In 2004, 1.4% of Reed graduates defaulted on their student loans – below the national Cohort Default Rate average of 5.1%.
Reed's endowment as of June 30, 2023, was $764 million. In the economic downturn that began in late 2007, Reed's total endowment had declined from $455 million in June 2007 to $311 million in June 2009. By the end of 2013, however, the endowment surpassed the $500 million mark.
=== Academic honors ===
Reed has produced the second-highest number of Rhodes scholars for any liberal arts college—32—as well as over one hundred Fulbright Scholars, over seventy Watson Fellows, and three MacArthur ("Genius") Award winners. A very high proportion of Reed graduates go on to earn PhDs, particularly in the natural sciences, history, political science, and philosophy. Reed is ranked third in the percentage of graduates who go on to earn PhDs in all disciplines, after only Caltech and Harvey Mudd. In 1961, Scientific American declared that second only to Caltech, "This small college in Oregon has …
