 Reid was educated at Concord High School, a public secondary school in Wilmington, Delaware, followed by Vassar College, a private liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie in New York state, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in psychology in 1977.He then attended Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1982, graduating with a Master's of Public Affairs degree.He received a law degree from Columbia Law School.