Distinctions
Reed ranks fourth in the nation as a baccalaureate-origin institution of Science and Engineering doctorate recipients per hundred bachelor's degrees awarded, 2002-2011.
--National Science Foundation "Baccalaureate Origins of U.S.-trained S & E Doctorate Recipients," NSF 13-323, April 2013, http://www.reed.edu/ir/NSF-PhD-STEM2011.pdf (see table 4)
Reed ranks second in the nation in the production of future Ph.D.s in the life sciences and humanities; third in science and math, social sciences, and physical sciences. Among all institutions of higher learning, it ranks fourth in the nation in all disciplines.
(See PhD Productivity)
--National Science Foundation and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The reflects institutions in the nation ranked by estimated percentage of graduates who went on to earn a doctoral degree in selected disciplines between 2001-2010.
Moody's reaffirms Reed College's Aa2/VMIG1 bond rating (Bonds rated Aa are judged to be of high quality by all standards and together with Aaa group they comprise what are generally known as high grade bonds. VMIG1 for US Tax-Exempt Municipals reflects best quality with strong protection of established cash flows, superior liquidity support or demonstrated broad-based access to the market for refinancing.) The Aa2 rating reflects Reed College's national student market position, strong philanthropic support, financial flexibility due to unrestricted financial resources, and strong financial management.
--Moody's Investors Services, August 16, 2013
Reed received a "AA-/Stable" rating from Standard & Poor's Rating Services. Long-term factors underlying the positive rating were: a solid balance sheet for the rating category, with an endowment of about $459.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2012, that supports good financial resources, as demonstrated by expendable resources equal to 3.1x of annual operating expenses; a good history of fundraising; and stable enrollment.
--Standard & Poor's Corporation, February 27, 2013
"If you're a genuine intellectual, live the life of the mind, and want to learn for the sake of learning, the place most likely to best empower you is . . . the most intellectual college in the country—Reed in Portland, Oregon . . . Reed has always been a place to come not for a degree or a job but to become an intellectual novitiate. It has never wavered in its conviction about what constitutes a liberal education . . ."
--Loren Pope, former education editor, the New York Times, and Hilary Masell Oswald, in Colleges that Change Lives, (Penguin, 2012).
"Reed has remained true to its original mission to provide intelligent, intellectually passionate young men and women with a first-rate education in an atmosphere of free inquiry and reflection. . . . While students take pleasure in presenting themselves as free spirits, nonconformists, and intellectuals in search of the eternal truths, they are very serious students who relish meeting the rigorous demands of the curriculum and the high standards set by their professors. Classes are quite small and the opportunities for independent research and writing are considerable. A premium is placed on the quality of teaching and advising since intellectual dialogue and study is the key point of the Reed experience."
--Matthew Greene, in The Hidden Ivies, (HarperCollins, 2000).
"Reed College has so special and admired a place in higher education that if there were no Reed someone would have to invent it. There is such wonderful attention to the life of the mind and at the same time to caring about humanity."
--Hugo Sonnenschein, president emeritus, University of Chicago, 2005.
"You could take all the classes that are offered at Reed at many other schools, but you wouldn't capture what happens at Reed. The very atmosphere at Reed is filled with discourse. If Reed students learn nothing else, they learn to present and defend their ideas."
--Donald Asher, in Cool Colleges, (Ten Speed, 2007).
Reed's rigorous academic program and lack of grade inflation.
--Stuart Rojstaczer, in Christian Science Monitor, March 24, 2009, http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0324/p09s02-coop.html
Reed ranked fourth in the nation among baccalaureate granting institutions in the number of physics graduates per year.
--Patrick J. Mulvey and Starr Nicholson, in American Institute of Physics Report, August, 2003.
Reed College is in the very top tier of small colleges and universities in the number of students participating in the Peace Corps according to the annual list of "Top Peace Corps Volunteer Producing Colleges and Universities."
--Peace Corps, 2008
Reed's two-year young debate team was recently named the top debate program in the Northwest, Division Two. At the final tournament of the 2004 Northwest Forensics Conference Reed earned the 1st place sweepstakes trophy for Division Two schools, a recognition of the number of debate victories and speaking awards throughout the year. The Northwest Forensics Conference calculates the number of speaking awards and debate victories at the three largest tournaments in the Northwest and Reed had more victories than any other team of its size.
"Among schools that do not offer the PhD or MA in philosophy, those with the best philosophy faculties would probably include: Amherst College, California Institute of Technology, Dartmouth College, Reed College, University of Vermont, and Wellesley College...A school like Reed sends more students on to top PhD programs than most universities with top twenty philosophy departments; that says something important about the quality of the philosophical faculty and curriculum."--The Philosophical Gourmet, February, 2004. http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/undergrad.asp
"I do think that you have in Reed College a monument, a testament of great excellence and elegance that is a unique blend: a climate of audacious irreverence with the stretching toward excellence that has been recognized both nationally and internationally."
--Ernest L. Boyer, former president, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and former U.S. Commissioner of Education
Reed's "loyalty to traditional liberal arts at a time when such a curriculum is unfashionable has redounded to Reed's advantage."
--Wall Street Journal, 1997
Continually updated and enhanced, the Reed campus has recently benefited from the largest spate of building projects in eight decades, including the renovation and expansion of the biology, psychology, and studio art buildings, and the library and sports center; construction of an educational technology center, campus center, and commons; a chemistry building; a bookstore; seven new residence halls, a multipurpose auditorium, a second pedestrian bridge over the Canyon, and renovations to the campus center. In addition, a newly remodeled Health and Counseling Center is now open and a Student Center which includes the student activities office and the multicultural affairs office.
Also see the awards page.