I am now considering applying to Grinnell, to be frank, until they sent me a letter, I had not even heard of them. I would be applying in with a 3.5 and a 34 ACT, making it a stretch (incoming GPA is waaaay higher than mine). I just discovered it a couple weeks back, visited coming West from U. Iowa (safety school) this week.
Because there is no summer school, the campus was nearly deserted. Besides our guide, there wasn’t anyone really to ask this to. My guide sold the school fairly well, as it was literally her job. These were the questions:
1.) The town seems fairly empty, how does the average student pass the weekend? Does the school feel isolated?
2.) Grinnell has earned some repute as an incredibly liberal student body (via Niche, Admitted.ly, PR), is this a fair assessment of the body as a whole, and does it tolerate moderates?
3,) I go to a high school with ~300 MORE students than Grinnell. Does Grinnell have the same sense of community and knowing everyone that your high school did? Is this ever bad?
4.) The college seems to have a stronger focus on the sciences than most LACs I have researched. Do humanities/history/political science students get the same quality education out of it?
5.) What did you lose, if anything, due to Grinnell’s size/location? (Merit aid, research opportunities, networks, etc.)
The students mostly just hang out with other students on the weekends. You can go out to Prairie Canary or something if you really want to go out, but most people just stay on campus. There's plenty to do on campus, but it can be hard to avoid the drinking culture on campus on the weekends.
Grinnell is fairly liberal on the whole, but that doesn't mean that every student is extremely liberal, and even liberals disagree with other liberals on certain issues. There is definitely a tolerant atmosphere on campus, but you might still be uncomfortable if you are far right on the political spectrum.
I still don't know everyone at Grinnell, but I definitely know most of the people in my year. If you are a social butterfly, you might actually know the majority of the students here, though.
All the departments are pretty good. Humanities and social sciences are very well represented. Poli Sci in particularly is very popular on campus.
I don't think I lost out on anything. Maybe if you want to live the frat lifestyle, you'll miss out on that. There are no fraternities or sororities on campus. Other than that, you'll find plenty to do, even out in the middle of a cornfield.
Because of the student body’s size, it’s hard to come into contact with anybody at Grinnell. That being said, these answers are so incredibly helpful for me. There aren’t very many schools where my only concerns are the size and town. It is very high on my list right now. I assumed there would be a drinking culture there anyways, because, as Paul Newman once said, “small town, ain’t much to do in the evenin’.”
I’ll certainly be visiting back when the school year begins there, and from what I have read of the school, I am interested in applying. The average GPA is a bit unsettling, but I hold some hope my ACT makes up for it.
Thanks again, Kudryavka.
The size and remoteness can be good and bad, I think you must consider how you may respond. I do know a student who visited many LAC and ended up at a more conservative, more partying, more fratty school where people dress up more and found the Grinnell laid back style not for him. You might do study abroad and summer REU at a larger place for a change of scene. They have Grinnell semester in Washington and a few other US programs.
Grinnell has a massive endowment over 1.8 bln so they have a lot of resources to spend on students be it research resources, grand and events brought to campus.
@BrownParent, thanks.
I was aware that Grinnell had a strong reputation, but was not expecting it to be THAT strong. A school of 1700 students being 7th for PhDs is far better than I had anticipated. That’s beyond impressive.
That being said, I am still trying to get a pros/cons going on the remoteness, but so far, it appears to be a good trade-off for top-caliber academics, a nice, if very small, campus, and incredible grad. school placement.
It’s exactly as you put it, BrownParent, I just need to decide if the town is someplace I would want to live in for four years and whether or not I should be going for a laid-back school. I do my best when I’m competing with my peers, and though they would be great competitors there, I wonder if my attitude would fit there.
@Kinglok12 I am freshman entering Grinnell. I haven’t experienced it first hand but from what I’ve heard the students at Grinnell aren’t competitive. That doesn’t mean they don’t work hard and earn good grades. Grinnell’s academics is really rigorous so students work really hard. However, it just means that the students are more collaborative rather than competitive. Students generally don’t ask about each about grades. This might be something you might want to consider…
@YOLOOLOY, congrats on getting in; Grinnell’s standard is no joke. I have heard that about the student body and it is something I have to consider. I’m rather competitive.
=)
Thanks!
Here’s an old thread that has lots of info on Grinnell. S and D-in-law are both relatively recent alums and loved it there. The plus of a small town is that almost everyone lives and socializes on campus, faculty are part of the school community, and the cultural norms tend to be highly cooperative. Factor in too that most juniors study abroad for part or all of the year. And every year, 400 students graduate and 400 new ones arrive. You might recognize everyone by the end of the school year - but there will be 400 new faces in the fall. (S’s high school was much bigger than Grinnell - 2,500 - but it’s different because those were kids he’d known since elementary school - and their families. So his high school felt smaller even though it was actually quite a bit larger than Grinnell.)
Last tip on drinking: Both S and D-in-law met because they lived in sub-free housing, which is very nice. They liked to party once in a while, but they also wanted to be able to leave the party and go back to a dorm that was clean and quiet when they’d had enough, and also to meet other people whose primary social life didn’t involve partying. The school provides a lot of sub-free activities if you want to check that out too.
@N’s Mom, thanks for the thread. Was out of town, couldn’t check that until now.
Thanks to everyone for your replies, it’s incredibly helpful because, as I said, it’s much harder to find Grinnell students or alum than it is for the bigger schools. I guess this is a wrap, unless someone has a different take on the initial questions.
@merc81, yeah, that makes sense. I meant more that I hadn’t really expected a school of 1700 to have the resources and brand to really compete with the larger schools. Obviously Grinnell’s endowment makes that more of a non-issue than it would be for like…Beloit. It doesn’t mean it’s better or worse as a school, but it seems that research is the best way to prepare for PhD, though I could be wrong. Thanks.
@mommaoftwo, Yes, I’ve visited Carleton and liked it very much. That being said, while Grinnell’s difficult to get into in its own right, Carleton’s going to be a real stretch for me. That being said, it was pretty awesome. If it came down to Carleton or Grinnell, that’d be the hardest decision I foresee on my list. XD
@Kinglok12: Undergraduate research can definitely be a good way to prepare for a PhD, but this is an area where certain LACs at least hold their own. The Apker Award, for example, is awarded for undergraduate research in physics, and it finds a recipient at one LAC, as well as one research university, annually.
If you are interested in another way, other than the high representation in PhD programs, that Grinnell in particular over-performs, simply look at Fulbright Awards. Grinnell students perennially do well amid the considerable competition for this award, and last year received nine scholarships.
@merc81, thanks again! It’s interesting that this thread’s come back to life somewhat.
I understood that Grinnell in particular is well-represented, but I did not know how well represented it was. Even from what I know of their student body’s capabilities, their showing was surprising.
Honestly, I really cannot decide if Grinnell is my first choice over some of its competition. I love the atmosphere, its mission, and its focus on independence, but there’s so many good schools here. It seems like a good fit, and I’ll definitely be applying. This thread has become more of a “if it comes down to Grinnell vs. [ Misc. LAC ] where do I go?” In finding more info, through this thread and a couple of current students, it’s become a better candidate.
In regards to my original post here, it seems like my original worries and some new ones have been resolved. It’s just a matter of visiting again when it’s up-and-running again for the Fall semester. Then I’ll have all that I need to decide what’s a first-choice. I’ve pretty much finished my common app, so I should have time to visit and still apply ED if I wish to.
For now, I figure this thread’s run its course.
Thanks to all of you for your time and patience; you’ve all been more helpful than you can imagine.