<p>If you are looking to apply to graduate schools and will need recommendations from your professors, Grinnell might be the better choice of the two. </p>
<p>Academics will recognize the name and quality of both schools, obviously, and both are well regarded.</p>
<p>But to get top-notch recommendations, it might be a better choice to go to Grinnell because it is easier to develop and nurture relationships with your professors in the smaller, more intimate environment. They will give you better and more personal recommendations, and ,as they will have gotten to know both you and your asoirations over time, they may be able to direct you into some opportunities to enhance your resume along the way.</p>
<p>But both schools are good... you have no bad choice here.</p>
<p>I'm currently at an top MBA (top 5, US News) program. This is anecdotal but a quick search of the current student body shows ZERO Grinnell graduates and 4 McGill graduates.<br>
The bottom line is that if you plan on applying to an elite graduation program in the US, they <em>will</em> know of McGill's reputation.</p>
<p>mcgill's student body is more than 20 times the size that of grinnell while grinnell's endowment is twice the size that of mcgill. just something i think you might want to keep in mind if quality of education is your main concern. </p>
<p>calicartel- if i were you, being in a top 5 mba school, i would not come to such conclusion. your data is clearly statistically insignificant. it's like saying that if there're more penn state grads than swarthmore grads at wharton then penn state must be a better school. if you really want to compare the success rate of these two schools, do it in percentage since the size of the two are very different. grinnell's phd productivity (in percentage) has always ranked above most of the ivy schools. wsj's feeder schools puts grinnell ahead of some top 25 like tufts and wustl. </p>
<p>at the end, it depends on whose recognition you value more, top grad schools' or general public's.</p>
<p>I believe that when I mentioned my data was anecdotal, the natural implication is that anectodal = statistically insignificant. The main point was that McGill is not disadvantaged whatsoever compared to Grinnell.</p>
<p>
[quote]
grinnell's phd productivity (in percentage) has always ranked above most of the ivy schools. wsj's feeder schools puts grinnell ahead of some top 25 like tufts and wustl.
[/quote]
You should probably caveat that with the fact that the majority of Grinnell aspirants are aware that it is a disproportionately large feeder into academia and thus self-select into the school, effectively perpetuating the cycle. So with regards to your assertion, the PhD productivity statistic is skewed higher than normal universities (to include all of the "top 25") whose graduates' occupations are normally distributed.</p>
<p>If your goal is getting into grad schools, then consider the fact that top PhD programs are literally packed with LAC grads.</p>
<p>I had a professor in undergrad (good old Bruinland) that went to McGill for undergrad. He was way more proud of that than his PhD granting institution (Columbia.)</p>