What would be Grinnell's ranking outside of only Liberal arts schools (like in USNEWS)? Readbelowpls

Colleges and Universities A-Z Grinnell College
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Hi everyone. I’m an Asian international student who was fortunate enough to be accepted by Grinnell. Although it’s not exactly my top choice, I really love Grinnell and all the superb opportunities it has for its students. I want to major in STEM for sure and will be premed. I eventually want to go into medicine, so I want a college where I’ll get all these opportunities to get into a top-notch med school in the country. Now, from what I have seen in this sub, I’ve deemed Grinnell to be a highly selective top-notch college, especially for STEM. It’s ranked 14th in USNEWS which is fair. Now, I definitely know rankings aren’t the greatest way to gauge colleges, but as an international who can’t visit, what other option do I have to compare colleges. Now, I’m still waiting to hear back from 12 T30 universities. Got rejected from Hopkins yesterday (I think this is due to needing like 40-50K as an Asian international.)

I wanted to find out where Grinnell stands in the National Universities rankings. Would you say it’s comparable to Emory or Tufts?

Thank you for your responses in advance.

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If simply considered by selectivity characteristics, Grinnell places within the top-50 when compared to schools across various categories: https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/40090323.

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The Wall Street Journal/Times listed Grinnell at #57 in their ranking - right behind Lehigh and Vassar and just ahead of Rochester and Boston College.

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College Niche is pretty useful because it ranks/grades schools on a variety of areas, not just academics. Grinnell is a great school, not quite as good as Tufts or Emory. Beware of Grinnell’s location

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Grinnell is a very good school but I think it suffers from not having a great location and being in the Midwest. It is in Iowa and on the east coast not known as well as other liberal arts such as welseyan or vassar.

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I’d like to point out that Grinnell has a very large international population compared to most other colleges. Though the location can turn some off, many international students actually appreciate it. International students get host families who care about you and invite you to events and the small town environment allows you to get to know people really well.

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Umm, excuse me? Since when has being in the Midwest been a problem? Moreover, unless somebody lives on the East Coast, why should they care whether a college is well known on the East Coast?

Seriously, dude.

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@MWolf I think what @Unattswim56 was trying to say was that:

The USNEWS ranking depends a lot on No of applications v. No. of Admitted students. As a result, with Grinnell being in a hard-to-reach location, not only for domestic students but internationals who will have to take multiple flights and pay for luggage, there will be fewer applications than East Coast or West Coast schools.

I’d say that works out as a plus as well, since the people who do apply really want to be a Grinnellian. Just like Georgetown with their special application.

Additionally, I do think the knowing factor is somewhat to think about. A lot of people, and I mean a lot, don’t know Grinnell. That’s a real thing. For a selective school that’s a T20 Liberal Arts school, it’s reasonable to expect a little recognition, one can say. I find it weird as well that people don’t know Grinnell.

And people do say it’s because its in the middle of nowhere, but there are a lot of known schools in the middle of nowhere.

@MWolf I do want to hear your take on that

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OP: Probably the most useful exercise would be to compare Grinnell College to your other affordable options.

To which other schools have you been offered admission ?

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@goldmidnight7 Grinnell is indeed a hard to reach place, but then again, so is Middlebury (ask me how I know), Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton, and another large chunk of the “well known” LACs in the Northeast.

These are the colleges attended be the wealthy people in the NE, so that is why they are well known in that region.

In the Midwest, like, say, Chicago, people know Grinnell College, but they don’t know many of the NE Liberal Arts colleges, like Wesleyan.

You would be surprised by the number of people from the NE and the Midwest who have never heard of Pomona College.

Liberal Arts colleges are all small, which means that they do not have the alumni numbers, and therefore the name recognition, that larger universities have. Most LACs with name recognition have it because of appearance in popular culture (an inordinate number of female characters seem to have attended Sarah Lawrence College).

This is one more way in which CC is very different from the rest of the country. Most people, including academics, are not familiar with the small liberal arts colleges which are not in their region, unless a friend or relative (or their kid) attended that college. There is really no way that people hear about these colleges. As I mentioned, they have relatively small alumni base, they don’t run huge research projects which then hit the headlines, they don’t participate in most D1 athletic events, etc. When a Liberal Arts College gains name recognition, it is often not the type of recognition they want (think Oberlin College)

From my kid’s very large and pretty decent Chicagoland highschool (more than 800 in each graduating class), there will be about 30 applications every year to Carleton, Macalester, Grinnell, Denison, etc. However, the number of applications sent to any of the NESCAC, or of the other “elite” liberal arts colleges in the NE, in any giver year, will number in single digits, with many not getting any applications during some years. Well, except for Vassar, for some reason - it always gets a handful of applications.

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@MWolf THANK YOU FOR THIS, LOL.

oh, just to add, recognition is very relative! one of the things i settled on that i found fine when choosing to attend was the people who know Grinnell very well (say, those in charge of grad school admissions) are the only people i care about knowing where i go to school, lmao. as mwolf said, many people in the midwest will know Grinnell but won’t know Williams or Amherst or other ECLACs. it’s just a matter of where you’re located, really.

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Forbes ranks small liberal arts schools and research universities in one list. You can google it.

Tufts is 34. Emory is 54. Grinell is 80.

I consider them peers. Tufts is in a very desirable college area for students. Grinell is in a wonderful spot too for someone else.

The top 100 on the Forbes list all have very elite students and high performing academics. Many beyond the top 100 as well.

Choose for price, specific excellence in your intended major and personal preference.

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Grinnell seems to be becoming better known as applications are way up. The acceptance rate this year was 10%.

I have a child at Grinnell, and she and her friends find advantages to the location. The school is small and most students live on campus, so they all get to know one another well. My kid has never had so many really great friends as she has had at Grinnell. She never gets bored as there are so many parties and events. The town of Grinnell is small, but it has some nice coffee shops and restaurants. The academics are amazing, demanding, and very enriching. For the most part, Grinnell attracts students who love to learn, so they usually embrace all the hard work.

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people like you are the exact reason why my son went midwest. inflated sense of self being on east coast. grow up and realize the north east isn’t that great and long past its peak’

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what do you think of macalester? or should i say what do people in mid west think of macalester?

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Macalester is an excellent college and a great choice. It was a top contender for my daughter when we were doing the college search. It has a great reputation in the Midwest, and, in my opinion, one of the best choices for a kid who wants a Midwestern LAC, but prefers one which is in a more urban setting.

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I completely agree with @MWolf. It was one of my daughter’s top choices, too. Great school and very well regarded by those who know LACs. So is Grinnell.

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This newer ranking places Grinnell 35th nationally:

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You can rank colleges by whatever formula of arbitrary metrics you want. The formula at Wallethub’s website doesn’t strike me as more meaningful than the formula other websites. USNWR ranking tends to be well correlated with endowment per student. However, Grinnell is extreme outlier by this metric.

For example, HYPSMC are 6 of the top 7 highest endowment per student colleges, which fits well with consistently being among the top few colleges on USNWR. Among LACs, Pomona, Swarthmore, Amherst and Williams fall in to the top 12 highest endowment per student colleges, not much below HYPSMC, which again fits well with consistently being among top ranked LACs on USNWR.

However, Grinell also is among the top 12, which does not fit as well with USNWR. Grinnell is apparently lagging in something that it is not as closely correlated with endowment. I’m not a subscriber to USNWR, so I can’t look up what this metric is, but one relevant factor is graduation rate. Some specific numbers are below. Grinnell’s graduation rate lags far behind other colleges with a similar endowment per student.

Swarthmore – 97% grad rate ($4k cost for <$30k income, 12% of students get loans)
Williams – 96% grad rate ($1k cost for <$30k income, 25% of students get loans)
Amherst – 95% grad rate ($4k cost for <$30k income, 14% of students get loans)
… Large Gap …
Grinnell – 84-87% grad rate ($13k cost for <$30k income, 44% of students get loans)

Perhaps the cost structure above contributes to Grinnell’s relatively lower graduation rate. Grinnell is more expensive for lower income students, with a high 44% of students taking on loans. More Grinnell students may fail to graduate on time for financial reasons than elsewhere. Grinnell gives out grants/discounts to a very high portion of students, such that Grinnell is often less expensive than other options for high income students, but that has less impact on graduation rate than the cost for lower income students.

Or Grinnell may be more likely to take risks on students who are not near guaranteed to graduate on time? Whatever the issue is, failing to graduate on time seems more likely to occur for male students. Male students only had a 81% graduation rate.

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