<p>With the deadline coming up I figure it's about time for me to pick a school, and Grinnell is one of the choices left. One thing I'm worried about though is what people mean by "intense" when they describe their workload. Of course I'm going to college to learn, but I'd like to enjoy my time there as much as possible; there's a reason I didn't apply to University of Chicago or Reed. I know it will vary from major to major, but about how many hours each day to students have to study in, say English, Economics, Computer Science, Math, History...
Also, how hard is it to find your way into classes taught by the "good" professors? From what I've read Grinnell has more than its share of them, but that its rounded out by a few not so good ones. If these people have tenure then there must be students taking their classes...how does one not become one of these students? I appreciate the help.</p>
<p>My son majored in history, also studied French, Arabic and Russian. As far as I can tell, every one of his history and languages profs was excellent. Everyone raves about the Arabic prof. He did complain about one religion prof, who gave him the worst grade he’d ever gotten with no warning. I’ve checked a few of his profs on Ratemyprofessor.com and his descriptions matched the ratings there quite well, so you can use that, with a few grains of salt. Also I think there’s a way Grinnell students communicate with each other online, so that might be a way of getting info about profs. </p>
<p>He certainly spent plenty of time studying, but always had time for parties and hanging out with friends on the weekend. His first year roomie, who double majored in math and physics, spent much more time studying than my son did, but still had friends, had a little time for sports and found a girlfriend. I think you can somewhat control how intense you make it and you will have an advisor right away who can probably guide you. Partly depends on your personality too. If you stressed out about “everything” in high school, you likely will in college too. For my son, the great social fit made his years at Grinnell much less stressful than his high school years.</p>
<p>From talking to Grinnell students, it seems that there are times (mid-sems and finals) when school is very intense. But everyone buckles down and gets through it. You are not in it by yourself. For most of the semester, I think an hour or two per class hour would be a rule of thumb, at least in the social sciences. (econ, for instance) But keep in mind that you probably only have 14 hours a week of class, so that’s very manageable. </p>
<p>Like bethievt’s son, I can think of one prof my son had that he did not feel was up to Grinnell’s usual high standards. There are some others in that department that he has avoided, but I don’t think it was very difficult to do. </p>
<p>He has found plenty of time to study and still have a social life and make music.</p>
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Of those majors, I’ve only heard complaints about the workload in comp sci. Of course English and History are heavy reading/writing majors, but not considerably more than other colleges.</p>
<p>Overall, the workload is definitely intense, but not overwhelming. Even working twelve hours a week and taking 17 credits as a freshman, I haven’t ever run into a situation where I didn’t have enough time in a day to do the work, and I probably have one of the more intense schedules around considering I’m double majoring in Spanish and Chinese. Most students at Grinnell are busy during the weekend and then have mostly open schedules on the weekends. Study hard, party hard.</p>
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I haven’t run into a professor that wasn’t amazing yet. If you’re really worried about it, though, there are plenty of ways to get the professors you want. Most people ask around about which professors are harder or which are better teachers, and even if you do end up in a class with a prof you don’t like, you can drop a course or switch sections very easily.</p>