College Visit Report - Grinnell College

[Arch at Home]

We just returned from our visit to Grinnell College. DD is much relieved that it is her last college visit until after acceptances start coming in.

DD had a good visit. She does not like sleepovers of any kind and was dreading this but many things went well. DD is gf and she really enjoyed the food. That said she is an adventurous eater and loves ethnic food. They also had a well stocked gluten-free cupboard/refrigerator and she could see how to get "American" food options also. The girl who was her host took DD to a flute concert and a mentoring meeting. The host, a very outgoing, bubbly girl, introduced her to a number of other students and had them share with DD about Grinnell. 

Today, as we were the only family had a private information session and tour. DD has already submitted her application but had some concern about whether her councelor's letter and letters of recommendations would make it on time for the merit scholarship deadline. We were reassured that the only components that had to make the December deadline was that which was in DD's control, her application. Hence, a delayed letter of recommendation or ACT scores would not impact the deadline. We also learned that the default housing option for first years is double room occupancy. That was a relief because this dd would do much better in a double than a triple.

DD also sat in on a class. She was very impressed with how eager the students were to participate. In fact, they were working on a simulation and the class was student lead and the teacher did not even attend the class.

Grinnell is in a small Iowa town about 45 minutes to 1 hour from a larger town. 90% of the students live on campus. The college brings in 500 acts/speakers/bands/movies and etc. each year. Student seem to be very occupied with the campus scene and rarely go to Iowa City or Des Moines. There is a wide range of housing options including singles, doubles, triples, suties, theme and language houses. There is a single cafeteria on campus and one coffee shop/grille. The town was a coffee shop, a movie theatre, a grocery store, and a number of restaurants within walking distance. With the number of bikes parked around, it appeared that the students use bikes to get around town.

I found the students to be focused on their studies but very active in a variety of other activities. On campus part-time jobs are the norm and jobs are abundant. The diversity and international student numbers were high for a midwestern school though many on the coast surpass it. The school makes an effort to take students on trips associated with classes or support internships in other locations.

There are two quirks that you should be aware of. There is a working train line that goes straight through campus and a train goes through once a day. Also campus is in the middle of farm country and depending on the directly of the wind the smell of animals is prevalent. DD and I both agreed that one would eventually get used to it.

DD feels that she would be quite happy with attending Grinnell. Now we just have to wait and see how the acceptance fall.

[kokotg]

We're visiting Grinnell Monday :). Thanks for the report! 

[Arch at Home]

1 hour ago, kokotg said:

We're visiting Grinnell Monday :). Thanks for the report! 

I can’t wait to hear what you think. 

[DawnM]

8 hours ago, Arch at Home said:

We just returned from our visit to Grinnell College. DD is much relieved that it is her last college visit until after acceptances start coming in.

DD had a good visit. She does not like sleepovers of any kind and was dreading this but many things went well. DD is gf and she really enjoyed the food. That said she is an adventurous eater and loves ethnic food. They also had a well stocked gluten-free cupboard/refrigerator and she could see how to get "American" food options also. The girl who was her host took DD to a flute concert and a mentoring meeting. The host, a very outgoing, bubbly girl, introduced her to a number of other students and had them share with DD about Grinnell. 

Today, as we were the only family had a private information session and tour. DD has already submitted her application but had some concern about whether her councelor's letter and letters of recommendations would make it on time for the merit scholarship deadline. We were reassured that the only components that had to make the December deadline was that which was in DD's control, her application. Hence, a delayed letter of recommendation or ACT scores would not impact the deadline. We also learned that the default housing option for first years is double room occupancy. That was a relief because this dd would do much better in a double than a triple.

DD also sat in on a class. She was very impressed with how eager the students were to participate. In fact, they were working on a simulation and the class was student lead and the teacher did not even attend the class.

Grinnell is in a small Iowa town about 45 minutes to 1 hour from a larger town. 90% of the students live on campus. The college brings in 500 acts/speakers/bands/movies and etc. each year. Student seem to be very occupied with the campus scene and rarely go to Iowa City or Des Moines. There is a wide range of housing options including singles, doubles, triples, suties, theme and language houses. There is a single cafeteria on campus and one coffee shop/grille. The town was a coffee shop, a movie theatre, a grocery store, and a number of restaurants within walking distance. With the number of bikes parked around, it appeared that the students use bikes to get around town.

I found the students to be focused on their studies but very active in a variety of other activities. On campus part-time jobs are the norm and jobs are abundant. The diversity and international student numbers were high for a midwestern school though many on the coast surpass it. The school makes an effort to take students on trips associated with classes or support internships in other locations.

There are two quirks that you should be aware of. There is a working train line that goes straight through campus and a train goes through once a day. Also campus is in the middle of farm country and depending on the directly of the wind the smell of animals is prevalent. DD and I both agreed that one would eventually get used to it.

DD feels that she would be quite happy with attending Grinnell. Now we just have to wait and see how the acceptance fall.

 

Is this Grinnell College in Iowa?  Why do they have ethnic foods and why is she concerned about getting American food.  Isn't this college in America?  Iowa farm country?  

I am not following.

[Arch at Home]

4 hours ago, DawnM said:

 

Is this Grinnell College in Iowa?  Why do they have ethnic foods and why is she concerned about getting American food.  Isn't this college in America?  Iowa farm country?  

I am not following.

Grinnell is in Iowa. They have a 20% international rate. The cafeteria has special stations for top 8 allergies, halal, and vegan. To meet all of those special needs there is a lot of ethnic without cooking lots of specialty foods. 

Gluten-free eating often complicates regular American eating. She likes once in a while to have a burger, hot dog, sandwich, or pizza - all of which in their standard form have gluten. The allergy-free station has hamburger and hotdog buns so that though she didn’t try to we figure that she could grab a bun and request a burger or hotdog without a bun. I find for my gf kids navigating college cafeterias require strategizing on how best to get their needs meet  

 

[DawnM]

3 hours ago, Arch at Home said:

Grinnell is in Iowa. They have a 20% international rate. The cafeteria has special stations for top 8 allergies, halal, and vegan. To meet all of those special needs there is a lot of ethnic without cooking lots of specialty foods. 

Gluten-free eating often complicates regular American eating. She likes once in a while to have a burger, hot dog, sandwich, or pizza - all of which in their standard form have gluten. The allergy-free station has hamburger and hotdog buns so that though she didn’t try to we figure that she could grab a bun and request a burger or hotdog without a bun. I find for my gf kids navigating college cafeterias require strategizing on how best to get their needs meet  

 

 

Very surprised they are catering that much to the 20%, but I would love to have gone there!  I love foods from all around the world.   

[kiana]

Part of it is that ethnic foods can serve multiple purposes -- a bowl of dal can be protein for the Indian students, the vegan students (as long as cooked with vegan broth), and the gluten-free students. A GF hot dog, on the other hand, only helps the GF students. For a cafeteria manager who's trying to save time/costs, it makes total sense. 

[Arch at Home]

9 minutes ago, kiana said:

Part of it is that ethnic foods can serve multiple purposes -- a bowl of dal can be protein for the Indian students, the vegan students (as long as cooked with vegan broth), and the gluten-free students. A GF hot dog, on the other hand, only helps the GF students. For a cafeteria manager who's trying to save time/costs, it makes total sense. 

Exactly what I was trying to say.  Thanks!

[kokotg]

Here now! I'm waiting for DS to finish the class he's sitting in on, and then he has an interview, so I've got a lot of time to kill...we haven't talked a whole lot yet, but I think he really likes it. His overnight host didn't seem to do anything particularly interesting with him--he says they hung out in his room, talked about Grinnell with him and his friend across the hall, then he needed to study while DS....hung out his phone? I dunno. It sounded to me like he wasn't the greatest host, but DS seemed happy enough with how it went. His host is a physics major (DS's top two potential majors right now are math and physics) and was homeschooled until high school, so seems like they probably did their best to pair him up with someone who was a good match. He got to visit with someone's pet rabbit in the dorm, and I'm suddenly very excited that he might be able to bring a pet (not dogs or cats, but most rodents, reptiles, etc are allowed) to school. Graduation present bunny! 

We did the tour and information session this morning and got to see the jungle gyms in the library--one of the things that stood out to both us when we did a virtual tour awhile back. They're just as appealing in person. 

Right now he's at a Calc II class. Grinnell's math department is sort of quirky in that they only offer 2 semesters of calculus....so I gather that calc II includes multivariable calc? at any rate, as far as we can tell, it's where he'd start with math here since he took BC calc last year... so it will be interesting to hear what he thinks of it and whether he feels prepared and all that. They seem to have a good sized math department for a school this size and we were told math is a popular major. 

We ate lunch in the cafeteria; other places he's eaten are Hendrix, Bowdoin, and Kennesaw State U (where he does dual enrollment), all of which happen to have really highly ranked dining....this one did not impress him as much, but he liked it well enough. 

I'm kind of worried about weather, since he hasn't lived anywhere especially cold since he was about 20 months old and since the overwhelming majority of places he's applying are in cold climates....high today is 34, and he says it's not bad at all. Of course, it gets a lot colder (and windier). But I think he can adjust. 

[SquirrellyMama]

If anyone has questions about the town let me know. I grew up there and graduated from Grinnell High School.

Kelly

[Janeway]

Grinnell is also a very politically charged school. Wait until the Iowa caucus's come around. Your daughter will love it! I always did. 

[BlsdMama]

Grinnell is a great school and who wouldn't want to be in Iowa!?  ;) There are also board aunties in time of need, lol.

[Arch at Home]

20 hours ago, Janeway said:

Grinnell is also a very politically charged school. Wait until the Iowa caucus's come around. Your daughter will love it! I always did. 

Our visit to Grinnell solidified for DS the advantages of studying political science in Iowa. He is probably not Grinnell material but will be tagging along the next time we visit Drake. 

[Frances]

17 hours ago, Arch at Home said:

Our visit to Grinnell solidified for DS the advantages of studying political science in Iowa. He is probably not Grinnell material but will be tagging along the next time we visit Drake. 

My husband and I both attended Cornell College and at the time, they had a great political science department. His sister went from there to a doctoral program in political philosophy at Harvard. We had lots of presidential candidates come on campus and even a sitting president. I don’t know much about the department now, but one of our former professors was just re-elected to Congress.

As for Grinnell, my son absolutely loved his visit during his junior year when it was Spring Break there. But we couldn’t get him to go back after acceptance, even though they offered to pay for the plane ticket. It’s a great school! And I loved how they promised to increase merit aid each year to match the increase in tuition/fees.

[LisaKinVA]

Thank you -- this is one of the schools heavily recruiting my oldest daughter.  Still not sure we could afford it... but it sounds like an atmosphere my daughter would like.