Some people are from families wealthy enough to pay for Reed outright , some are not . Many are from families where two parents are professionals and they do quite well but don ' t think of themselves as wealthy . If that is a demographic breakdown that bothers you , a liberal arts college in general probably isn ' t for you . And I say that as a first generation college student who was on almost 100 % financial aid . Also , if you ' re going to Reed to feel validated , you ' re probably doing it wrong . It absolutely convinced me that I wasn ' t as smart or as special as I thought I was . It also showed me that sheer brainpower isn ' t the most important thing in success , and those are both important things to learn . It took going to grad school which was like going back to high school to remind me that I might not be the greatest , but I didn ' t have to be , because the bar in the outside world is pretty low .