<p>So I visited Grinnell and absolutely fell in love with the atmosphere and the campus. However, after visiting the website and seeing the list of courses offered I'm getting the sense that their Environmental Studies program (only a concentration) and their Studio Art program (a major) are not that strong in comparison to other similar liberal arts schools such as Oberlin and Macalester. I'd love to hear your opinions, as well as if you know of any other colleges, which are particularly strong in these fields!</p>
<p>I agree. No one bests Oberlin at environmental.</p>
<p>I will just speak from our personal experience, and offer some advice. If Grinnell appealed to you that much, I hope you will keep it on your list, even as you add other schools to it. Even though Grinnell doesn’t offer an ES major if you look at the course offerings themselves, I think you will find that you will get many of the same issues covered through the inter-department approach. Not all perhaps, but many. You might want to also check out the Prairie Studies program because that offers a hands-on approach to many environmental issues as well.</p>
<p>It also seems to me that if you are going into college with two strong interests already, whether or not either program offers the complete package of what you want, you will still be hard pressed to make choices each semester as to what you want to take. If you’re an intellectually curious person, there will be plenty to keep you busy and confused about what to take each semester wherever you choose to attend!</p>
<p>You may also discover an entirely new subject of interest in college as well and then there go some more slots in your schedule…</p>
<p>Grinnell offers a lot of support for individual initiative, research and programming so if you have ideas you will have opportunities to put them into action. My suggestion would be that you send an email to the heads of those departments and note your specific concerns about what you feel is lacking and see what their response is to you. It may turn out that even though there is more depth (or breadth) at other schools in your areas of interest, you may also get enough to keep you quite busy. </p>
<p>FWIW, when my son was deciding where to attend, he made a spreadsheet (location, courses, etc.) but couldn’t make a decision that way. There were some other schools that had better locations (easier to get to), majors he was interested in not offered at Grinnell, some ECs that were stronger somewhere else, but ultimately he just felt the best sense of kinship with the students he met there. </p>
<p>The other point i would like to make is that these colleges continually update and adapt, and it turned out that two of his biggest interests were improved upon after he enrolled – but the corollary could be true, too – something could be axed or cut back in future years. That happens… My sense is that with ES and the arts, these are areas where Grinnell will only continue to expand, not contract. </p>
<p>Have you looked at Whitman? Really strong in environmental studies in particular. Or Kenyon? Beautiful new studio art building there.</p>
<p>Katiebird, did you see this video about art on the Grinnell website?<br>
<a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/node/12200”>http://www.grinnell.edu/node/12200</a></p>