you may have visited the campus. What was the culture like? What were the people like? More importantly, what did they need that they were lacking?

So, let’s take our favorite example again. If you were writing about Startups in Environmental Science, you may be tapping into an itch that the Reed Community needs. They not only needs passionate students who have the right moral compass about the environment. They also need people who can take actionable steps to achieving the goals of Environmental Justice.

Startup work fits perfectly with this. The class would help people learn how to start their own companies and innovate new ways to better the community –a nice break from protesting and ‘raising awareness’. This class would help Reed’s thirst for actionable steps to achieving climate justice.

Think about your own topic. What would you write about? How would the topic you’re teaching provide value to Reed? How does it scratch an itch that the school and community cant quite scratch themselves?

Have any more questions about how to write the Reed College essay? Still wondering what your chances are of getting accepted into Reed College? Our admissions experts and advisors can help! We’ve helped students get accepted into some of the most prestigious universities in the nation.

Contact us for a free consultation. We will provide you with free advice on how to write your Reed College essay and get accepted.