Grinnell College Top Questions

Grinnell students are typically liberal and from what I've seen they tend to be from fairly wealthy backgrounds. Everyone gets along well but there are some groups who don't really interact with the others.

Suits, medieval gowns, sweats, t-shirt and jeans--I've seen it all in class. I've found a wonderful, religiously diverse group of friends whose religions are important to them, but I've heard others complain that their religiosity--especially if it's Christian--has alienated them from their companions. What would a survey of four dining hall tables look like? Table 1 is full of geeks. Some of them may be in fantasy or medieval garb, if there's a special event that day. They may be discussing the weekend's Dungeons and Dragons session, the relative merits of different versions of Star Trek, or contingency plans for the zombie apocalypse. Or, y'know, today's class debates, dining hall food, national politics, etc. We're normal people too. Table 2 is the Ultimate Frisbee team. I can't hear what they're talking about, but they're laughing a lot and clearly enjoying each other's company. Someone flings a banana peel down the table and yells, "SQUID!!" Everyone else takes up the cry, stabbing at the peel with their forks as it passes. As soon as it's thoroughly dead, conversation resumes as if nothing happened. Table 3 is a group of environmentally-minded students debating how to make the campus more green. Someone is giving an impassioned speech about how energy inefficient the newly-constructed buildings are. Someone else is talking about improving the (already quite good) dorm recycling program. And that girl from Free the Planet is complaining that Victoria's Secret is still printing thousands of catalogues on old-growth forest paper. Table 4 is a freshman tutorial reunion. They're catching up on each other's lives, talking about relationships, majors, and future plans. Two of them are still close friends three years after their tutorial. Many of them have only seen each other in passing since, or had a few classes together. No one's forgotten each other, though.

If you at all religious or conservative, watch out. You will be discriminated against, and don't expect the administration to do anything about it.

People here are mostly liberal and accepting. I don't think anyone would feel out of place. I've seen the weirdest people here and they all seem to do just fine. You can find all types of students at Grinnell: mainstream, hippie, the laid-back type, the cut-throat type, the super-nice people and the super-mean people. You name it, we have it. There are four tables in the dining hall. One would have a student eating alone and studying. He belongs to the 4.0 type. The second table will have a bunch of multi-cultural students talking loudly and laughing at full volume. The third one will have about ten Chinese students talking in Mandarin and no one would understand what the hell they are talking about. The last table may have some Usher-type hippies, with the "hey yo" and "wat sup" attitude. Financial background is a no-no in conversation at Grinnell. You'd better not mention it or people will think you're a jerk. And most people don't seem to care how much they will earn in the future. Whenever I say I want to go to law school, people give me that "oh, he's that guy" look. Basically, most Grinnellians are not type-A, except for some.

Most students just wear whatever is comfortable, and that means anything. I believe that the statistic on Grinnell graduates is that 1/3 get a job right away, 1/3 go into graduate school, and the other 1/3 do service work such as Teach for America, Peace Corps, or a Grinnell program Grinnell Corps. I'm going to teach chemistry, physics, and math in Western Africa next year for the Peace Corps.