<p>Academically, Grinnell would hands-down be my top choice for undergraduate study; however, there remains one thing I'm uncertain about: the social life at Grinnell. After having done a year abroad in a fairly large German city, I'm worried about feeling isolated or underwhelmed socially. Unfortunately, I did not get into the school that would have satisfied my desires in terms of environment AND academics, and now I find myself in weird position where I feel I have to choose between perhaps more relaxed academic programs at Tulane or the University of Wisconsin: Madison, or have the part of me that wouldn't mind some partying suffer. Are my misgivings unfounded? </p>
<p>I would really love opinions, anecdotes, and summaries of the social scene at Grinnell, especially from current students or recent alumni. </p>
<p>I'm really not a party animal, but I'd like to have a decent amount of fun in college as well. You know what they say about all work and no play...</p>
<p>PS - I was also accepted in the honors programs at both Madison and Tulane, which makes me think that I could indeed get a comparable education at those institutions as I would at Grinnell.</p>
<p>My son is a junior at Grinnell and there is plenty of partying going on there! The town is tiny and if you want urban, your other choices are better. No way this is an urban environment. And if you want the big sports scene kind of partying or Greek-type social thing, your other options are better. The students at Grinnell have a lot of fun and the college brings a huge amount of entertainment to campus. Can you visit?</p>
<p>I was able to visit about a week before I left for Germany. I know it’s definitely not an urban environment, but I know I’d be fine as long as there’s always something going on.</p>
<p>Grinnell is a great school, but it is very hard to compare an LAC to a research university. It is almost equally difficult to compare a medium sized private like Tulane to a big state school like Wisconsin. I have to give you credit for picking three schools that cover the spectrum of environments! I will just point out that my D is a freshman at Tulane this year in the HP and she is extremely satisfied with the intellectual atmosphere and the academics, and it is also tons of fun. They had an all day, giant crawfish boil yesterday with live music, for example. Just to give you some perspective on her expectations, she was accepted at both top 15’s to which she applied, was a national Presidential Scholar semifinalist, and won the DHS scholarship (full tuition) at Tulane. She has very high standards when it comes to academics.</p>
<p>This year’s entering class is already shaping up as having the highest academic profile ever at Tulane, and Tulane was already higher than its ranking in this regard (#30 vs. #50 USNWR). Tulane is also very well known for the professors being very accessable. It might be the best mix of the two extremes you have in the others. But all are great.</p>
<p>Yes, they do sound like 3 great options, though all very different. What a pleasant dilemma, OP!</p>
<p>At the Destination Tulane meeting on Friday, one of the student panelists said “Our Tuesday nights make your Saturday nights look like Monday nights”. That got the expected laughts but he went on to say that while there is always a lot going on at Tulane and NOLA, the students are not irrespoonsible party animals. I wish my daughter and I could have stayed for Crawfest…</p>
<p>To be honest, there is so much stuff going on on Campus that you may not leave Campus for weeks straight. I do not miss the city as much as I thought I would (though I do miss it), and I’m from Germany’s second-largest city, so Grinnell is quite different.</p>