More applicants applied to Reed College this year than any other year in the college’s history. 3,950 high school students applied, a 36 percent increase from last year’s total and a 13 percent increase from the college’s previous record. According to Dean of Admissions Keith Todd, this increase is due in part to several major changes in the admissions process, including the elimination of the $50 application fee. Todd says that the increase in applications means that Reed is increasingly competing with other top liberal arts colleges. While the number of applications has increased, data on applicant SAT scores seem to indicate that applicant quality has remained constant.
Figure 1. (a) Trends of applicants and prospective applicants as a funtion of time. (b) Trends of acceptance rate (projected for 2014) and SAT scores by year.
The admissions office has also released data on the number of prospective applicants that had contact with the college, as well limited information on demographics. This year, almost 28,000 prospective applicants had contact with Reed College. This is an increase from last year’s 24,308 and a sizable increase over past figures from the last seven years.
Todd says that he is “delighted” with the increase in applicants. He expressed excitement with the numbers, stating that it was an indication of Reed College is competing with some of the best liberal arts colleges. However, Todd asks, “Are we going to find students we really want to be here?” Todd draws attention to the next steps in the admissions process, which centers on deciding whom to accept, as well as working through the yield process. The admissions office runs a series of events reaching out to accepted students, and works with high school seniors who are deciding between different post-high school options. That process is already underway, as 130 students have been accepted through the early decision process—an average number for Reed at this point.
Todd also highlights the steps taken by the admissions office had taken to drive the increase in applications. First, the college waived its $50 application fee. Todd says that the two driving forces behind the removal of the fee, which has generated as much as $135,000 dollars in revenue for the college in past years, were concerns over the cost to low-income students and the disincentive to apply that the fee represented. While there were opportunities for applicants to seek fee waivers, they could be perceived as additional hoops that that applicants would have to go through, Todd says.
Other changes within the admissions process include both altering the application and the structure of the office. A graded writing sample is now an optional element of the application. The admissions office has also hired an additional staff member and allocated time towards travel in Asia, where staff now spend six weeks over the course of a year. In addition, the admissions office has created a set of new publications ranging from guidebooks to postcards sent to potential applicants.
The admissions office also buys more names from the College Board. This is a major way for the college—in fact many colleges—to find potential students. The College Board—the organization that organizes the SAT and PSAT tests—sells names and contact information of students based on their test scores. With those names, the college can reach out to additional students with printed material and other means of communication. The college’s choice to buy more names might explain part of the increase in both applicants and prospective applicants.
One of the major concerns that have accompanied the higher number of applicants is potential change in the quality of the average applicant. Some of the changes—the removal of the fee and the requirement to include a grading writing sample—reduced the costs of applying to Reed. There was no guarantee that the lower costs would attract equally qualified candidates. However, stable SAT scores seem to indicate that the quality of this year’s applicant pool does not deviate radically from the quality of those in past years, at least in terms of this one measure. Todd says that the question of fit—the degree to which an applicant would do well at Reed—is still a priority for the admissions office. However, he is hopeful that the increased size of the pool would give the admissions officers a better chance to find the right group for next year.
What effect the change in the number of applicants will have on the composition of Reed freshmen is unclear. The increase in applications is not concentrated in one ethnic group. Instead, the number of applicants from every ethnic group has increased by over 30 percent, and by over 50 percent in some groups, including Hispanic Americans and Native Americans and Pacific Islanders. It remains to be seen to what degree the demographic—as well as the geographic and socioeconomic—mix of the class will be different from past years.
The admissions office expects that the admission rate for this year will be 35 percent, down from 49 percent in 2013. To what degree the changes to the Reed admissions process drove this increase in applications, what their effect will be going forward, how they will affect the character of the incoming class, and whether they will continue to attract an elevated number of applicants remains to be seen.