Why Reed?

I discovered Reed through a number of friends and educators who, being familiar with the school either by reputation or by participation, told me it would be absolutely perfect for me. I wasn't entirely certain what they meant until I checked into it further; it was then that I discovered Reed's rich history and richer present. The small size -- smaller than my graduating class -- lends it a very personal feeling, and its general diversity promises to make attending a unique and extremely enriching experience. These things have been sorely missed in my education so far. But most of all, I feel Reed is perfect for me because it is a school that is not obsessed with numbers as so many others have become. Every school I have attended so far encourages its students to fight each other; the lurid obsession with grade-point-averages, class ranking, and such essentially meaningless numbers push the idea that growth as a person is less ultimately important than victory -- that there are winners and losers in the world, and the worst thing imaginable is to be a loser -- and that history has no time for those who are unwilling to stab others in the back.
Part of my bias against an obsession with numbers might be that I really haven't done too well with them; however, this is because I'm not prepared to waste my time with classes that amount to over-ritualized dog fights, or inane exercises in disciplined thought. I have devoted all the time I had to squeezing all of the life and knowledge I could from my education. In twenty years the ability to write an eight-legged essay is never going to be of any further use to me, and yet In every english-related class I have been taught and retaught some variation on this inane golden formula, and been taught to treat it as gospel. I do not want to be constrained to admiring art; I want to understand art, digest art, and create art. I do not want to turn anything I do into some kind of perverse contest; I want to be able to labor to improve myself without thinking of fame or fortune at the work's end. I don't want to turn my life into a race unless I'm racing myself.
I'd like to participate in an environment where my peers and the educators are not aiming for some kind of trophy, and where I can work together with people of my own intellectual caliber instead of trying to outdo them. I applaud a college which will not submit to the absurd idea of arbitrary numbers deciding quality of character, and between that and the superb reputation Reed has in the liberal arts, I am convinced that those who first told me about Reed were right -- it is perfect for me.