My eldest son has been admitted to Grinnell RD for fall 2022!
We are scheduling an admit day visit but I am curious as to how intense the academic environment is. My son has very broad based intellectual (and other) interests and thrives when interacting with other people who love exploring and debating ideas, music, politics, etc. As expected, Grinnell is a top choice for him. For context, he visited and loved Reed but I am somewhat worried about how intense Reed is and feel Grinnell may be similar. On the other hand that might just be the cost of a truly intellectual environment. FWIW I graduated from Amherst many years ago after spending one year at another LAC and the difference in intellectual climate was life changing for me – but I worked harder there than I did in graduate school for sure. Would be grateful for any insights as we work through what are in effect wonderful choices.
@Watoni, congratulations! Your son has two excellent choices. I went to Reed and graduated some 30 years ago. Reed was intense, but I loved it, and the college did an excellent job in a fine-tuning my analytical skills and giving me the confidence early in my career to productively engage in a professional setting that valued staff members staking out a position and defending it. I know my classmates, who are now lawyers, academics, chemists, architects etc. felt similarly.
A close friend is a Grinnell grad and had a similar experience. You can’t go wrong either way here. Assuming finances are not part of the equation, the big difference is location. Portland is a very cool town and I loved the PNW. Grinnell’s location may be a little less appealing but the campus has a tremendous amount to offer.
hey there! current grinnell undergraduate student here. the academics at grinnell are intense, and they will push you, but i must say it is not as intense as reed. the colleges are very similar, with academic intensity and location being the two most different characteristics in my opinion. all classes require a lot of work (whether it take the form of p-sets, readings, and/or papers), but i’ve always felt the workload to be very manageable (this does not apply to midterms and finals, though— midterms and finals at any college will make you feel like you’re drowning, as i’m sure you’re familiar, haha). one thing i will always, always advocate for is taking a very balanced schedule. if you do not load up on all STEM, SSci, or HUM classes, it will be just fine, and a lot of academic advisors don’t allow you to load up on courses from one field area for this reason. i have had some of the most thought-provoking, intellectual conversations in my entire life here at grinnell, and it has changed me for the better. i’ll leave here forever impacted.
reed is definitely more academically intense, but grinnell is less intense while still managing to be academically and intellectually stimulating and engaging!
edit: oh, also, grinnell’s open curriculum could be very beneficial for him! from the very first semester he’s here, he’ll be able to find and take classes he’s truly interested in, so if he’s very passionate about a lot of things, i’d see this as a pro!
Thank you for the responses! He really enjoyed Portland, and we will visit Grinnell soon so he can get a sense of it – I think he will really like it. We have relatives in Iowa as well (Dubuque). Kalons, he will definitely need to balance his schedule – thankfully he loves math, history, econ, political science, music, etc. and has a real sense of humor/fun. I am excited he will have like-minded folks at Reed or Grinnell (who can really follow and participate in discussions about math or music theory – he is already beyond me there). I could not decide if I were in his shoes!