Grinnell College Top Questions

The campus community is small, compared to other campuses, but I find the size perfect. The college and community get along really well. Along with the smallish size of the college-- you get to know your professors pretty well, which is awesome! Its nice being able to e-mail your professor at 2 in the morning and get a response within 10 min! One of the best things about Grinnell is the community. Everyone on campus is friendly! I was shocked when I arrived as a freshman by how nice people were and as a result I was never homesick the first year. Another awesome thing about Grinnell is have no required classes!! This allows students to take courses in lots of different areas.

It is a small school, located in the middle of Iowa. This may sound like an immediate turn-off, but this characteristic gives the college benefits. The community feeling is very strong. There is very little competition between students, rather, students feel the need to challenge themselves. Everyone is an individual here, everyone respects that about others. We are all interested in learning but also in having fun. The school offers lots of outlets for the students, all of the events are free. The big endowment gives us great facilities and good music. Students learn to make their own fun. We are all very creative. Grinnellians care about social problems and about impacting the world. The winters are terrible, but we get through it, we're stronger for that reason.

I chose Grinnell, not for its high academic rigor, but rather for its opportunities over the summers and post-graduation. I love that Grinnell is so interested in taking care of their students and student life outside of the "campus". Usually, when I tell people I go to Grinnell, they either react with confusion ("oh, you go to Cornell?") or they seem impressed, and comment "that's a really good school". Best thing is, it is important to the students that Grinnell IS a good school, but we would rather not be "name brand". We are more interested in subtle quality, not high-brow reputations.

The school is on the small side, but this allows more attention to be paid to each individual student. The large endowment is one of the best things about Grinnell because it enables the school to fund all sorts of events, groups, clubs etc. and improve the average Grinnell student's standards of living and happiness. The town of Grinnell is nothing special- incredibly small. However, the campus offers so much that I rarely leave it. The school is not as well known as I would hope. However, those who are familiar with good colleges in general know the name Grinnell. My favorite part about Grinnell is the student body. Never have I met so many enthralling, multi-talented, ambitious people in one place.

For me, Grinnell is the perfect size, though some think it's too small. We have school pride, but not in traditional formats. Sporting events aren't a major part of student life, and we don't really have a homecoming, but we find ways to express our love of Grinnell. I think the best part of Grinnell is its community -- professors, students, alums, and staff combine to make a truly unique, wonderful, close, and welcoming social environment both on and off campus. Students complain about the administration's lack of organization and the near-constant construction.

A lot of people don't know about Grinnell. I think its a good school, but a lot of people who don't know it assume its a community college.

Grinnell is small, but that doesn't limit it. Whenever people hear I go to Grinnell, they either haven't heard of it (the "small" part), or they say "that's a great school!" with real enthusiasm. And you'll meet Grinnell students or alums everywhere; everyone goes on to do so many wonderful things afterwards that you never now where you'll run into one--but you can be assured they'll be happy to meet you! The town itself has a cute downtown and some good restaurants, but the main center of activity is the campus, where there is ALWAYS something going on; Grinnell has very strong theatre and music departments who give frequent performances, an overload of student groups, big parties several times a semester and smaller ones every weekend, and a few times each year, a really big group will come to campus to perform--Spoon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo are recent guests. And whatever goes on is always free to students! Now if that's not an amazing chance I don't know what is; the only question is which activity you'll go to, not if there's anything good happening at all. The administration is overall willing to work with students; each semester there is a period of student initiatives, most of which will be acted on by the Student Government, which is quite active and works directly with the administration. The latter seems mostly concerned with building projects right now, which has given the campus a new science building and a student center most recently, wherein, despite typical student gripes, the food is mostly quite good--custom-order stir-fry, anyone? The sports teams don't tend to draw too much attention, but I hear we aren't too terrible; Grinnellians just express their school pride in different areas. Finally, I would like to draw attention to the beautiful campus--we have huge, amazing trees, and when everything's in bloom... makes you almost forget the Iowa winter! But really, it is the nicest college campus I've come across personally.

Grinnell is all I thought it would be and more. My favorite part about Grinnell is the community. Everyone is truly there for each other, and the administration works diligently alongside the students to create an environment which promotes connections between students, faculty, staff, and the surronding community. I love the size of Grinnell. It's big enough to provide a big pool of opportunities, potential friendships, and activities, while at the same time being small enough to promote close professor-student relationships. When I tell people I attend Grinnell, I get one of two reactions: either "Wow! That's a really good, impressive school!" or "Grinnell? Where's that?" So people who have heard of it know that Grinnell is a highly-regarded institution, but because it's in the middle of Iowa, lots of people don't know about it. I spend most of my time on campus in the student center or the library. The town of Grinnell is a wonderful community. Although it doesn't revolve around the college, community members are definitely there for the college students, and the downtown has a lot of fun things to do on weekends. Grinnell's administration works diligently to treat its students like the adults that we are, and for that I couldn't be more grateful. Grinnell's unique system of self-governance means that administrators don't discipline students but instead trust them to be responsible for their own actions. For this reason, there is a lot less tension between administrators and students than there is at other colleges. School pride runs high at Grinnell, but not in the typical/sterotypical way. We love our athletics, but they don't define our school pride. Instead, our pride is more about being a part of a unique intellectual community that's dedicated to social change. Grinnellians are quick to unite around common causes, and once you're a Grinnellian, you'll always be a part of our close-knit community. Many Grinnellians talk about moving to a big city like Chicago or New York years after graduation, and the first thing they do is look up Grinnellians becuase no matter what year you graduated, there's a special, indescrible link between all Grinnell alums--and we're always there for eachother.

I like the size of the college, but sometimes I feel stuck in such a small town. Coming from DC I am use to being able to do alot more. I think it is a good experience, but I would not want to live there forever. haha.

The best thing about grinnell is that you have only one required class for all four years of college. It is called the Freshman Tutorial where you and other freshman basically are introduced to the kind of teaching that you will experience in the future as well as learning simple things such as, how to write different types of papers, give in-class presentations, and other general things like that. While this tutorial seems boring and generic it is enhanced by the fact that each fall several different topics are offered for the tutorial, giving the freshman the ability to choose what topic interests them the most. After you complete the freshman tutorial you are never required to take any one course (except of course the classes required to complete a major). So if you hate english or math you are completely able to avoid them your entire time at Grinnell. Another awesome thing about Grinnell is its study abroad programs. It has two really cool programs that it runs itself, Grinnell-in-London and Grinnell-in-Washington D.C.. In addition to those grinnell is in cooperation with tons of other study abroad programs that lets students travel all over the world and study or do research in any area that the student wants. Grinnell is also the perfect size. There are 1200 or so students so it is big enough to meet a wide variety of people but also small enough that you can get to know a large variety of people from all over the country and world. Grinnell students are generally not from Iowa, so it is really cool to be able to meet people from Chicago, LA, New York and all kinds of other parts of the U.S. The city is a small, quaint, college town but it is not oriented around the college. It is truly rural Iowa but still has plenty to offer.