<p>My son interviewed last Saturday out here and is really interested in Grinnell. We plan to visit this summer, but before then I have a question. What is town life there like for the students. I am sure he will want to get off of campus once in a while.</p>
<p>thanks in advance</p>
<p>Well, the town is small!!! It has a movie theater, small (new) bookstore, a couple of coffee places, a nice little farmer's market, mostly humdrum but a couple of OK eating places & various other useful places (supermarket, bike shop, barbershop, thrift stores etc.). There are bigger stores (Walmart!!)on the edge of town. The downtown is right next to the college. Really most of the student social activities are going to be college based, but I think students are pretty fond of the town & I think it's got character. One advantage is that rents are really cheap, so seniors etc. can live quite comfortably in houses/apartments for very little.
Iowa City (about an hour away) is a pretty attractive college town- the famous Prairie Lights bookstore (w. lots of literary stuff), Univ. of Iowa, more eating, shopping, music etc.
As others have remarked before, you do have to visit Grinnell (college & town) to get a sense of whether it's right for you. You'll either love it ... or not!! My son (junior) has had a very good experience so far. I do wonder if that ineffable old school "Grinnellian" spirit that the students are so loyal to is eroding a bit as fees go up & new gleaming buildings appear on campus (I never even went there & I'm as nostalgic for the Forum as any student!) - though maybe this is something all students grumble about the longer they're there. Any one else get a sense of that? Certainly in other respects (academics for example) it's as good as ever, I think.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman and loves it so far. The campus is bursting with activities--my son says he can do only a small fraction of what he's interested in because he runs out of time. I LOVE the new student center. We hung around there for hours during one visit watching students joyfully studying together and socializing. It's a unique school. The town is, indeed, very small and is not bursting with activities.</p>
<p>The town really doesn't offer much for students - there's a coffee shop called Saints Rest with a sandwich place in back that students frequent, a pizza place, grocery store, a few other restaurants, banks, etc. But most social life is on campus. My son loved, loved, loved it his first two years -- and started to feel it was a little small by the time he graduated. Taking a semester abroad helped, as did living off-campus senior year. I think some of the students who were on campus before the new dorms and the new student center are nostalgic for the old days - and they suffered with the disruption of construction. I actually think the students who've arrived since the new facilities were finished will appreciate them more.</p>
<p>We just got back from Family Weekend. The science center is still under renovation and the old gym will be torn down for parking. Even that is a little annoying to my son, but the campus is beautiful. We have sampled several restaurants and liked them all. The town is small-it is all about the campus --and it could get small at some point for my son, but he'll do at least a semester abroad and maybe more. He's so interested with his dorm and the campus at this point that he didn't even feel a need to venture into the town. We took him out to dinner both nights, but he said the dining hall is so good, he wasn't at all tired of the food.</p>
<p>so would you guys say that the food is good on campus? i was a little concerned because the college prow/<em>/</em>/ler website gave grinnell's on campus food rating a D+. of course, i know these ratings might not be accurate. but i am a vegetarian, so i am somewhat worried about not finding enough stuff to eat.</p>
<p>We've only eaten there a few times, but my son really enjoys the food. The old ratings are probably from before the new student center. There's a big salad bar, a pasta bar, a stir-fry station, a deli station and all kinds of ready-made foods. Once he said they had a great Asian noodle bar. He's trying to get them to do that more often. I'm a good cook, so it's not like he had bad food at home. They also have a soft-serve ice cream machine. Some of the desserts he says are not as good-- like the fruit pies and crisps are a little glue-y. The dining area is wonderful... a two story atrium, one wall of which is wavy windows...really pretty. There's also a more private area with booths.</p>
<p>I believe the ******* also says the students are ugly. That's not true either.</p>
<p>The food's fine. I mean, the menu is recycled every month, but other than that's it's okay. I've never eaten in any other school dining hall, but I hear it's better than most. The dining hall tries to mix it up, and the stations are good. I think the rating is talking about the old dining hall, because I heard that people used to get freshman negative 15 because food was so nasty. That's not the case anymore. The vegan station is good, I eat their food a lot. Plus you can get vegetarian pasta, vegetarian sandwich, vegetarian stir-fry.. I think you'll be okay. :)</p>