I can't decide! Hamilton vs. Macalester vs. Reed vs. Grinnell

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've been accepted to 6 colleges. The 4 that are still in the running are Hamilton, Macalester, Reed, and Grinnell. FA is pretty similar at all of them. I just can't decide, and my mom wants me to have a decision by this Friday. I'm waitlisted at my top choice, Carleton, and my second choice, Swarthmore, but I need a third. I honestly have no idea which one to choose.</p>

<p>Here are my pros and cons to each:
Hamilton:
Pros: 2 hours by car away from my house (enough to be "away at school" but not so much that I can never come home and have to miss Thanksgiving)
Open curriculum
Large, beautiful campus - Definitely my favorite campus
I already have a sweatshirt (hey, I could save $30)</p>

<p>Cons: Preppy - Students are more "mainstream" than at the other 3; I might not fit in as well
Not as "nerdy" an academic environment
Frats and sororities
Fewer international students, smaller % doing study abroad
More pre-professional, fewer going to grad school</p>

<p>Macalester
Pros: Strong international focus (I want to major in international relations)
Very liberal
Very nerdy (based on the impression I got listening in on convos during lunch there)
I would probably fit in well there
Access to internships</p>

<p>Cons: In a city (I want trees!) - Campus is actually a huge deal for me; if it wasn't for being in a city, I'd probably already have decided on Mac.
Ugliest campus out of the 4
Airfare to Minnesota</p>

<p>Reed
Pros: Very academic, nerdy
Very liberal
Warmer weather
Portland area is so pretty</p>

<p>Cons: Notoriously extreme workload
Strict distribution requirements
Haven't had a chance to visit
Airfare to Portland</p>

<p>Grinnell
Pros: I like the students there
Rural
Open curriculum
Liberal
Nerdy</p>

<p>Cons:
Almost TOO isolated
I prefer rural with trees and hills rather than rural with way too much corn
Airfare to Iowa (which is ridiculously expensive)</p>

<p>So yeah. These are all good schools, but they all have some fatal flaws that turn me off to them as well. So I really can't decide. Obviously nobody else can make the decision for me, but does anybody have any suggestions?</p>

2

<p>I gotta go with Macalester. Sure it’s in an urban area, but there are plenty of trees and lakes around not far away at all. The Twin Cities is also really accessible pretty cheaply as far as airfare goes.</p>

3

<p>I dunno, though. Like, I REALLY don’t want to be in a city.</p>

4

<p>Then it would seem that Macalester and Reed are out. Between Grinnell and Hamilton; I would choose Grinnell based on who I choose to grow with intellectually.</p>

5

<p>Reed is much closer in academic character to your first two choices. It has a 30 acre forested canyon in the middle of the campus, which gives it a park-like feeling. The campus is also much more spacious than Mac (>2X), which seems inserted in the midst of an urban residential grid. Trees in Oregon and on campus are much larger than those found in the East. There is even more green space adjacent to the college in the form of a golf course with a rhododendron garden and a small park beyond. Reed is really more surburban than urban, but you can get downtown by bus easily. There are places in Portland where you can even go hiking like in Forrest Park and Washington Park in the West hills region.</p>

<p>Both Grinnell and Hamilton are both very insular places and hard to escape for just a short time.</p>

<p>Swarthmore’s work load is more substantial than Reed’s. What happens if OP gets in at Swat?</p>

<p>I’d also tell my mom that there is no reason to make a decision by Friday April 19th.</p>

6

<p>You lay out the pros and cons well on what you like – based on what your wrote Grinnell seems to be a good match for you</p>

7

<p>Macalester isn’t in a bricks-and-asphalt kind of urban area. It’s in a leafy, upscale residential neighborhood with lots of trees, and personally I find the Mac campus rather pleasant, but also with good access to urban amenities like shops and restaurants along Grand Ave. and easy access to both downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul. Get a bike and you’ll be about a 3-minute ride to parkland along the bluffs above the Mississippi River, with parks along both sides of the river providing a continuous ribbon of miles and miles of parkland, bluffs, trees, scenic views, and spectacular fall foliage. You can explore the Saint Paul side for the entire length of the city, explore the wetlands and riparian bottomland forest in Crosby Farm Park (where I swear you’ll think you’re a million miles away from a city), or cross over to the Minneapolis side and visit Minnehaha Falls Park, then bike up another park along Minnehaha Creek, or bike downstream along the Mississippi into Fort Snelling State Park, at the convergence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, the place the Dakota people, original occupants of this area, deemed the center of the world. I bike along the River all the time. Most days I see a bald eagle or two; often deer or wild turkeys.</p>

<p>Saint Paul is a city, but one blessed with a lot of nature, and personally I find the landscape here much more interesting and enjoyable than a bunch of Iowa cornfields.</p>

8

<p>Do you like to bike ride? The terrain around Grinnell is stunning. Yes, it is farmland, but it is rolling hills and wide open sky. Really gorgeous. Also, there are parks that students go to which may have alot of trees (I don’t know). If I were you, I’d ask someone in the Outdoor program to tell you more about the natural settings available in the surrounding area. </p>

<p>I agree with the poster who wonders why Reed’s workload is a turnoff if Carleton and Swarthmore are top choices.</p>

9

<p>Grinnell. You liked the students, it’s not in a city, it’s academically challenging. The “fit” sounds the best overall. And SDonCC is right that the surrounding area is lovely. There are state parks full of trees and rolling hills. It’s not all cornfields AT ALL.</p>

10

<p>If you loved Carleton and Swat, then Grinnell seems more like those two than do Mac, Reed and Hamilton. My son looked hard at Grinnell, and he described smart, interesting, liberal, nerdy but not too far out for him, kids, plus they take their academics very seriously. Personally, I thought the stretch from Iowa City to Grinnell was quite lovely, rolling farms and cows rather than corn fields (we lived in Kansas for a while – now that was flat with corn fields . . . . ).</p>

<p>Good luck, those are some great options.</p>

11

<p>Although Reed is technically in Portland, its campus, based on the pictures I’ve seen, seems less urban than Mac’s. I’m not taking Mac off my list, though, because I really do like everything else about it. </p>

<p>As far as Reed’s workload, Reed seems to have more of a reputation for “all-work-all-the-time” than either Carleton or Swarthmore. Both Carls and Swatties seem happier and more involved outside of schoolwork, compared to what I’ve read about Reed. I actually want to work very hard in college, and that’s part of what attracts me to Reed, but I also want time for a significant amount of extracurricular activities; I don’t want my whole life to be consumed with academics. It’s not so much a worry that I can’t handle the workload, or a desire to slack off; I’m just already worried about fitting in everything I want to do in college, and it seems like that would be more of a problem at Reed. But like I said, I haven’t had a chance to visit Reed, so I haven’t really been able to see the academic environment first-hand, unfortunately. All I have to go on are stereotypes and speculation.</p>

<p>As far as why I have to make a decision by Friday, I have no idea, but that’s what my mom said. Something about Grinnell requesting extra financial aid info due by May 1st that she won’t have time to do if I decide later or something… But right now I’m freaking out and I kind of wish I could just have until May 1st like everyone else. Dx</p>

12

<p>^ So you have visited 3 out of the 4? That makes it more difficult to decide. Any chance you could get to Portland? </p>

<p>Mom’s constraints sound like a yes or no on Grinnell by Friday, or maybe she wants to see you putting that Hamilton sweatshirt to good use ASAP.</p>

13

<p>If Grinnell is asking for additional financial aid info now, does that mean your package might increase? If so, why not just have your mom send whatever it is along already? And yes, as a parent I know what a pain all the $ stuff is.</p>

14

<p>According to my mom, Grinnell selects a few accepted students at random to submit to more FA checking to ensure the validity of their FA claims. I don’t really know much about FA so I can’t explain better than that, sorry. And my mom doesn’t want to have to send all the extra stuff to Grinnell if I don’t go there, which is why she’s not doing it now. She also just likes to set ridiculous random deadlines for everything, so I don’t know. She wanted me to finish all my apps by the end of October, too. But I have no room to complain; I’d be lost without her. =P I’d be useless at anything involving money.</p>

<p>No chance of getting to Portland, which makes it really difficult. I’ve visited the other 3. =/</p>

15

<p>Is there a college you can cross off your list? How about giving scores for different living and academic attributes you think are important. Going through the exercise may help you figure out what’s most important to you. If you took Grinnell out of the running - would you have more time?</p>

16

<p>My son applied to similar schools. He would NOT be happy at Hamilton. </p>

<p>Go for Grinnell. They have plenty to do on campus. The fit is right.</p>

17

<p>The big draws for Hamilton are the open curriculum, beautiful campus, and location. I’d love to be within a few hours’ driving distance of home, and obviously that’s not going to happen at any of my other options. But I don’t know if any of that is enough to outweigh the fact that I wouldn’t fit in quite as well there as at my other choices.</p>

18

<p>Grinnell has open curriculum (unless it changed dramatically since last year when my son applied – there was only one requirement, something like a freshman seminar). Personally, I find the campus beautiful, with the long quad and dorms on either side, but that is a personal response and everyone will have their own reactions.</p>

19

<p>“Grinnell selects a few accepted students at random to submit to more FA checking to ensure the validity of their FA claims”</p>

<p>This makes Grinnell sound like the IRS. You are being audited? That’s not welcoming.</p>

<p>“She wanted me to finish all my apps by the end of October, too.”</p>

<p>And then the Carleton application?</p>

<p>BTW, Reed freshman Humanities 110 is 1.5 units per semester, So there are freshman at Reed who take 7 units during the freshman year. This is common for those who take both biology and chemistry. Otherwise, the normal load is 4 units (courses) per semester.</p>

<p>There is a new performing arts center opening this September at Reed which will put Music Theatre and Dance departments under one roof. The new building is likely to boost interest and participation in these areas.</p>

<p>[Reed</a> College | Performing Arts Building](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/performing_arts/]Reed”>Performing Arts Building - Reed College)</p>

<p>[Reed</a> College’s $28 million arts center brings theater, dance, music together | OregonLive.com](<a href=“http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2012/07/reed_college_builds_28_million.html]Reed”>Reed College's $28 million arts center brings theater, dance, music together - oregonlive.com)</p>

20

<p>You want to be closer to home so Reed is out :slight_smile: Reed also may be close to your two waitlist faves in terms of rigor but otherwise maybe is the most different than those two.</p>

<p>Grinnell is very hard to get to also, and after months of seeing all those beautiful cornfields bclintock’s description of St Paul and the river sound nice.</p>

<p>Hamilton too preppy…no way around that…and you’ll get over Thanksgiving or get back anyway.</p>

<p>Mac is the compromise choice…especially if my own D picks it in the next 2 weeks :)</p>

<p>Note: I begged my D to apply to Grinnell for months…and I lost.</p>