Grinnell College Top Questions

Grinnell is a challenging school that, in many ways, let's you prioritize your education and what is important to you. It gives you a lot of freedom and responsibility, and expects you behave maturely and thoughtfully. This sounds serious, but these expectations are accompanied by a caring, supportive, funky, and relaxed environment.

What really sets Grinnell apart to me is the sense of community. The first thing that comes to mind is the professors, and their relationship to students. All my profs and me are on first name basis, and they are great mentor and friends. I have friends here who are so close to their professors, they would even count the profs as their family. The college being so small also have impact on student-student social dynamic. You will end up knowing half the people here, and it is great that you will see friendly faces everywhere. However, you also can never avoid your ex. The town is also great--people are very friendly, and it's very safe. A bit on the boring side some time, but normally not too bad.

Grinnell is a fabulously small, close-knit community where it seems like everyone knows everyone else's business, sort of like the small town of Grinnell. At times it seems too small, but it is really nice (for me at least) to be able to walk across campus at any time of day and see people I know. When I tell people I go to Grinnell, the first reaction is usually "Oh, Cornell? That's a great school..." "No, GRIN-NELL, in Iowa." If they've heard of it, they usually comment on how good a school it is. If they haven't heard of it, which is usually the case, they sometimes lose interest very quickly. But I figure if they haven't heard of it, it's their loss since the school is really phenomenal. I spend a great deal of my time on campus in the Grille (or somewhere in the Science Building), studying or reading or hanging out with friends while studying. There are plenty of different places to hang out though, each with it's own pre-established mood. The town of Grinnell is small (around 9,000) but there is a nice assortment of restaurants (from the typical chains to The Depot, The Phoenix, etc.) and homey little shops. There are also plenty of opportunities to go to "the city" -- Des Moines or Iowa City. I think that there is a great amount of school pride. Grinnellians (as we call ourselves) are truly one of a kind and I think that just by attending school there, we have one major thing in common. I know of many people (myself included) who were really unsure as to whether or not Grinnell was the right place after the first semester or year of school. But then I spent a few weeks in the summer doing research with a prof (yes, as a FIRST year I did research!) and I fell in love with the town during the summer. It truly is small town Iowa, farmers and families and friends, big concerts in the park, everyone knows everyone. My second year, I really began to love the school and now I absolutely cannot think of myself in any other college.

I like the size of the school. The school isn't very interested in sports.

The best thing about Grinnell is the amount of resources. If you ever need help with anything there is always someone to go to whether it be math, science, reading, writing, or family problems. If I could change one thing about Grinnell, it would be the housing. You are not allowed to live off campus until your Jr. year and even then you are required to get permission. Also, the meal plans are expensive and even though I could never eat as many meals as I have to pay for, I still have to pay for them. I would say the size of the school is just about right. The campus is large so it feels like a bigger college but the classes are still small so the professors know who you are. Usually when I tell people I go to Grinnell, they have not heard of it and think I am talking about Cornell, but once they look Grinnell up they realize that it is a good school and are very impressed. When I am on campus I spend most of my time in dorm rooms with my friends. There are plenty of other places to hang out though like the Grille, alcoves in the JRC, and other random places available. Grinnell's upper level administration is great though some of the middle ranked admins are full of themselves. Overall the admistration does their best to listen to and cater to the student body. Recently on campus, we had a series of hate crimes and, while they were committed by only one or two students, they affected the whole campus. The admistration did a great job of respinding to these incidents, responding to the students, and keeping us informed on the invesigation. I will never forget the rallies we held in support of those targeted by the hate crimes. There is not necessarily a lot of school pride in sports but definitely school pride in each and every student and supporting every student in everything they do. The only major problem with Grinnell is its distance from the bigger cities. We are abou 50 min away from Des Moines and Iowa City. With Gas and Tuition prices, it sucks.

Grinnell is a small school, only about 1,500 students at any one time (though 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the junior class is studying abroad any one semester - compare that to the 1{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} national average.) Grinnell's size is what makes it a really wonderful school. Students at Grinnell interact and operate under a policy of self governance. Simplified, this means that students resolve student issues, we communicate with each other and to facilitate this, the college has instituted both a number of safe-guards and non-mandatory reporters. Self governance allows the student body to interact without looking over their shoulders. There is a lot of responsibility that rests with the students in order to make sure self-governance functions. Students look out for one another and take care of each other.

The best thing here at Grinnell is the community. We're small enough that we're really close knit as a campus, but big enough so that you don't know everyone. As for the town, well, the downtown is very small, but cute, and we do have a WalMart for any random shopping. If you really feel the need for a big city, Iowa City and Des Moines are only an hour or so away. When I tell people that I go to Grinnell, I usually get one of two responses. Either they mistake the name for Cornell, or they rave on and on about how fabulous it is. While the first response is irritating, the second is dead-on. Grinnell is fabulous.

self governence. we do what we want. whenever we want. whereever we want.

Size: depending on how outgoing you are, you can know a big percentage of the student body. That can be good, in that you'll always see a friendly face at whatever meal or event you want to go to. It can also be bad, because it's hard to be anonymous. But overall it can be fun, because the school is full of characters. For example, everyone will know who you're talking about if you say "Bun Girl" or "Shoeless Hugh," and they might even know them personally. Campus: it is small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in less than ten minutes (though in the coldest of the cold days that seems like a long way). They've done a lot of construction recently so there are lots of nice new buildings and a gym. The science library is especially snazzy and the dining hall is curvy and colorful. There are lots of interesting places to study, whether you like quiet or noisy social, big or small, internet access or no distractions. The three main sections of dorms each have a different feel to them (North is more Ivy League, East is newer and sort of impersonal, and South is more hippie-ish). There are several cool places for campus events like concerts and speeches and the like. I think most people spend almost all their time on-campus, town is pretty boring. Grinnellians take a lot of pride in being Grinnellians. I'm not sure what it is exactly. I guess being surrounded by smart, quirky people, somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, makes us think "hmm... there must be something special about people who choose to go here." I probably shouldn't speak for others, but that is sort of the sense I get. Besides, inside jokes are fun, and Grinnell has a LOT of them.

It's not Cornell.