<p>I would like to hear grinnell's voice
which one is better if I am applying as an international student who needs full ride
and planning to major in chemistry
would be grateful for any posts and opinions</p>
<p>Grinnell has an excellent Chem program. </p>
<p>The feel of Grinnell is very different from Colgate. Colgate is more preppy and a much bigger party school. It tends to lean more right. </p>
<p>Grinnell accepts a large number of international students(I believe about 12%) who are widely accepted on campus. </p>
<p>Grinnell has excellent aid as well. </p>
<p>Grinnell is also about 7k cheaper for tuition/room/board/fees etc…right off the top.</p>
<p>Both are beautiful campuses. Both are located in isolated areas. Both have very cold winters. </p>
<p>Grinnell is ranked higher than Colgate among LAC’s. </p>
<p>The new science facility at Grinnell is gorgeous. </p>
<p>Grinnell has a very high percentage of students that graduate and later go into medicine and or get their PHd’s. </p>
<p>You really need to visit. Not sure if you can get a full ride to either, but I do know that Grinnell has wonderful FA and merit scholarship as well. I don’t think colgate offers much in the way of merit money, but could be wrong.</p>
<p>It’s funny I’m looking at these schools as well, and I also want to major in chemistry so I have been looking at various chem departments across several LACs.</p>
<p>I’m not a Grinnell student so I can’t vouch for the strength of the chem department but I believe they have a solid reputation at grad schools. If you do a Facebook search of the recent graduates they have attended grad schools in Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Northwestern, etc. The average chemistry major graduates per year is about 15 students and there are ~9 profs in the department so it’s a very good faculty:student ratio. They have the standard 400 MHz NMR, the standard for most top LACs, and I think they bought/was granted (I think from HHMI fund) a 600/700 (can’t remember which) NMR machine recently but I can’t find the link. And the Noyce science center (newly renovated in 2007 with new labs and very nice interior, you can do a virtual tour at the Chemistry Department website) beats virtually all other LACs’ out of the water.</p>
<p>Colby also has a strong chemistry department (that and, I heard, economics). If you like organic synthesis (I do), there’s a prof there (Timo Ovaska) that has a solid track record of publications (of course this is relative to LAC profs and not research uni’s profs with dozens of papers per year), including several JACS. He also has research students that went on to very good graduate programs (e.g. Scripps Research Institute, one went on to be a current assistant prof at CalTech). Thus, if you want a publication as an undergraduate it could be an opportunity. Of course, if you work hard at either of these 3 schools and getting research experience including external ones (which are also other routes to publish a paper), I believe good graduate programs are within your reach.</p>
<p>I don’t know a lot about Colgate since I don’t really click with the school in general so I didn’t research a whole lot about it (the ‘preppiness’ that d’smom has mentioned) . However, I believe it has the biggest student out of the three and there will be more opportunities and more profs for you to do research with. </p>
<p>One point of speculation is that due to the slightly more preppy vibe from the other two colleges, there might be a greater pre-med bend at those schools, which might create a slightly more competitive environment academically. But then again I would imagine pre-meds to major more on biology and biological chemistry so this may be a non-issue.</p>
<p>I know that high school students should not idealize one college but Grinnell is a perfect place for me. I would be so crushed if I get rejected.</p>
<p>Also, if you check out the Grinnell Bookstore website (you could google it), the textbook for the intro course in Organic Chem is the one by the British profs at Oxford (Clayden et. al.). This is remarkable because as intro-UNfriendly as it is (~1500 pages, I own one and it is frighteningly MASSIVE on the library shelve; it also requires heavy conceptualization), it requires a true understanding of the material from a mechanistic perspectives (why some reactions work and not others) rather then burdening you with organic functional groups that you have to memorize in other run-off-the-mill intro textbooks. I think this reflects tremendous emphasis on real learning and critical thinking that Grinnell is so famous for. I only know one other school that uses this book for its intro course and it starts with the letter H.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, though that the textbook is just one of many components of the class. Other schools might employ more watered-down books but if the professors use a rigorous approach to the material, the students would learn just as much.</p>
<p>Other schools you may look into with great chemistry departments are Reed, Carleton and Oberlin (it has its own 600-MHz NMR)</p>
<p>Sorry for being a loser by posting here again but according to the PhD production rates, you could also look at Bowdoin, Franklin & Marshall (a safety if you can call it that, but definitely still very selective for intl students requiring aid) and College of Wooster (also another safety but not generous for intl students; I also have doubts about its chemistry departments).</p>
<p>Edit: sorry I conflated the Colby prof with the one from Connecticut College (also has a decent chem department). Also, Colgate doesn’t have biggest student (if not the contrary due to its having the reputation to be more athletically-inclined), it has the greatest student body :D.</p>
<p>Back when we scouted LACs, we visited Colby. We liked the 4-1-4 plan they offered (which means 4 months for one semester, a one month ‘January Plan’, and 4 months for the second semester). Lots of cool short courses-or else you can do an internship or travel. A great outdooring program if you’re into that. And, the museum had recently received a large and significant bequest of artwork, which is great for their art and art history students. </p>
<p>But there were some significant town/gown issues at the time-Colby has a reputation for some heavy drinking that had the local police force cracking down. Not that Grinnell has no drinkers, but the school makes a huge effort to keep student drinking from getting out of hand both on and off campus, and keeping town/gown relations cordial by investing in local businesses and inviting local residents to use the facilities and participate in events on campus free of charge. Finally, Colby was preppier than S would have preferred and the facilities, while nice, were not as impressive as Grinnell’s.</p>
<p>
Grinnel international FAQ says this:
Which is really sad because I’ll need a full-ride too. 
I’m not sure whether they have exceptions for the max 85% rule, though.</p>