<p>Can this report be accurate?</p>
<p>I’ve never seen that site before, and have no idea who’s behind it, but a quick search through it shows that it rates not only Grinnell with an “F” in safety, saying it “appears to be a very dangerous school,” but it gave the same “F” safety grade and comment to inter alia, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Williams, Amherst, Carleton and Oberlin, and grades of D+ to U Chicago , D- to Duke and St. Olaf, etc. In other words, no, I don’t think this “site” reflects the reality of what schools are safe vs. dangerous.</p>
<p>This is nonsense. It’s a very safe campus. When my son was applying to colleges, Carleton got a horrible safety rating by one of these sites. Not true either. I sometimes wonder if some of these schools get bad rankings because they are places where students feel safe enough to report problems.</p>
<p>Honestly, I can barely imagine a safer campus than Grinnell’s. Biggest risk is probably the train track that runs through campus (and obviously college students are smart enough to wait for for the trains to go by!).</p>
<p>I never worried about my son on this campus, even though I’m capable of worrying about anything. I mean, really. He’d have been equally safe on any of the LAC campuses he applied to, including Carleton and Oberlin.</p>
The authors seem to be in over their heads. They provide no meaningful mathematical context for their analysis. And their English is faintly humorous or illogical: “Grinnell College is a very dangerous place to be in”; “there are some problems with arson”; “#10 among Most Dangerous Colleges in the USA.”
However, for those who want to take all possible precautions, according to their bar graph, American College of Hairstyling Des is a vey safe place to “be in.” Presumably they have less problems with arson.
From the site’s perspective it’s not your sons you have to worry about.
I made a mistake in copying. Should be: “#10 among [the] Most Dangerous colleges in the USA.” My criticism here is related to their logic. It seems to imply that Grinnell could also have an ordinal position in a contradictory category. Maybe it does very well “among the Safest colleges in the USA.”
Actually you can glean some stats from the gov’s site that aren’t very flattering as well http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Grinnell+College&s=all&id=153384#crime
when you take in consideration the number of student population.
By following a few links, it seems their database includes online colleges. The good news is that I discovered I can obtain my four year degree [sic] in just two short years.
@KunjiBoy: I know this is a serious issue. But the link you just provided led me to a table of “2012 CRIME STATISTICS” for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. So my confidence in anything else on the site is unfortunately diminished.
I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything. I was just pointing out a troubling stat. But maybe even more troubling is the fact that 3 years of stats are “diminished” because they were 2 years ago?
My confidence in the site is diminished – and yours should be too – because its directors were not capable of putting a proper heading on a table; “2012 CRIME STATISTICS” as a heading for three years of figures is nonsensical.
For those reading through, some juxtaposition occurred. My post #s 5, 7 and 9 refer to the OP’s link. My posts 10 and 12 referenced the post-#8 link. (@KunjiBoy: it’s good that you posted a link, but, like the OP’s, it needs context and credible analysis. And it may be a “gov” site, just not the US Gov.)
My mistake, you were right. That is a US Government site.
As a current Grinnell College student, I really can’t think of a safer campus. We’re an open campus and an open environment, but the campus itself is really quite safe. Students have lost their wallets and had them returned with everything still in them, not touched at all. The incidents of arson have been kids (most likely townies) who were setting posters on fire outside. They were arrested, all was totally fine on campus.
I have a car here and have left my electronics in my car and lots of other things in there but they’ve never been stolen (I don’t lock my car). My dorm room is only locked over long breaks but nothing’s ever gone missing at all. Everyone leaves their things around campus and things really aren’t taken–maybe occasionally someone grabs the wrong coat, but nothing really serious.
With respect to being worried regarding sexual assault and harassment on campus, we have really great policies regarding these issues. The reason why our rates look high is because we take it seriously. Thus, when there is an incident, students feel comfortable reporting, unlike a lot of colleges that have very low reporting rates. Victim-survivors are supported here by the institution itself, by confidential resources trained to deal with sexual misconduct, with a well-educated and well-trained Title IX Team, and huge amounts of awareness on campus.