<p>@anxiousma </p>
<p>I have a 3.99 uw GPA, 1480/2240 SAT.
3 AP classes each junior and senior year.
Sports 15 hrs/week, dance 4 hrs a week
Significant leadership award.
My essay sucked, recommendations were probably good.</p>
<p>I received a 24k scholarship.</p>
<p>My daughter got accepted and invited to the early write weekend. Unfortunately we had a commitment that couldnt be rescheduled and couldnt go. </p>
<p>Her stats…4.1 gpa, 35 ACT, she interviewed last fall locally- she is very poised so the interview went well. Her essay was creative and touching but not sappy. Everyone that read it was moved to tears by it. She considers it a masterpiece 
</p>
<p>she receieved 21k trustee scholarship and 2k conney kimbo scholarship. We get no need based financial aid. </p>
<p>she received significantly more merit money from 2 other schools and she actually called fin aid at grinnell to see if their merit award could be negotiated considering the other offers and spoke to a friendly man who told her no, sorry you received the most we give…but now I see somebody received 24k…hmmm…</p>
<p>Son accepted, but less merit money than other schools. Merit puts it within reach for us, but he’s a very financially savvy guy. I wonder if perhaps Grinnell isn’t really that interested in him with only mid-level merit money. (Excellent stats/ECs/recs, applied to very few schools and visited all of them at least once, all but one he went back as a senior for overnights on his own.)</p>
<p>No idea what he’s going to pick. Only one more answer awaited and one last visit scheduled to make a decision.</p>
<p>Older son was ED with one true match, tons of merit, a much easier process. </p>
<p>S was waitlisted. Quite bummed actually, but fortunately he was accepted at his other little Midwestern gem, so it’s all good. I think he’ll ask to remain on Grinnell’s WL since he hasn’t gotten to visit either school yet.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everybody who got in! </p>
<p>Looks like the next (last?) batch of admits has been sent out and is being received.
@LucieTheLakie - I’m sorry to hear about your S’s getting waitlisted. Imagining there is a good chance of being pulled off the WL - (but idk how Grinnell manages their process, so its just imagining. Anyway - I’m sorry, and I’ll look forward to hearing where your s finally decides to go! (be it Grinnell or his other gem) </p>
<p>Received one rejection and one admission in the mail today, Fortunately, the acceptance was Grinnell (or else this post would be showing up under the other school’s name - lol!) </p>
<p>Wonder too about Grinnell’s level of interest - (Got a Trustee with 17k.) Wonder how much the grants factor into it. I mean, is it really comparing apples to apples when we look at how much scholarship one CCer was awarded compared to another (equal in stats? - as if any two could ever actually be equal - play along with me anyway…)</p>
<p>What I am asking is, does Grinnell look at how much a student is expected to pay (EFC) and how much money is left in Grinnell’s Grants pot to give out, and then decide on how much merit scholarship to give? </p>
<p>Or is it the other way around - that Grinnell first determines how much merit scholarship to give and then looks to see how much more the student would need in grant $ in order to reach the family’s EFC? </p>
<p>And how much does a need for a grant (or not needing a grant) factor into who makes the “early write” list?
Just trying to understand the system…
or not.
don’t need to.
Just sayin’.</p>
<p>I need aid, and I got an early write, however the fact that grinnell doesn’t do preferential packaging and also the fact that they rarely match other offers is probably going to keep me from attending. Congrats to all though!</p>
<p>@taores, thanks so much. The wait list letter was really nice, and my son did get right back to the school to express his interest in being on it, so we’ll see what happens. I’m getting the sense that they had a hard time managing the sheer volume of applications they received this year. I also wonder if the fact that they don’t include a supplement to the Common App makes it hard for them to tell which students are genuinely interested in Grinnell and which are just using it as a safety. </p>
<p>RE financial aid, I could be wrong, and hopefully some of the parents of current and past students will chime in, but I thought merit aid was generally used to entice full-pay families. Schools with large endowments (and Grinnell certainly fits that description) usually do a very good job of meeting full need with grants and maybe work-study. They don’t typically saddle a prospective student with a lot of loans or “gap” the family. I also thought that even though there’s been some discussion about changing their policy, for the time being they remain need-blind. But maybe I’m “misremembering”?</p>
<p>That’s true, but Grinnell truly is need-blind, and the admission office has no idea, it is true merit aid. </p>
<p>Missouriboy, I don’t know about that: the decision to admit or deny is need-blind, but after that, the Financial Aid office would work through the awards and at that is probably when merit aid is allocated. I hope that you get the outcome you want for college, and LucietheLakie i hope that your son ends up happy too! </p>
<p>My daughter has a good friend with similar stats to hers above that also got the early write. Grinnell offered her 18k merit and a 27k grant. Very nice FA package but it does leave 10k or so oop… They offered both girls (mine and friend) work for $2200. We arent eligible for need based aid according to Grinnell. They gave my daughter 21k trustee and 2k conney kimbo. </p>
<p>We are going to visit Grinnell in a couple of weeks with them. </p>
<p>@LucietheLakie sorry about the WL and good luck to your son wherever he chooses to go :)</p>
<p>Thanks, all! My son is REALLY happy with the choices he has right now, so it’s all good. Regardless of where he finally ends ups, I will say that the Grinnell-thread parents are my personal favorites! :-)</p>
<p>What about international students… Did not got an email</p>