<p>Here are some facts you might miss on your visit here.</p>
<li><p>At times the entire campus smells of vomit or manure. I am not kidding here. The female ginko trees are to blame, as they have the nastiest smelling seeds known to man; once I stepped on one of the seeds, and the stench carried into my classes. This is perhaps my foremost complaint regarding campus aesthetics (besides the hideous construction going on, which will be finished before the class of 2010 gets here).</p></li>
<li><p>Some of the townspeople–or “townies”–do not like the college students. During my first week here, I walked with a friend to Family Video to drop off some DVDs. It was pouring that night, torrents upon torrents of water falling from the sky, and the roads were like rivers. Some jerks in a pickup truck thought it would be hilarious to drive right into the river of water that hugged the sidewalk and splash us. They kept doing it over and over again by circling the block. Not fun. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I have been to Grinnell's campus many times - and never noticed a bad smell. The surrounding area is farmland - so perhaps there could be a fertilizer smell, but I've never noticed it. </p>
<p>It's true. Some of the townies don't like the college. The college works on this by giving money to the town, fixing up buildings in town, and inviting the town to all events for free. For the most part, it's not an issue for students.</p>
<p>When they say its a lot of work... they REALLY REALLY REALLY MEAN IT!!! okay, I don't know if they HIDE this fact, actually, my alum interviewer was VERY candid about the work load, but I get all my info from my brother (a current sophomore). He works ALL THE TIME!!! and again, I MEAN IT! He has so much to do and regularly stays up all night, or at least, very late and then makes a 3 AM run to the bakery. It is a difficult, DIFFICULT school, and from what I'm hearing, has a heavier workload than any Ivy. When I think Grinnell, I think MIT! At least in terms of work. </p>
<p>exeuntsl, maybe you know my brother! his name is Matt and he's 1/4 Japanese, so he looks kind of asian. He's really into swing dancing.</p>
<p>Oh, and the food is bad. At least that's what my brother tells me, but thats the only thing he complains about. He doesn't even complain about the work! just the food...</p>
<p>The food should be getting better soon -- the new student center is supposed to be done by next fall and will have a new dining hall and restaurant.</p>
<p>alscharr, what is you brother majoring in? just wondering if his major requires more work than others</p>
<p>also i have heard that because of the "no limits" idea (no requirments except first year tutorial and your major requirements) it is up to the student to make sure (s)he has a challenging schedule...any comments about this?</p>
<p>I think Grinnell ranks right up there with Swarthmore and CalTech when students are surveyed about how much time they spend studying. It's demanding.</p>
<p>Grinnell has an exaggerated reputation for toughness. The truth is Grinnell has fairly generous grades--almost a fifth of the students get a 3.75 GPA or above for any given semester--and a student body that is not as gifted as the students at Caltech and Swarthmore, so any surveyed comparisons of raw time spent studying is not a good indicator of academic rigor. Caltech's SAT median hovers around the mid-1500's last time I checked, whereas Grinnell's median is around the upper-1300's. Big difference.</p>
<p>Oh, I came back to this thread to report that at this moment that at least South Campus smells awful right now.</p>
<p>RULE: Small schools require more work than large institutions.</p>
<p>You write more as the professors have the time and ability to read the same.</p>
<p>You are given more reading, as the more you read, the more interesting the entire process becomes.</p>
<p>Who works more? Who really cares?</p>
<p>But, at the end of your time at any of the liberal arts schools in this web page (or any of the universities also contained herein), you will be prepared to go on in school or be capable of handling a new job.</p>
<p>I'm not sure that SAT scores are a good measure of how many hours on average students need to study to complete their assignments. Maybe a CalTech student could do the work faster - but that's irrelevant. Grinnell profs don't assign work to CalTech students. And unless you follow students around and count the minutes, I'm not sure how else you could guage workload except through self-reported data. Sure - there's probably a little bit of myth at play - but I bet the same is true at Swat and CalTech.</p>
<p>snorky, the point is you made a poor comparison when you compared Grinnell's workload with Caltech's and Swarthmore's. I am not saying that Grinnell students spend any less time working, it is just that the implied equivalence between Grinnell and Caltech is inappropriate. When you are comparing work hours spent, you are not comparing equivalent units of learning because the average Caltech student learns more in any given amount of time.</p>
<p>Father of the Boarder, Grinnell has changed since you graduated.</p>
<p>californian, I am bitter because I am convinced I cannot trust Grinnell to carry out a fair financial aid policy. Grinnell is not generous; it is a penny-pinching glutton with a ridiculous sense of its worth. Does the financial aid office really think it can get away with handing me the tiniest of slivers of benefit from my outside scholarships? I'd rather go to my state school than to tolerate the big "screw you" Grinnell is likely to give me next year.</p>
<p>EDIT:</p>
<p>Another fun Grinnell fact: Grinnell College will dramatically raise tuition during your stay. For the last eight or so years, Grinnell College has, without fail, increased its tuition by around 6% every year, and this trend will not stop within the next few years. Students attracted by merit scholarships will see much of the original value of their scholarship dissolve by their fourth year; students who are needy will by burdened with more loans (our graduating cohort of seniors are paying roughly $5000-6000 more for their final year than their first year). Grinnell is far outpacing its peers in tuition growth. I recommend families thinking about Grinnell weigh Grinnell's significantly above-average tuition increases and its demonstrated history of making students take out more loans to cover their shortfalls.</p>
<p>exeunts, why don't you just quit grinnell and go to your crummy state school. i think most of us are sick of your whining. just move on and let your dissatisfaction with grinnell go! it is not healthy to keep going off on grinnell. try to be most positive. think about the friends you've made at grinnell or any positive experience you had there and move on. being negative will just continue to bring you down. move on and let the rest of us be excited about our choice to attend grinnell. we all know there are negatives in just about everything in life. it is much more fun to think about the positive things. good luck with your life and try to be more positive about your situation.</p>
<p>hoora, why don't you just quit reading my posts and go read someone else's posts? I write my opinion, and nothing else. Just because you disagree isn't good grounds for telling me to shut up.</p>
<p>As for the positive, I do focus on it. I have good friends here, some of the best I've ever had, but that doesn't mean I can't be critical of the school's administration. I actually spend most of my time enjoying myself immensely. I am not some troll holed up in a lonely cave of hate.</p>
<p>Why don't you get over your Grinnell-boosterism and try to counter my opinions with some good reasons? Or would you rather just try to beat me up? Try punching the screen.</p>
<p>You said:
"Father of the Boarder, Grinnell has changed since you graduated."</p>
<p>Nothing could be truer. I really wonder if I would be accepted today. ANd, the facilities I had paled in contrast to what you have. And, if you think getting aid was tough for you, you should have been around when the endowment was a fraction of what it is today.</p>
<p>Colleges -- as an average -- have increased tuition 6% each year since 1983. Life is not fair.</p>
<p>But, the college education is still a great buy. A study by a Princeton Professor and a think tank concluded you lose about $107,000 of income the 4 years you attend, but make up for that lost income within 10 years -- and then make up for the tuition issue soon thereafter. </p>
<p>In the meantime, your blogs prove exactly my point in my original statement to the people thinking about going there the weekend -- Grinnell is not for everyone. So, to those who are accepted, I again recommend that you go there and look. And, I believe the majority of you will not agree with this student's conclusions -- which state that even the fresh outdoor Iowa air of this school are noxious.</p>