<p>These 3 colleges offered me admission and i'm thinking which to choose. I've heard that the first 2 have better academics than Lafayette while the last is located near New York and Philadelphia and that is a great plus for me. I want to study Art History and Psychology by the way.
Help me with advice!PLEASE!</p>
<p>The student populations at these schools will likely be very different. Bates and Grinnell are considerably more liberal-and I would guess have a more diverse student population. I would not describe Lafayette as being near either NY or Philadelphia any more than I would describe Bates as being near Boston. Any of these would be a moderate trip. Grinnell is the furthest from a big city (5 hours to Chicago) but none of them are suburban...Are you an international student? Grinnell has the highest % of internationals of the 3 schools, if that is of concern to you. Bates and Lafayette are in northeastern industrial cities (large towns-small cities). Grinnell is an a smaller town, more rural. I take it you have not visited any of them??</p>
<p>Thanks. i am intl and haven't visited any of them. in fact i'm choosing between Bates and Grinnell now. So where would you go?</p>
<p>Congrats on being accepted into Grinnell! I'm int'l and work at Grinnell. It's a great place. There're quite a few int'l students at Grinnell. Though Grinnell is in a very small town, you won't get bored on campus as there's always something going on (parties, concerts, etc). There's a bus/shuttle taking students to the mall in either Des Moines or Iowa City (bigger cities) almost every weekend.</p>
<p>Don't you anything about its academics?</p>
<p>Since I've never been a student at Grinnell, I can't comment well on its academics. However, I work in the Alumni Relations Office and have heard that many of our alumni were very satisfied with Grinnell's education no matter what they majored in. Many of the professors here got their Ph.Ds from top schools like Yale, Harvard, UCLA, etc. I hope you'll choose Grinnell. Did you get your financial need fully met?</p>
<p>khoiusa,
I am curious about chemistry and biology. Are they of the best majors in Grinnell?</p>
<p>Yep, i got really great fin aid.</p>
<p>zhang,</p>
<p>Biology, chemistry and biological scoiences are very strong at Grinnell.</p>
<p>Well, if you're happy with your financial aid package, why not Grinnell?</p>
<p>I don't know what fin aid Bates can offer. may be it's as good as Grinnell's. both schools have great academics and i want more reasons why Grinnell and not Bates before i'll decide.</p>
<p>Well, Bates is not as highly ranked as Grinnell (Grinnell #14, Bates #23).
Grinnell's huge endowment allows it to allocate a lot funds to support international students besides financial aid. Grinnell provides both domestic and int'l with summer externships, which help them gain hands-on experience while they don't have to worry about finances. This year, more int'l students than domestic students were selected to participate in this new program.
Bates will be very likely to give you a loan which needs to be paid after you graduate. Grinnell doesn't give loans to int'l.</p>
<p>yea, their fin aid includes only scholarship and employment. it's really great.</p>
<p>One thing that hasn't been mentioned - since OP is interested in art history -- I've been impressed with the art exhibits in the Faulconer Gallery. For a small college, they seem very sophisticated and the gallery itself is small, but beautiful.</p>