<p>Hi! I was accepted and visited earlier this month, but was unable to do an overnight for various reasons. I loved the campus and all the people I met, but I had a few lingering questions.. It would be awesome if someone who attends Grinnell now to answer my questions if they can!</p>
<p>1) What do people wear? Does anyone even care what others are wearing?
2) How intense is the soccer team? Are there soccer intramural leagues?<br>
3) Do people talk about each other behind their backs/fake nice a lot?
4) Any experiences with biology there?
5) Any experiences with study abroad there?
6) Are there Shark Week viewing parties?
7) How are roommates decided?
8) Any experiences with GORP? How expensive are the trips usually? Are they hard to go on?</p>
<p>I'm wondering if Grinnell is a good fit for me. I visited and liked it, but couldn't spend as much time as I'd have liked there. I'm an ecology nerd who absolutely loves animals and reads articles about them for fun, as well as nuclear physics, and it would be awesome to not be made fun of for it. I also love the outdoors and enjoy walking around in forests and nature/bird watching. So what do you think?</p>
<p>I have a son at Grinnell, and can help you with some of your questions. No one cares what you wear. Be comfortable. When I look around at the campus every time I visit, that is exactly what I see: kids who dress comfortably, and that means different things to different people: whatever is clean that day to some; stylish to others; offbeat and idiosyncratic to some as well.</p>
<p>No one will laugh at you for any intense interests and, at least if my son and his friends are any indication, people will love, celebrate and support your interests and the fact that you have passions. You will not be the only person on campus who reads “articles for fun” Even though it is a small campus, odds are great that you will find, if not a large group, at least a few friends who not only share your particular interests but will thrill to having discussions and even forming an interest group or club around them, if that is something you wanted to do. </p>
<p>While I would imagine that there might be some people who gossip and / or are catty, the prevailing ethos is respect and kindness. Really. They aren’t kidding when they say “self-gov is love.” What this means is that Grinnellians strive to work together as members of a community. It doesn’t mean that people don’t argue and debate and speak out about what’s on their mind, though - they sure do alot of that. </p>
<p>I do know that Grinnell is a great area for bike riding – lots of open space, rolling hills, beautiful farmlands, big sky. The college has the Conard Environmental Area which restores prairie and is a beautiful place to walk, along with providing academic opportunities. <a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/academic/biology/cera[/url]”>http://www.grinnell.edu/academic/biology/cera</a> I recall there is Arbor Lake and another public park in the town, but that is the extent of my personal knowledge.</p>
<p>I think you will get more answers from current students if you post on the Grinnell Facebook page for prospies. CC doesn’t attract that much attention from students currently on campus, so most of your answers here are likely to come from parents.</p>
<p>I’d also encourage you to contact the school directly with questions, particularly about GORP. From the website, it gives this email address: <a href=“mailto:GORP@grinnell.edu”>GORP@grinnell.edu</a> </p>
<p>I’d be surprised if the cost of trips was very high. All (or virtually all) on campus activities are free. Currently, 85% of students receive Financial Aid, so any activities that require a fee would have to accommodate the reality of student budgets…</p>
<p>OP–if you open the link SDonCC provided, you’ll see pretty typical dress. My son’s GF feels more comfortable in dresses or skirts, so that’s what she wore. No one seems to care about what other people wear.</p>
<p>It really is a fun and friendly campus. My son made more friends in his first few weeks there than in all his life before Grinnell. These friendships are close and I expect many of them will be lifelong. Spring break has started and my son expects an influx of students to be camping out at his apt in Kansas City.</p>
<p>Also, roommates are decided by the college and they send you a long survey to complete about your habits. Be honest on it! They try as hard as they can to make pairings compatible.</p>
<p>All of Grinnell’s dorms are mixed years, but it does seem like they put at least a few first-years on every floor.</p>
<p>After the first year, you pick your own roommate(s), of course. If you do a semester abroad junior year, they’ll give you a single for the semester you’re on campus that you will “share” with a student who is studying abroad the other semester.</p>
<p>Study abroad–Grinnell has its own program in London. To go other places, they will hook you up with other programs. My son studied in Morocco with the Amideast program and had an excellent experience.</p>
<p>Most Grinnellians are unconventional thinkers and happy nerds. Sounds like you would fit right in!</p>
<p>I’m very interested in dark room photography. Is there a photo class or darkroom at Grinnell? I would love to keep taking black and white photos and be able to develop and print them on my own.
I’m interested in environmental science but there is no major, only a concentration. Is this an issue? I’m also interested in environmental chem but there only appears to be one class related to this.
Are there gluten free and vegetarian options? At some schools they have a designated gluten free toaster and everything in the dining hall but others didn’t seem to know what my disease is at all. It’s diagnosed and I read online they will accomodate it if I get a doctor’s note, which I easily could.
Are there any outdoor trips? I’m used to abundant forests and being able to hike. Hopefully there are still inexpensive opportunities to do so.</p>
<p>I might come up with more. Any other way to contact someone to ask these besides the FB page?</p>
<p>For the photography and environmental science, I would ask the school directly if you don’t hear from anyone here or can’t find the information on the school website. The outings you might want to email GORP as noted above (that’s the Outing Club). </p>
<p>Regarding the dining hall: yes, there is gluten free and vegetarian, and everything is labeled. My S has a food allergy and the labeling takes all the stress out of food choices for him. I don’t know if there is a gluten free toaster or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was, or if a student requested one for medical reasons I’d bet they’d put one in. Again, you can contact the school directly, and take a look at the Dining information: [Accommodation</a> - Dining | Grinnell College](<a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/dining/accommodations]Accommodation”>http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/dining/accommodations). The email of the staff is listed, so I would encourage you to ask someone directly.</p>
<p>To all prospies: don’t be afraid to contact the school directly with any specific questions. Colleges want to enroll students who will be happy and successful. It’s not to their benefit to have high rates of students who want to transfer out…</p>
<p>thirrdplanet–this is a question you need to ask the FA office. Give them a call. You are an accepted student and they want you to accept them now. They should be more than happy to answer your questions.</p>
<p>Hi! I just got accepted to Grinnell and had a few questions that I was hoping somebody over here could answer. Firstly I box and wanted to know if grinnell college had any nearby gyms or any boxing teams. according to the research I did i could not find anything but I just want to ask in case I missed anything. Is life at Grinnell boring? are there fun activities to do? Given that it is a rural campus with a very small student body. To which other major universities does grinnell have deals for student exchange programs? plus does anybody know if the 3-2 program at grinnell is a good idea or not?</p>
<p>The only one I can answer is about campus activities. The college brings in speakers, performers (music, dance etc), has parties every weekend, movies, there are sporting events. There would be no possible way to do it all. If a student was bored, it would be his or her own fault. My son’s favorite activity was hanging out with friends. Pretty much everything is free to students.</p>
<p>Hello, I also wanted to know that are we allowed to keep a car on campus.if not then are there buses going to Iowa city or nearby cities daily. plus are there any curfews?</p>
<p>Yes, you are allowed to have a car. There might be a bus on weekends to the cities. I can’t imagine that there are any curfews. If you really need to spend that much time in an urban environment, you might want a more urban campus. My son didn’t feel the need to leave campus/town very often, but everyone is different.</p>
<p>Hi Third Planet - the outside scholarship took me a while to figure out. Linda in FA was very patient in explaining, and in some cases reexplaining it to me. Feel free to message me and I can answer specific questions as well.</p>
<p>Basically, you keep the first 3,000 and after that they split anything over that 50/50 with reducing aid received. So if you get 5,000 outside scholarship, 3,000 gets applied to your account and then the next 2,000 gets split, 1,000 applied to your account and 1,000 reducing aid.</p>
Even though it is a small campus, odds are great that you will find, if not a large group, at least a few friends who not only share your particular interests but will thrill to having discussions and even forming an interest group or club around them, if that is something you wanted to do. </p>