Title says it all.
I was accepted into Reed EA and Grinnell RD via early write. Have already visited both and still cannot decide.
I really don’t care about location which seems to be the main differentiator here, so any other points would be greatly appreciated.
Congratulations! What major are you thinking of?
I’m surprised the visit didn’t reveal a preference. I’d say both schools tend to provoke a reaction. Reed is definitely more “out there” than Grinnell per your thread title, though. More unique in academics (grading, required thesis, some of the required courses). Portland, kind of hippie vibe to Reed. Grinnell is fairly Midwestern in feel to me. Nice LAC, less of a “march to your own drummer” vibe than Reed. Personally, I like the somewhat counterculture, strongly intellectual vibe to Reed a bit more.
That said, I have read Reed students’ testimonies on here saying that regardless of your political bent, there is enough respect for vigorous debate that opposing viewpoints will be heard. I don’t think they want to be the vacuum chamber that Oberlin, one of their peers, has become.
I think their academic and overall reputations are about even (despite Reed’s USNews ranking, which is laughable), so if cost difference is not a concern, choose based on fit: slightly harder and more cosmopolitan (from an opportunity standpoint) Reed, or slightly more laid-back, rural, and nice Grinnell.
Grinnell has higher freshman retention and graduation rates. Whether this means that Grinnell is more consistently meeting its students’ needs, or that Reed simply attracts a more nonconformist student body that may find other pursuits more attractive than finishing college (SteveJobs) or whether the above-mentioned rigor of Reed drives some students away, is open to speculation. But for whatever reason, Reed has double the attrition rate, both among freshman and cumulatively thereafter. In most other statistical measures, they are very similar. If you’ve visited Reed and feel confident about fit, then I wouldn’t hesitate to choose it.
Cost is equivalent? What do you want to study? (For example, if premed, Grinnell might be the better choice; if an aspiring physics PhD, then Reed would have the edge.)
Congrats! I think that the comments you have received to date are good ones. Obviously, there are no wrong answers here. The major difference between the two institutions is their proximity to an urban area, and you need to decide how important that is to you. Academically, they are very similar. Both will prepare you well for advanced studies in either a PhD programme or professional school.
Practical considerations: Is there a cost differential? Grinnell offers merit and need-based aid; Reed only offers need-based. Are there major transportation differences with respect to distance, cost, and hassle factor? Ready access to city or small town preference? How do you feel about long cold winters?
If cost is not a factor, I agree with @intparent and @prezbucky that Reed has a more distinct vibe. To me, Grinnell resembles many other excellent midwestern LACs. Reed is said to attract unorthodox free thinkers and is pretty intense intellectually.
Either would position you well for graduate or professional school.
Congrats, two great choices!
Over time, Grinnell has been catching up to Reed in PhD productivity:
You can’t go wrong, but my son choose Grinnell so I"ll put a plug in for Iowa. Grinnell will give you a school with a large percentage of international students, a mix of all socio economic groups all basted in Iowa nice. The school is liberal but not in your face liberal, again Iowa nice. You will be in a Grinnell bubble, but the school works hard to offer externships and Grinnell in London is fantastic. More than 40% of students do independent research and I think more than 50% have advanced degrees within 5 years. I would say 3 things set Grinnell apart from other SLAC, first only required course is freshman seminar which now often includes travel, second a very healthy endowment allowing for generous aid and lastly Iowa nice (and if your into politics participation in the Iowa caucus).
Comments here make Grinnell sound more wholesome and conventional than it is. It is welcoming of all kinds of alternative types. At Grinnell the quirky intellectuals like to create community together. The workload is quite intense. I get the sense that Reed is more individualistic, hard-edged, a little less friendly, proud of its intellectualism, a place where people pull all-nighters to work alone on deep projects, stopping only for smoke breaks. Grinnell is lighter in tone, less self-conscious, more communal, supportive and accepting but academically very intense and filled with plenty of original thinkers who want to give back to the world. Both seriously great schools. Both unpreppy and unfratty places where people can be their natural selves and be supported in creative experimentation. Reed more urban and sophisticated in an underground-gritty way, Grinnell more international and socioeconomically diverse and geeky-friendly as befits its Midwestern setting.
I think you can tell a lot by the types of alumni a school has educated.
Grinell seems a little more worldly and diverse than it might get credit for being in Iowa. And pretty wide ranging skills.
Grinell has some interesting grads:
Herbie Hancock the jazz musician extraordinaire
John de Mabior, the former president of Sudan and leader of the Sudanese Liberation Movement,
Bruce Freidlich, founder of the Good Food Inc and organic food activist,
Harry Hopkins who was architect of FDR’s New Deal creating social security,
Nordahl Brue of Brueggers Bagels fame
Celebrities and writers include Mr Chekhov of Star Trek fame,also a grad is the author of “Mutiny on the Bounty” as well as more recently, the award winning filmmaker of the “Life of Harvey Milk,” lgbtq trailblazer.
Brueggers… now you are making me miss the Midwest. 
With Reed having the Steve Jobs card (although he was visionary, I bet he was a grouchy lab partner) thought it would be nice to give Grinell a fair shake.
Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) went to Grinnell, gave a nice graduation speech.
Grinnell may not have Steve Jobs, but they do have Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel who attended and graduated.
Know Grinnell pretty well as both kids visited multiple times and one went through athletic recruiting. I think culturally it overlaps a lot with Haverford, with the collaborative focus and emphasis on self-gov (which corresponds with H’ford’s Honor Code/Quaker tradition) but is also very diverse and international (not sure how the Ford stacks up on that scale, though I was a BiCo student myself). When we were there, we saw everything from blue hair, guys in skirts, pot smoke in the morning to well-heeled Polo-wearing athletes, with absolutely everything in between and further out on the spectrum. Grinnell is very much a “come as you are” community, sprinkled with Midwest “nice.” A very smart, inquisitive community.
My only 3rd hand experience with Reed was a very smart kid who was thrilled to attend and then transferred after a year, explaining that it was way too intense an environment – Swarthmore/Chicago-style. One student experience out of thousands, take it very much with a grain of salt, though for us, that suggested it was a place one had to visit and really delve deeply to see if it felt right.
@Midwestmomofboys ^^^transferred to where? Was it a better fit?
Commitment to enrolling and funding international students (non-resident aliens) is also a point of differentiation.
According to their 2016-2017 CDS Grinnell’s non-resident alien enrollment was 304 out of a total enrollment of 1699, or 18%. For 2017-2018 Reed enrolled 146 NRAs out of a total enrollment of 1415 or 10%.
Grinnell spent $8 Million on financial aid to internationals; 73% received aid. Reed spent $2.5 Million; 32% received aid.
The disparity of these figures would imply that Grinnell places much greater emphasis on the importance of international voices in and out of the classroom than Reed does.
The Reed student we know who transferred went to their midwest public flagship where they had all kinds of perks and access.
^^ If we assume that the non-resident alien application rate was the same, and the available funding was the same. The value judgement of “importance” is speculative.