While still patiently waiting for the rest of the responses to come in, we took another trip to Dickinson for and overnight visit accepted student day. My Daughter enjoyed the overnight visit and the chance to experience what a night at college is like. She had the opportunity to interact and speak to a number of students. They had a good amount of people for the accepted students day program. I thought the speech that Dean of Career Development gave was excellent. Seemed they he was very into helping these kids.
My Daughter did come away with the impression that Dickinson might be a bit preppier than she had thought/expected, but that could just be a factor of who was there that day and who she had interactions with. She really wants to have low amount of preppy/greek influence, diversity and mixing of all different types of people. For some reason, she thinks Kenyon is more that way than Dickinson/Denison, but, from all of the stats, those 3 appear to be very similar to me in that regard. Also, found out that Dickinson doesn’t have Model UN, which is strange considering they have a pretty good poly-sci program. Not sure how we missed that, but that’s not going to be a huge factor in the decision anyhow.
How Grinnell and Mac may differ, I’m not sure. Looking forward to a positive response from both of them so that we can visit and see in person.
Based purely on reputation, having considered all of the above but only actually visited Kenyon, my impression is that Dickinson/Denison/Kenyon have, overall, a preppier vibe, and Grinnell/Mac less. But others who’ve been onsite should really weigh in with more authority!
Have been to Dickinson, Denison, Grinnell and Kenyon several times, Mac was not on either kid’s list so that is one the one we do not know at all.
Grinnell seemed to the quirkiest community of the four, although Grinnell still had the full range of “types” from Vineyard Vines to multi-colored hair etc.
Kenyon, Dickinson and Denison all have roughly 30% Greek life participation, though with varying twists, which can be a consideration in student life. I believe none are residential – I know for sure both Kenyon and Denison are non-residential, and I am pretty sure Dickinson is the same. I believe all 3 have January rush, rather than fall, so freshman have time to settle in before they decide about Greek life. I have heard from Dickinson students (and the Common Data set supports this), that sorority life has higher participation than fraternity life there so that could be a factor for a female student.
Denison (one of our favorites), is interesting because, while it still has the lingering reputation of a preppy student body, it has roughly 20% first gen students and works very hard to have a diverse student body, not just racially and ethnically, but also socio-economically.
Congrats to your D! I haven’t been to the schools she has so far been accepted to, but my friend’s son goes to Denison and says it’s quite preppy.I have visited both Mac and Grinnell and my D is a first year at Grinnell. Neither are preppy in the least! Mac is a great liberal arts college for students interested in a being in a city. Its campus is quite small, but nice, and the quality of the faculty is top notch. My D preferred the more idyllic community of Grinnell and she loves its campus (I think it’s much more appealing than Mac’s, but that’s certainly not a reason to choose one over the other!). Students at Mac can live off campus after 2 years so it also felt more diffuse to her. For her, going to Grinnell was a way to leave home but feel “safe” if that makes sense (we live in CA). She loves Grinnell, by the way, and we’re happy to answer questions if you have them. My DH is a Mac alum too, but his info about the place is a bit out of date :).
Also, no Greek life at either Mac or Grinnell.
@dawnpaige Very helpful info, thanks. She still has Kenyon on top in her mind, but I think Grinnell would be ideal for her. Of course, that’s in a world where she gets accepted and gets enough merit aid to either/both. Other schools may provide more merit aid and then the decision becomes trickier.
Once we are able to visit Grinnell and Mac, she’ll have a better feel of how they compare to the others.
How’s the travel to/from Grinnell? How do they get to/from the airport?
The travel is not ideal, but hasn’t made her like it any less. She takes the shuttle to Des Moines and then 2 flights. Kids have taken Uber from the airport and it’s pretty reasonable. The nice thing is that aside from the week off in October, their breaks are long (spring break is 2 weeks; winter is five). So the travel time does result in some nice down time and Des Moines airport is very easy!
Sounds like she’s a good candidate for Mac and Grinnell so I hope all goes well. Keep us posted!
Also if your D gets in and visits the campus you can message me and I’ll connect her with my D. Sounds like they might be similar – my D is “sub free” and would not enjoy a more preppy environment.
Will do. Hopefully, both Grinnell and Mac will pan out and we’ll get to visit both.
That’s what we did. Flew to MN and drove down to Des Moines after Mac’s. We ended up cancelling our East Coast Admitted Students Day trips because she was set on Grinnell after that (she had visited it before though).
Another nice positive today. Accepted to SUNY Geneseo with a $10K/year scholarship. Don’t think the SUNYs give too much merit aid, so this was a real surprise. That’s well more than full tuition. I don’t even want to think that we could just send her there for $10K/year.
Anyhow, the wait continues for the rest. Less than 4 weeks to go.
Can’t wait to hear about the other schools and where your daughter decides to go!!
How did you find out about the 10K from Geneseo? Was it in her acceptance letter? Just wondering how/when they make merit $ decisions.
Yes, separate page in the acceptance package that we received in there mail.
Macalester is on the board! $14K merit scholarship offer. Hopefully, will get a chance to visit in early April.
Also accepted to Denison, but any merit offer they made is in the mail and we are expecting to get that tomorrow.
Thinking we might hear from Grinnell and Kenyon at the end of this coming week. At that point, we’d have all of the top ones in and can see where things stand and plan the final visits.
Congrats on the Mac scholarship! You will have nice options to consider in the end.
Good luck!
Denison package came in the mail today. $24K/year merit scholarship offer for my daughter. Thought she had a good shot at the $45K award based on her stats and the on-campus interviewer feedback. It’s going to be tough for Denison at this point as she has schools she likes better with close offers. They did provide an Air Denison cert for a free trip out there, so it may still get a look depending on what we hear from Kenyon and Grinnell.
Also, got a package from Lafayette today with the $24K/year Marquis Scholarship offer. Lafayette probably isn’t the best fit for her, so not sure anything will happen there, but it was very nice to receive this offer.
Seems like Kenyon will be Friday afternoon and Grinnell hopefully Friday or Saturday and then we’ll really have an idea of where things stand and where she’s got to visit yet. Those are 2 of her top choices, so still a lot of be decided based on those results.
Almost there!
@lexluthor5 Wow! I’m following along and very excited on your behalf. It’s just amazing. I have a question which you don’t have to answer, but I was wondering if when your daughter applied to these schools she also applied for financial aid. I got the impression that you weren’t expecting aid and were relying on merit, but now I’m wondering if these schools are more generous when someone has the stats AND the need. Anyway, your daughter must be so happy with all these offers:)
Yes, it’s very exciting for all of us. I’m glad this thread is helpful to anyone here.
We have filled out all of the financial aid applications, but didn’t expect to receive any aid. Just getting the unsubsidized student loan offer.
Thank you! This thread has been very helpful and insightful. It’s good to know that filling out the FA forms didn’t hurt in any way. That’s something I wasn’t sure about:whether to apply to FA or not if you don’t think you will be eligible. Thanks again!!