PLEASE HELP: BARD or GRINNELL

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hello.
I'm still undecided between Bard and Grinnell, and need to make the decision. I would appreciate feedback about all aspects of these two colleges, from both students and from their parents.
Thanks so much.</p>

2

<p>I have no information regarding Bard but we took our daughter to visit Grinnell last summer. It definitely has a free spirited but intellectual feel. On earlier college visits I had found required reading for courses to be very informing so I checked out the course books in the college bookstore. They were every bit as challenging as anything I had read in courses at Columbia. We visited Carleton, Macalaster, St. Olaf and Grinnell. Grinnell was my daughter’s hands down favorite. For comparison, St. Olaf was the most wholesome and least intellectual. It was the school I would have chosen if I had sent my daughter to college at age 15.</p>

3

<p>For location I’d choose Bard. For the intellectual caliber of the place I’d choose Grinnell, hands down. You decide which is more important to you.</p>

4

<p>Have you seen this thread in the Grinnell forum?</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/grinnell-college/438138-why-grinnell.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/grinnell-college/438138-why-grinnell.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Apollo, this is a interesting strategy. How were you able to evaluate books in the bookstore? Did you actually find a college where they were less challenging books? </p>

<p>As a prof who has had to read many a book to make selections, I see huge differences that drive my choices, but not in terms of ‘challenge’. Textbooks are textbooks that vary by orientation and topics I look for. It takes me hours to assess them. And I’d not be in a position to assess books outside my field. But maybe there is something to this.</p>

<p>But also as someone who has taught at Ivy, top schools and state, I
absolutely know the perceived differences between the top x schools (esp between ‘ivy’ and all else) is ridiculously overrated on CC and among the general population…as if a school with a mean of 2150 is compsoed of students that need and will receive a different education than say a school of kids with a mean of 2000… Craziness.</p>

6

<p>I echo bclintonk’s comments about Grinnell.</p>

7

<p>Grinnell is a great place, no doubt, but Bard also is widely recognized for the intellectual rigor of its approach and the intellectualism on campus.</p>