Back before e-mail made it easy to send all decisions simultaneously, it wasn’t unusual for colleges to send out letters in waves. Maybe they figure, “Why torture these kids by making them wait, when we’re already done with their applications?”
My daughter was accepted with merit aid yesterday, with an offer to fly her in for a visit in early March sent today. She also was accepted IS EA into the Chapel Hill honors program. She loves the concept of Grinnell, but is leaning towards CH. Her current plan is to major in Physics, but that could change. Should she fly out? I would appreciate any feedback.
My daughter just forwarded an email from her Speech & Debate tournament which mentioned about her acceptance offer(thanks to Almighty) and a $250 reimbursement to attend Special Admitted Student Day program in early March! I haven’t seen her acceptance letter yet and don’t know whether she got any scholarship offer or not. But she applied before Dec 01 to be in scholarship applicant pool.
@Carolinadad A liberal arts college is the gold standard of undergraduate education, and Grinnell is one of the best. UNC is one of the best public flagship universities. If it were my daughter, I would encourage her to visit. Both schools are great, but incredibly different!
My son also just received an acceptance with merit scholarship offer. He applied Jan. 15.
Carolinadad, Congrats to your D. You can mention to her that one of the famous alumni of Grinnell is Robert Noyce, one of the founders of Intel Corporation, the largest semiconductor companies in the world! He studied physics in Grinnell before went on to MIT to get his P.hd. I read that Grinnell has the reputation to send their grads to top schools for post-grad studies, medicine, law etc. Even though we are from Bay Area, California, Grinnell is one the top choices for our D., depending on the financial aid she receives.
Hmm. No acceptance yet for D18.
@homerdog My D applied RD on 12/10 (after merit deadline) but still was offered Admission (in a notification yesterday) including the 25/K per year merit scholarship plus visit support, so the 12/1 date for merit aid is not a hard stop. Good luck to everyone who hasn’t heard back yet!
Hi all, congrats to those who got accepted! I was accepted early RD at Grinnell last year, but ultimately ended up at a NESCAC. Still, I wanted to give some information on it: @homerdog no specific group just gets accepted. I am a white, non-athlete Iowan (clearly not a demographic they need more of) and got the early acceptance. They simply send it out to those who are top candidates in the RD round with the intention of giving them more time to consider and fall in love with Grinnell. However, this is a very small fraction of RD acceptances and it bears no weight on whether someone will get accepted in March! For proof: the school I’m at now does a similar early acceptance, which I did not receive, but I still received a scholarship given to only the top 100 RD applicants. The early acceptances are certainly nice, but many top candidates are selected later!
For anyone who has the time and money, I would recommend an overnight visit as it is one of the best ways to get a feel for the college.
D2 also applied at the very last minute to Grinnell, 1/15.
@homerdog, I think the first wave of recipients are those who got accepted with scholarship and top of the applicant pool. They have a special Admitted Student Day on Mar 03 and 04. For those who will receive the acceptances in Mar, will have a regular Admitted Student Day in early Apr or so.
My D was National Merit Commended, 4.63 unweighted GPA, 35 ACT score, Captain LD debate team, completed a college-level 7-month long research and published a research paper on ‘Oppression on Women during War’ with a college program, volunteer works with sick kids at Ronald McDonald House at Stanford Medical, Winner of Wellesley College Book Award. I assume she is definitely top of the applicant pool.
@prodesse @sanjosedad Thank you for the responses. I think she will visit. Being immersed in the college search and application process, has increased our knowledge of top schools. However, my daughter and I have gotten a lot of “where? Iowa? Never heard of it” the last 24 hours. You’re feedback reinforces the reasons she applied in the first place. Thanks again.
@Carolinadad I should add that my cousin attended Grinnell, went on to get a PhD and JD from fantastic schools, and she tells me she’s always been thankful for the great education she got at Grinnell. She says her former classmates do amazing things. That’s why I encouraged my kid to apply there (hasn’t heard back yet). Already admitted to UVa, so it would be a similar situation to yours.
DD18 got accepted with Dean’s scholarship and admitted student March travel stipend as well. Thank you Grinnell! It is so nice to get another earlier’ish acceptance as helps so much with the visit planning and decision making process. DD is also admitted EA to UNC-CH and NCSU (our instate Engineering school.) Just made a revisit to NCState that included a department and faculty meet and attended a special program/LLC for Women in Science/Math/Engineering presentation which was very impressive (for Statistics major, it’s feeling like the best curriculum and fit so far.) So, @Carolinadad I get what you’re saying (I think the Carolina allure sort of clouds better judgement sometimes.) It seems very important to re-visit schools once admitted and going beyond campus tours to get acquainted with specific major department, faculty, and take a close look at curriculum specifics, LLC opportunities, ECs, etc (DD’s desired EC list includes a Hiphop dance crew!) So, we have a re-visit to UNC scheduled for a closer look at Stat department & faculty (have to say the curriculum doesn’t look as thorough at least for the direction DD is going.) And, DD is very excited to have a small, private, OOS school option in the mix now to consider, especially one that is so focused on undergraduate education, well funded and provides much on-campus entertainment (since its in the middle of nowhere!)
Finally confirmed by my D, she is selected for Dean’s scholarship($25K per year, total of $100K four years). We are little disappointed with the offer, hoping for the President’s scholarship one($50K per year). She has stellar academic, ACT score and other credentials. We may visit the campus to get an idea but won’t commit fully to the school until she hears back from other top choice liberal arts colleges. Hello @youwillbefound, is flying to Des Moines is the best choice to visit the campus? We are from San Francisco bay area.
@sanjosedad If you are flying in Des Moines is probably your best bet. It is about an hour away from campus. You can also check flights into Cedar Rapids (Eastern Iowa Airport) probably closer to 1.5 hours from campus, it is smaller airport than Des Moines but sometimes you can find decent deals in / out of there.
Congrats to all the earlies! Our D was admitted and we are certainly impressed with Grinnell so far, their generous scholarships being one 
Question for the parents- are you traveling with or sending them on their own? Our daughter has not traveled alone and she would love to do so. I’m inclined to let her, yet I’d hate for this to pan out like the time she said, “Mom! You don’t need to go! No one else’s parents are going.” And of course she wound up winning a major award. Grrr…
@Meddy, we are thinking the same about you whether to let her go on her own (all the way from San Francisco bay area) and get a taste of travelling her own, all by herself. Last summer she did travel but with one of her classmates from San Jose(CA) to Spokane, changing flight in Portland(Oregon). But for this one, the problem is the campus is an hour drive, so Uber/Lyft won’t be cheap. Also don’t know the housing accommodation. I am going to call the school tomorrow and try to find out the feasibility of let her go on her own. Since they be there on Monday, I believe they will most likely be attending classes, so that they get to know the class culture, students in persons. I will post my findings after talking to the school officials tomorrow.
Hey guys! Yeah I got my RD yesterday in my applicant portal too!!! I’m so EXCITEDDDDDD
@Meddy, I haven’t decided if my daughter will travel by herself. She has traveled by her self frequently over the past several years. I would like to go visit Grinnell to see it for myself since we have not visited before. But, the flight from where we are coming is over $500 and I am not sure it is worth it for me to go. She will be going either way.