Do your S/D offer letters mentioned anything about EFC(Expected Family Contribution) number or any reference to a link/site where to get the info from, after the scholarship amount is credited? Just curious…
My daughter applied RD b4 merit deadline. Requested an interview and did a Skype with a current senior at Girnnell. Has not visited. No decision and they requested mid-year report last week. She’s 4.0 UW, 5.0 weighted in one of the top public HS in our state, 8 APs with all 5s all so far except Calculus BC with a 4., Plus she’s in the highly selective online program for our state’s science & math boarding school where she’s taking advanced science classes(including orgo chemistry now). She’s also captain of XC, president of Model UN and several awards for that including Best Delegate, Senior editor of her newspaper, summer camp counselor., DAR Good Citizen award for school and region. ACT was a little lower than she’d hoped – 33; but 3 SAT Subject Tests over 700 and NMSF. She’s def. interested in Grinnell but we’d need some merit aid. Worried now that may be out of the picture. I guess it’s tougher than I realized, so seriously, BIG congrats to everyone who’s heard already – you guys really rock!!!
@AlmostThere2018 I just got into Grinnell and they gave me a good amount of merit aid. Your daughter ABSOLUTELY sounds like a more qualified applicant than me. I am much less accomplished on and off paper (lower test scores - 32 ACT, lower GPA- A’s and B’s, worse AP scores - 3’s and 4’s, much less committed to extracurriculars - no serious leadership, only two subject tests, not athletic). If Grinnell doesn’t let her in with money, they’re either crazy or they think she’s likely to choose a more prestigious school over them.
@macron3y - Thanks for the words of encouragement. I’ll keep you all posted. Congrats to you!!!
Congrats to the early admits and hang in there everyone else! My son is a second year at Grinnell and we’re from the SF Bay Area so I wanted to weigh in on some of the travel questions:
Which airport:
Grinnell is an easy 45 min to 1 hour drive from the Des Moines airport. In my experience, the flight selections and prices from here have always been better to DSM than to Iowa City.
While SFO and SJC have had the best prices and selection in the two years he’s been traveling there, it’s probably worth keeping an eye on Oakland or even Sacramento if those are options for you.
Students travelling alone:
For accepted student events, Grinnell will probably have shuttles that pick up students at DSM. They run every hour or so on the arrival day. There will be Grinnell reps to meet your kids in the common area near baggage claim. DSM is a very nice but small airport (relative to SFO and even SJC or OAK) so there’s only one baggage claim area. The school will also have your student’s arrival flight and times so they will know about, and be there for delayed flights. It’s a finely honed system. Same thing in reverse, they’ll make sure kiddo gets to the airport on time for their flight home.
(The school also runs shuttles for students at the beginning and end of the school year and for breaks. It’s been very convenient.)
Parents going along:
There was good information for parents at the accepted student events and I’m glad I went. If you can’t make it, the same sessions were held as parent events during the first year move in week in August.
Because of work scheduling issues, my son flew out by himself for the accepted student event and I came out on a later flight. So I was doing the parent thing while he was doing the student thing and we didn’t meet up until the end. It was a weird time for me because I fell in love with the school while having zero idea of what my kid was thinking. I did catch occasional glimpses of him though and he seemed to be having a great time. That was confirmed when we met up at the end and the first thing he said was “Can we cancel the other school visits?”
Best of luck to your kids with their decisions!
Oops, I meant to say that Cedar Rapids was the other airport, not Iowa City.
@AlmostThere2018, I think your D deserved to be in merit list. My feeling she is in the running for President Scholarship($50K/year) and they may haven’t made the final list yet. I would say you should call them tomorrow and mention that you heard students are receiving acceptance letters with merit scholarship; how come not your D yet?Talk the admission counselor for your state(look up the admission page and staff directory). If I were you, I would have done it. Good Luck!
@AlmostThere2018 I disagree with sanjosedad. YOU should not call the admissions office or the rep for your area. If your daughter wants to, SHE can call or email, but I would wait. Just because she didn’t get an early acceptance really means nothing. She is still in the running. To me, calling and asking now would essentially be whining to them and since most decisions haven’t been made, you don’t want to tip them the wrong way. I would recommend your daughter send a short email restating her interest and updating them on anything that may have happened since she submitted her application. I would not mention merit aid at this point. Did she write the “optional” why Grinnell essay a few weeks ago?
@sanjosedad, in the acceptance letter there is a link to the financial aid portal with log in info. We looked at my daughter’s, and it doesn’t say anything about financial aid awards. It does have her scholarship on there. No loans or work study, so I assume they are still working on it. At least, I hope so. It does show that they received all her financial aid application stuff.
I was going to post the same as some others-maybe she will get the full tuition ride. No one here has posted that their kiddo got that award! Hang on. It may still come next week as it seems not everyone found out same day last week. Otherwise hold tight.
@sanjosedad - Thanks for offering that ray of hope, and of course I hope you’re right as that’d be amazing. I also know there are lot of highly qualified applicants to Grinnell, and I’d feel uncomfortable calling. Maybe she didn’t show enough interest by not visiting; I know they have lots of hard decisions to make. Seems like a great place, and we’ll keep fingers crossed. Again, congrats to all who’ve gotten good news already and good luck to everyone still waiting!!
Just saw all those other responses – thanks everyone! She should hear about being a NMF this week, so could reach out with that. I’ll ask her what she thinks about that. She did do the optional Why Grinnell essay though it was a crazy week for her so she submitted it last day – don’t know if that’s a ding perhaps. Again, thanks everyone for chiming in. What a supportive group and I know everyone’s kids will land will they are supposed to be!
@AlmostThere2018, don’t get stressed out on Grinnell. With her credential, she will get into lot of other top schools in the country. Good Luck!
Early RD admit here, 20K/yr Scholarship! Congrats to everyone, super excited!
Surprised about the early notification though, 3.7/4.6 GPA, not that many AP’s, loads of core B’s, 34 ACT, without amazing EC’s. They must’ve thought my essay was quite compelling.
Good luck to everyone else on the RD pool and congrats to the rest of early admits 
Quick question - are admissions decisions coming in the mail? Or is there a change visible on the portal? We live abroad and the mail is not really that reliable.
Mine had an email to check status update in portal.
FYI for anybody that was not planning to travel to the accepted student program in March with their kid. My daughter tried to register last night for the program and for an on-campus overnight but all of the overnights spots are full. I called them this morning and apparently there are no more host available. So, if your kid hasn’t already signed up for an overnight you will have to travel with them and get a hotel. This does not make me very happy because now I’m going to have to spend an additional $800+ to take her to visit.
I got same information. I think we are going to wait until the next dates. Really unfortunate because we will be in Minneapolis the Saturday before.
Well, my DD didn’t even GET a request for a “Why Grinnell?” essay! (Or she didn’t see it, since she now tends to just delete any emails from colleges.) She is DONE with the application process. Her stats are decent - 4.2 weighted GPA, 6 APs, all others Honors, 1480 SAT, 33 ACT, fluent in Spanish, varsity swim captain, very active youth group leader… But she hasn’t cured cancer or anything! We also haven’t visited - made it to most of the schools here in the East, but didn’t get to Macalester, Grinnell, or Lafayette (where she also applied.) Interesting that they didn’t even request the essay - doesn’t make optimistic. 
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