- Goals of financial aid
- Major financial aid policies
- Funding priorities
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 meets the full demonstrated institutional need of all students of all continuing students who complete their financial aid application by the stated annual deadlines, meet federal eligibility requirements, and maintain satisfactory academic progress (three Reed units each semester and a minimum 2.0 grade point average).
Reed meets the full demonstrated institutional need of accepted freshman and transfer applicants who meet all admission and financial aid application deadlines. Freshman and transfer applicants who are accepted off the admission wait list or who apply for admission and/or financial aid after the stated deadlines may not be offered institutional financial aid for their first year at Reed. Freshman 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 by the stated deadlines, meet federal eligibility requirements, and make satisfactory academic progress.
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