R @ Reed
R Server (Web-based version of R)
Every Reed student has available to them a web-based version of RStudio. You can use your Reed credentials to sign in and connect to Reed's R server. It runs the same way as the desktop version and has many packages/libraries pre-loaded for you. One benefit of using the server is that you can easily share projects with other Reed members, so sharing code and data with collaborators is simple.
To access the server, go to rstudio.reed.edu and sign in with your Reed x500 and password.
See this page for more details on the Reed RStudio server.
Desktop R (Downloadable Version)
You can use R and RStudio directly on your personal computer for free. To do so, you will first need to download R (the computing language) and then download RStudio (the application for running R). Both are free, open source, and updated regularly.
To download R, go to the CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network) page and under Downloads, choose the correct version for your computer, likely Mac or Windows. Then, if you are a Windows user, click "install R for the first time". If you are a Mac user, you will see a list of available versions of R depending on your operating system, but frequently the top download is what you want. For both Mac and Windows, double click and install R after downloading.
Next, download RStudio from the Posit website. This website should recognize the correct version for your computer and will give you a single download button. It will also give you a link to download R if you haven't already done so. Install RStudio after downloading and you should be good to go.
See this page for more details about downloading and using RStudio on your desktop computer.
Thesisdown
One of the options for writing your senior thesis at Reed is to write it in R. This is especially useful if you need to include a lot of code, equations, or graphs and tables in your text because they can be automatically generated and added without having to be pasted in. For more information on writing your thesis in R see this page.