Grinnell vs. top LACs and Dartmouth

Colleges and Universities A-Z Grinnell College
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<p>Hey, so Grinnell offered my $15,000 a year (and the same applies for Franklin and Marshall) (plus a less expensive base cost), putting the total about half of that of Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Dartmouth, and Georgetown (which is not in the title, sorry). $90,000 vs. $180,000.</p>

<p>Now, I lean towards the other schools, BUT it may be superficial, it is not like a state school vs. those. What I want to know is what you think of that option. My concerns are as follows (I mean no offense by any, they are in the most part much smaller than what I like about Grinnell):</p>

<p>1.) The calibur of students. While students at Grinnell are very intelligent and outgoing, if I could recieve $15,000, then they May not be at the very highest level that I am looking at (Seriously, I mean absolutly no offense, it is a case of apples vs. oranges, not prunes vs. peaches).</p>

<p>2.) Location. OK, they say that Dartmouth and Middlebury are remote (not compared to where I live), but Iowa really is. Now i know that they say that there are things to do on Campus, and I don't really look for things off campus, BUT it is IOWA.</p>

<p>3.) Education. It may be slightly less challenging and provide less opportunities in the field of Policial Science.</p>

<p>4.) Connections. A place like Dartmouth or Georgetown especially can provide great for later in life.</p>

<p>5.) Overall slighly less possiblities.</p>

<p>SO, convince me why I should go to Grinnell and save $90,000 (means no debt out of college). Both sides, and all arguments are welcome. I hope I mean no offense.</p>

<p>With many questions,
Nickleby</p>

<p>P.S. I also see a similar situation for Franklin and Marshall, which is ranked about 40 on U.S. News instead of around 16 (I don't put too much stock, but that is a significant difference). It is $120,000 total but is in Pennsylvania. Any advice here?</p>

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<p>I wouldn't assime because they are giving you more money that the caliber of studnet is less. Grinnell has one of, if not the, highest per student endowments among the LACs. They are able to give lots of money. Still the average scores etc of some of your schools are undobtedly higher and Grinnell is in the middle of nowher. I think one issue might be your ability to stand out in the school and the opportunities it offers. Grinnell also uses its resources to fund tons of internships which you would be more likely to get as one of the top students among the group. They also have a Grinnell in DC program which might help compensate for the remoteness.</p>

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<p>It's all about the fit. I think the best thing to do is visiting each school and see how you "feel" about it. </p>

<p>And also, some say it all comes down to money. Perhaps further down the road you might realize that humongous debt you have is not worth it at all. Who knows, good luck with everything!</p>

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<p>unique in the LACs. About the money - they can afford it, it's not an attempt to buy students. Their endowment is over $1 billion and doing well in terms of growth. I am told Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway fame consulted with them in setting up the dynamics of their portfolio.</p>

<p>A close friend and colleague here is an associate of their director of development. He says his friend said it took a bit of doing getting used to the endowment gaining and loosing 10's if not 100's of millions of dollars on cyclical fluctuations.</p>

<p>Our small high school has sent several students there, most of them children of university faculty here. No complaints.</p>

<p>It is a matter of fit though, a good financial aid package won't make a miserable person happy at 2AM some morning a month or two after arriving and finding that he/she hates the place.</p>

<p>Here's a link re: Warren Buffett, a Life Trustee at Grinnell</p>

<p><a href="http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/president/trustee/memberintro/buffett/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/president/trustee/memberintro/buffett/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Be sure to visit and overnight, and if you enroll, don't hitch a ride on the slow trains that run through campus, it's an expulsion offense according to the student admissions person that we met with. :-)</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>Bill</p>

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<p>I go to Grinnell, and I can spell "caliber" correctly. ;-)</p>

<p>The quality of student here is very high. The difference between Grinnell and...Dartmouth, for instance? Self-selection is the primary, I'd say facilities are secondary, and location is tertiary and certainly affects self-selection.</p>

<p>Grinnell doesn't offer a lot of money to qualified students because those students are more qualified than the student base. I know that sounds odd, but that lies on the premise that Grinnell can (and generally does) give generous aid to everyone. Grinnell may offer nice amounts of aid to compensate for some things, such as their location and lack of a twelve gazillion book library (although the one here is more than adequate) but, it does not offer nice amounts of aid to compensate for a less-qualified student body. The median ACT score at Grinnell for the class of 2009 was 31.</p>

<p>Typical Grinnell student? A very intelligent person who may or may not have really cared about "playing the game" of high school. They probably didn't care about going to Harvard, didn't do a bunch of extracurriculars just so it would look good--instead doing ones they actually wanted to do--and wanted to go somewhere that isn't cut-throat, stuck-up, and all upper-class whitebread. It's a very unique place. If you are considering attending, you'd do yourself justice to visit.</p>

<p>BTW, I felt compelled to respond because I selected Grinnell over Dartmouth, among others. It's the best decision I have ever made.</p>

2 Likes
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<p>This is an old thread - but, hey, if it gets some conversation going, why not. Between F&M and Grinnell -- I'd have to say that Grinnell is a far better school. Would be interesting to know where Nickleby ended up.</p>

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<p>Sebastian, why is it the best decision you have ever made? What in particular fo you value about your educational experience at Grinnell? What part of the US are you from?</p>

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<p>sebastian0622: Grinnell does offer a lot of money to highly qualified students in order to lure them away from more prestigious schools. If you ask some of the more qualified people why they chose Grinnell over better known schools, they'll say a lot of stuff then mention that the money didn't hurt. Clearly, they're getting a better deal. Grinnell's aid isn't uniformly good; I remember in my year Grinnell also admitted a girl in my class, a girl who, frankly, didn't have impressive qualifications -- she got crap aid because Grinnell hedged that she'd be willing to accept lots of debt for the relative prestige of Grinnell (relative to a student of her caliber).</p>

<p>You're dead-on about the typical Grinnellian, of course. Grinnell gives the impression that it's a primarily middle-class school. You know, children of hardworking middle class parents, upstanding folk. Of course, that's not true -- a great deal of the students here are white and upper-middle class.</p>

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<p>I believe it is probably the case that the average family income for a Grinnell student would be lower than at a lot of east coast LACs of the same academic caliber. The administration got knocked a couple of years ago for trying to recruit a wealthier student population. From what I hear, they've had some success. What this means for them, however, is that they are able to be extremely generous with need-based aid. And they offer very nice merit aid packages as well.</p>