<p>I have been accepted to all three schools and is having a hard time deciding where to go. I value:
a good library
student body diversity
reputation
grad school acceptance
how strong the econ/political science majors are
good French( Beginners)/Chinese lit courses
also interested in learning to write well, and East Asian studies</p>
<p>also while I'm willing to try a small town environment, I grew up in Guangzhou, Toronto, Hong Kong and Shanghai, all of which are very urban.</p>
<p>Any advice and knowledge about those schools would be great ( and I cannot visit campus due to my current location in china).</p>
<p>One of my sons is at Grinnell, but also was accepted at Hamilton. My other son was accepted to McGill. We visited all 3. My son grew up in a large Asian city. He chose Grinnell over Hamilton because he wanted a school with a larger international student population and a more eclectic student body. He went in a very skilled writer but has really thrived in the demanding writing program at Grinnell. He has enjoyed every aspect of Grinnell. The academic departments are universally solid, the campus is archetypical small college. As you surely know, there is a reasonable number of Chinese nationals, my son's freshman year roommate was from Nanjing. The facilities and programs are second to none as Grinnell has a huge endowment. It is an accepting and fun loving group of students. </p>
<p>He applied to and very much liked Hamilton which is the quintessential northeastern liberal arts college. It has a funky campus because half the campus used to be a women's college, which was merged into Hamilton. I like both halves of the campus...which is pretty and heavily wooded in parts. The student body is probably a bit more 'preppy' and northeastern in their orientation. Solid academics, of course. There were some ups and downs at the school the last few years over issues related to someone who was invited as a speaker and a few other things, but I doubt any impact on the educational program. My son really liked it, he just liked Grinnell more- he felt it was more intellectual and more spontaneous. </p>
<p>McGill is an entirely different sort of school- large and urban and Canadian. Montreal is a fabulous city with everything you could want. Unlike the other 2 schools, the school is less 'collegiate' in feeling and draws on the resources of the city very heavily. My son liked the students he met, whom he felt were fairly sophisticated. He opted for a school with more campus life, better physical facilities, and smaller class sizes.</p>