<p>[Joe</a> Rosenfield '25 Center](<a href=“http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/mus/s07/mus201/Website/sites/jrc.htm]Joe”>http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/mus/s07/mus201/Website/sites/jrc.htm)</p>
<p>2 photos of the student center, though I don’t think they convey much</p>
<p>I agree M’s Mom, about the low-key marketing, but maybe that’s the best way to attract the kind of students they want.</p>
<p>Wesleyan, btw, has a cemetery on campus. I thought that was charming, but others might not.</p>
<p>great pictures. thanks. my son does want to go out to visit. I can’t imagine he wouldn’t like it there. He is a twin, and while he would be very happy to go to school in the middle of a cornfield, his sister certainly would not! They are looking at some of the same schools, but Grinnell is one I will only take my son to see.</p>
<p>Interestingly, they both loved Oberlin, my son really liked Carleton and my daughter preferred Macalester. My daughter didn’t like the trimester system for Carleton and loves cities; my son liked the idea of a trimester so he could take more courses in a year and he didn’t like the juxtaposition of Macalester’s peaceful quad right off a busy street that needed to be crossed every day. </p>
<p>I, too, love these midwestern schools, but we’ll have to see once all the acceptances come in, where in the country they end up… Although they don’t want to go to school together, personally, I think it would be great if they ended up near each other so they could visit. Obviously, Grinnell throws a wrench into this idea, but at this point, we’re keeping all our options open. One of the benefits of the New England schools is the proximity to mountains (although I think that might reflect my bias more than theirs…)… let’s keep our fingers crossed that come April we’ll have the pleasant problem of having to choose between several great schools!</p>
<p>SDonCC </p>
<p>I think that’s the best approach. My son also applied to 3 in the NE and 3 in the west. He didn’t pick his dream school until he knew which ones loved him back!</p>
<p>There are shuttles beween Grinnell and Minneapolis at break times, if that helps.</p>
<p>Just wanted to pop and say thank you for this thread. Everyone has put a lot of good info in here. </p>
<p>We are coming out to visit Grinnell in two weeks and are very excited. It has been great reading all the great responses. I am learning a lot. </p>
<p>I love that Grinnell sounds laid back, accepting and unpretentious. We felt that way when we went out to visit Whitman in Washington. My son has loved everything he has heard and read about Grinnell.</p>
<p>We have family in Des Moines, which will be nice since we live in California. </p>
<p>Again, I have enjoyed this thread.</p>
<p>d’smom, please let us know your impression after you return from visiting Grinnell.</p>
<p>Ana9sksa,</p>
<p>I will be happy to report back. We are going out next Thursday and will be visiting next Friday and Saturday. I will check back in here when we return. =)</p>
<p>d’smom</p>
<p>Prepare yourself for Little Town on the Prairie.</p>
<p>Hello everyone!</p>
<p>Well, we are back in California and our son D had a wonderful time at Grinnell.</p>
<p>We loved the compact, but clean and beautiful campus. The quality of the facility’s was great as well. They seemed to have everything that money could buy and we can’t wait for the new field-house and Natorium to be finished(June of 2010 opening date).</p>
<p>Grinnell did a very professional job with their open house weekend and D had a very good overnight experience with his host. He had a great interview experience and felt very comfortable with the guy who interviewed him.</p>
<p>He really liked the overwhelmingly accepting vibe that the kids had towards one another and he is already on Facebook with a couple of the kids that he met there!!! </p>
<p>The coach that he met with there was first class and he felt like he would fit into their athletic program and also liked their music scene. (D is musical too.) </p>
<p>He liked how everyone joked around and were very witty, but accepting at the same time. He said he could not quite put his finger on it, but felt really good there. Like he had come home. SIGH!!! =)</p>
<p>I am happy to report that President Osgood did a wonderful job with the introduction to the weekend. He seems like a top notch president. Curious to see who the next one is.</p>
<p>We even got to experience their first dusting of snow on Saturday morning as they had an early spell of cold weather. We loved it, being from California. </p>
<p>D is definitely going to apply and felt very good about all there programs, but is probably most interested in their Poly-Sci and History program at this point. </p>
<p>He also liked how active the campus was and could not believe all the things there were to chose from to go to i/e a play, music stuff, latin dance, rapper, poetry reading and the list goes on and on. It does not appear that you would need all that much spending money while there. </p>
<p>He had fun in Bob’s underground and stayed up until late in the night talking to his host and his friends and roommate. He even met a cute girl and they were flirty in a good way with each other. She has been texting him and telling him all the kids that met him said he needs to early apply. Sigh again =)</p>
<p>We noticed that the kids are very intellectual at Grinnell and seem to be very focused on learning for the sake of learning. Don’t get me wrong, they let their hair down too, but during the day on Friday, they were going about their business in an orderly if not serious way.</p>
<p>Come Friday night, they do like to have fun and we saw groups of kids laughing and just having plain old fun. Very refreshing as our son is very smart, but wants to have fun at college too. He is not into the wild crazy party scene, but likes a good time if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>Personally we like that Grinnell does not have a Greek Scene and we really like that the vast majority of kids live on campus for all four years(this seems to foster a better sense of community).</p>
<p>Speaking of community, Grinnell did seem to have a lot of kids groups and clubs that focus on giving back and humanitarian volunteerism, which is right up our sons alley. </p>
<p>All in all a wonderful trip for us and definitely going to apply and see what happens.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for this wonderful thread.</p>
<p>Great News! Thanks for the feedback…</p>
<p>Your visiting from CA will show a lot of interest. Glad you and your son loved it as much as we do. It’s a very special place. And you are right–they don’t need a lot of spending money with all those free activities.</p>
<p>D’s mom,</p>
<p>Your post made me think back to my first visit - good times indeed. I graduated from Grinnell a few years ago and you know all the things they tell you or that you read on brochures about making lifelong friends/connections? Well, they are absolutely true. In fact, I continue to forge friendships with Grinnellians I didn’t even know during my 4 years, as well as those from graduating classes long, long before my time. Grinnellians are there for each other in the real world. We help each other find jobs, we offer a couch or a bed to sleep on if someone is in town (regardless of knowing the person), we go to each other’s weddings and we attend reunions even when they aren’t for our year. </p>
<p>I think one of the things that makes Grinnell special is all of the possibilities. It’s an atmosphere conducive to taking on leadership, to creating as opposed to following. The tight-knit community, the endowment, and the institutional mission to helping others in need all help students realize their nascent potential. This is a process that I believe continues in graduates as they figure out how they will fit into the world. </p>
<p>Your son’s interests in music, sports, social justice and academics will all be encouraged at Grinnell - and pushed to the limit. Grinnellians have gone on to have successful careers in all of those fields. And you can be sure that when your son is ready to put his CV/resume into mix, there will be a Grinnellian there to help him (almost every time) should he choose to reach out. </p>
<p>Anyway that’s my spiel. I hope he applies. It’s a special place. I’ll definitely be going back for reunion this year!</p>
<p>Thank you WanderingTree! </p>
<p>How encouraging. My s is applying and we are very excited to see where he will end up. Things just feel right! Grinnell is an incredible school and now we will sit back and wait to see the final outcome. </p>
<p>BTW he continues to be in communication with a few people he met while visiting. That is wonderful considering he has not even been accepted there yet. I love the closeness of the school community.</p>
<p>Lots of good info in this thread so this entry is just to keep it easy to locate for anyone who wants to know more about the school.</p>
<p>I am posting to this thread to bring it up again–M’s Mom does a great job of summarizing what makes Grinnell such a great school and I know this information, along with the numerous replies, would be helpful to those considering the school.</p>
<p>Thought I’d bring this thread back for new admits who are considering Grinnell.</p>
<p>I’m resurrecting this thread, typos and all, for those making decisions right now.</p>
<p>We just got back from Accepted Students Day (plus overnight) and as I expected, he loved it! It’s the only school he’d have to fly to, though, so my poor son has some really tough decisions to make. </p>
<p>I was rereading this thread, and we we thought the train tracks running through campus was kind of cool. Added a bit of unusual charm.</p>
<p>We also got a much better sense of how self-governance plays out in the school. I didn’t really get what that meant, but it really seems to promote that sense of respect for others, because the students all have to work together to make the community function well.</p>
<p>Thank you all. I think this thread has just finalized my decision to join the Grinnell class of 2014, over Carleton and Haverford, among others.</p>
<p>^With those three schools to choose from, you can’t go wrong. :)</p>