<p>Basically, I have it down to these two. </p>
<p>I'm visiting Grinnell for the first time this weekend, and I know that visiting and feeling the "vibe" are a big factor in deciding if Grinnell is right for you. </p>
<p>I just wondered if anyone with any knowledge of both the schools had any input on the matter. I don't have <em>specific</em> things I want to know, just any sort of compare/contrast anyone can add would be great. :D</p>
<p>My daughter is agonizing over Grinnell, Hendrix, and Austin right now, but it would be better if you visited Grinnell first and formed your own impressions before listening to mine. I’m also interested in hearing what you have to say afterward.</p>
<p>Both schools are great, but I’d lean more toward Grinnell for all of the reasons provided in various posts about why Grinnell is a great place–especially its academic reputation. (For me, Hendrix would be a close second.)</p>
<p>Grinnell is generally accepted as better academically, and I won’t dispute that. But it’s also in a small town (not that Conway’s huge, but it’s bigger) and freezes in the winter. I have visited and considered both, so feel free to PM me with any questions.</p>
<p>I believe that part of Grinnell’s location is what makes it great. Some view being in a rather isolated location a bad thing, but the reality of the situation is that after being there, many if not most of the students say it is big part of what makes the student body and the professor/school relationship so wonderful. Grinnell is ranked very highly and quite frankly if it were in back on the east coast would probably rank even higher, but it wouldn’t be Grinnell now would it? My son had to decide between a large handful of LAC’s and he couldn’t be happier. I think a good thing to do is to ask more specific questions to help find answers to your questions. My son has had ample opportunities on weekends to drive into Des Moines and Iowa City, but he says he loves just hanging on campus and has developed the most amazing friendships.</p>
<p>My daughter is a third year at Grinnell and I visited Hendrix with my son for their admitted student’s scholarship weekend last year (he liked Hendrix but chose not to go). I got the sense that Grinnell is the more challenging academically. However, Hendrix had great opportunities for students and a bright, motivated student could go anywhere from there.</p>
<p>Both schools have their share of small town boredom and substance overuse issues. Conway Arkansas was a turn off to my son and the town/gown relationships seem tenser than Grinnell (based on things I read in student reports). The faculty at Hendrix seemed every bit as engaged as Grinnell and the students appeared focused. My son enjoyed the interviews with the Hendrix faculty and felt that they enjoyed students.</p>
<p>Hendrix’s overall facility is not as impressive as Grinnell’s. It has a nice new student center but other buildings had a bit more wear (but still nice).</p>
<p>The airport to Little Rock is closer (30 minutes) and the flights were a bit easier to navigate (we live in the south). The weather at Hendrix is a plus-very little snow and moderate temperatures (except at the beginning of the year when the heat sometimes reaches three digits).</p>
<p>As far as the students go, they were friendly and helpful at both schools. Hendrix had a more “polite” vibe, something true of most of the schools we visited in the south. Hendrix’s quirkiness seemed comparable to Grinnell-all types of folks.</p>
<p>Hendrix College recently sent out an e-mail touting their results in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). In this survey freshmen and seniors are asked a series of questions about the nature and quality of their college experience. Before basking in the glow of the positive Hendrix results, I wanted to see how their numbers compared to those of some other schools I’m familiar with and to LAC’s in general.</p>
<p>I went to the NSSE web site, followed some links, and ended up where USA Today (link below) published the survey results for five benchmark categories:</p>
<p>Level of academic challenge
Active and collaborative learning
Student-faculty interaction
Enriching educational experiences
Supportive campus environment</p>
<p>I pulled up the data for Grinnell and a handful of others (Knox, Hendrix, Austin, and the national average for LAC’s) and compared them side-by-side. Allowing for a smidge of statistical error, these are how the Grinnell students’ responses compared to the other three schools. (Please excuse the dots – CC deletes empty spaces, collapsing the table.)</p>
<p>Benchmark Category…Freshmen…Seniors
Level of academic challenge…First…First (tie)
Active and collaborative learning…First…Last (tie)
Student-faculty interaction…First …Last
Enriching educational experiences…First (tie)…Last
Supportive campus environment…First…Last</p>
<p>One important point to make is that the Grinnell seniors’ scores are HIGHER than the Grinnell freshmen’s scores (for the first four categories), it’s just that the seniors’ scores at the other three schools improved by a much larger margin. To me, this data suggests that Grinnell students came in much more pumped up about their college choice than did students at the other schools, but students at the other schools graduated with a higher opinion of their college than did Grinnellians. This is not an objective assessment of school quality, but a measure of student attitudes towards their own schools.</p>
<p>In the last category (Supportive campus environment), scores for all of the schools dropped from freshman to senior year, except for Austin College, which was up 0.9 points. Knox was off 3.8 points, Hendrix lost 0.4, and the national average was down 3.3, but Grinnell plunged a whopping 10.7 points. My gut reaction is that this is a reflection of living with the realities of student governance for four years, but there are too many contributing variables to really say anything for certain.</p>
<p>The data is all online here: [How</a> to make NSSE college scores work for you - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/nsse.htm]How”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/nsse.htm)</p>
<p>I"m not clear on what this data says to you. At all schools, I think you’re saying that the opinions of the experience went up from first to senior year, right? But, just that at the schools other than Grinnell they went up by a larger margin? </p>
<p>I guess you could infer whatever you want, but it seems only to be a cause of concern if the students were less satisfied at the end of their college experience than at the beginning, which doesn’t seem to be the case. You could say that the students at those other schools went in with low expectations and Grinnell students came in with high expectations – at the former schools, the expectations were greatly exceeded and at Grinnell the high expectations were borne out.</p>
<p>here’s the link to the NSSE results on Grinnell:
[Grinnell</a> College | Institutional Research](<a href=“http://web.grinnell.edu/institutionalresearch/nsse/nsse.htm]Grinnell”>Grinnell College | Institutional Research)</p>
<p>this link at the bottom of the page gets into the specifics of the students’ responses:
<a href=“http://web.grinnell.edu/institutionalresearch/nsse/nssewhatsay.htm[/url]”>http://web.grinnell.edu/institutionalresearch/nsse/nssewhatsay.htm</a></p>
<p>This is all quite interesting.</p>
<p>bottom line: 87% of seniors said they would choose Grinnell if they had to start their college career again! That seems to me quite a high satisfaction rate!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s pretty much the same conclusion I came to, I was just surprised that when it was all said and done, seniors at the other three schools seemed more satisfied overall with their choice of college than did seniors at Grinnell.</p>
<p>The 87% figure is impressive as a single data point, but I would prefer to see it in context – do other LAC’s get similar results? That particular number is harder to find. A quick and dirty Google search (“would choose this college again” and looking at school-reported values on the first page of results without clicking links) gave me Morrisville State College at 90% and Midlands Technical College at 99%. Obviously this isn’t the kind of comparison I’m looking for, but it does suggest that this particular stat might tend to run high, and 87% might be average for a LAC. (Or it might not be since most schools probably wouldn’t report this figure unless it was well above average…)</p>
<p>BTW, where Grinnell reported the NSSE results, they compared themselves with all schools in the survey, instead of just LAC’s. An LAC-only comparison probably would have been more meaningful. There were 769 schools in the 2008 survey, of which 142 were LAC’s. Against all NSSE schools in 2008, Grinnell is above average in every benchmark category, but against the LAC average they are above average only in rigor and enriching educational experiences.</p>
<p>And again, these responses are student impressions which can be manipulated by things like higher or lower expectations. Among the senior responses, Grinnell, Knox, and Hendrix all scored about the same on rigor. I doubt anyone here thinks those three schools have the same level of rigor, so the student expectations are clearly reflected in those numbers.</p>
<p>It could also be due to the culture of the campus and the personality of Grinnelians (to generalize a bit) – students who speak their minds, who don’t accept the status quo, etc. </p>
<p>I also think that because Grinnell has such a huge endowment, it might set up some friction in students’ minds as well, knowing that the school is so “rich” and yet there may be things that students want that they don’t get. (not trying to say they’re spoiled and whiners, but I would guess that this does have something to do with expectations.)</p>
<p>I think you’re right, too, in suggesting that the self-governance system has something to do with expectations as well. Again, I don’t think this means that students are unhappy or don’t like the administration, but that they learn to manage themselves – and take part in the school’s management as well – and so learn to be critical consumers. (I mean this as a positive – critical in the sense of evaluative, not complaining.)</p>
<p>And, it’s likely that some aspects of Grinnell needed improving, and in which case, as noted in the report, the school uses this data as an assessment tool. This report notes some inititiatives it had underway that were likely to improve some of its lower scores. As a parent, I have been so impressed with the transparency of Grinnell’s planning and self-awareness. There are a TON of documents available on the website. The new president is also committed to open and two-way communication; he’s got a blog and a Q&A page on the website, for example </p>
<p>I have no doubt that many, if not most, Grinnellians love it there, but that some have not been happy at all. I’d be surprised if it were any other way.</p>
<p>I also just wanted to say that I know nothing about Hendrix (except that I was curious when this post came up, and looked it up; it looks like a cool place, too!), so my comments are only about Grinnell.</p>
<p>Personally, my S made his decision totally on fit, primarily based on his perception of the student body and sense of community at Grinnell. He tried a spreadsheet comparison of all his choices, but that got him nowhere!</p>