Financial Aid
Financing Reed
The Financial Aid Handbook has information for continuing Reed students.
Reed's Philosophy
Goals of financial aid
Major financial aid policies
Funding prioritiesBack to Financial Aid Handbook contents
Goals of financial aid
Higher education is a valuable investment. Reed College believes that you and your family, as beneficiaries of that investment, have the primary responsibility for paying for your college costs. The college assumes that you and your family will contribute to the fullest extent possible from income and assets, but recognizes that a family's resources may be insufficient to fully fund the cost of a Reed education. Reed is committed, therefore, to providing a comprehensive, need-based financial aid program that seeks to bring the college's educational opportunities within reach of all qualified students.
The goals of the financial aid program at Reed, as affirmed by the board of trustees, are focused on student access, student diversity, and achievement of enrollment goals.
Major financial aid policies
Believing that everyone at the college benefits from having a diverse student population from a wide range of economic and social backgrounds, Reed College is committed to the philosophy that financial aid should be awarded on the basis of financial need to provide access to an education to the greatest number of students. Reed offers no institutional aid based solely on merit and distributes financial aid resources using an equity packaging model.
The major financial aid policies affirmed by the Reed College board of trustees include:
- meeting the full demonstrated need of those students offered institutional aid
- meeting the full demonstrated need of all continuing students
- keeping the self-help components (loan and work) of a financial aid package as low as possible
- basing eligibility for institutional funding strictly on need
- limiting eligibility for institutional financial aid to four years
Funding priorities
Reed's primary commitment is to fund continuing students; we want to ensure that once a student starts at Reed, he or she can afford to stay. After reserving funds for continuing students, the college funds first-year, transfer, and international students who demonstrate need and who meet all admission and financial aid application deadlines. Because of our financial commitment to continuing students, some first-year and transfer students who apply for admission and/or financial aid after our stated deadlines may not be offered institutional financial aid for their first year at Reed.
Reed meets the full demonstrated institutional need of all students who have attended Reed at least two semesters, who are maintaining satisfactory academic progress (six Reed units annually and a minimum 2.0 grade point average), and who file their applications on time. First-time freshmen or transfer students who are not offered institutional assistance for their first year at Reed and choose to enroll will have their full demonstrated institutional need met in subsequent years, as long as they file the requisite financial aid applications on time and meet satisfactory academic progress requirements.
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