Academics
A commitment to the common good is the overarching theme of Grinnell College, a private liberal arts school in Iowa. With “an articulated commitment to social responsibility,” students can choose from more than five hundred courses each year and more than eighty study abroad options. “Academics here are difficult,” but “classes are also in-depth and engaging” and “Grinnell has great support systems” should you find any course to be too challenging. And while professors “may make you work hard, they are just as committed to helping you as you are to trying.” They have “a deep understanding of both their subject material and how to teach it” and are “willing to take substantial time to make sure individual students are keeping up.” Many classes are based on “engaging, thought-provoking discussion” (including language classes) and professors “know how to pivot any student response for productive discussion,” often incorporating creative learning methods to do so. “My political science class featured extensive political theory games run by the professor [such as] designing nations, playing as competing social movements, [and] trying to keep others from polluting common resources,” says a student. Each professor “lets their personality shine through lectures and class discussion,” and “you will [quickly] learn which professors speak to your interests, and you will likely stick with them.”
Student Body
This is a “motivated, vibrant, interesting and interested, and … very, very smart” group of students. On top of being “unpretentious and down-to-earth,” they also tend “to be passionately [in favor of] social justice.” In pursuit of that, Grinnellians are “very curious people” and “are usually busy and working on some combination of academic and extracurricular projects.” With a “common interest of learning and being intellectually stimulated as well as being critical of societal practices and other big picture problems occurring today,” this is a “very inclusive environment” where “resistance to unique expression is often looked down upon.” To that extent, “all students are invited to any on campus or off campus event.” One student says, “Everyone can find their tribe here.” Another puts the student body in perspective: “There [must] be something different about you if you’re willing to trek to rural Iowa for your undergrad education.”
Campus Life
There are “lots of niche interests” here and there’s a club for almost every one of them—there’s even “Nerf at Noyce, which is the club dedicated to spending Friday nights in the enormous science building playing giant games with Nerf guns.” With options like that, “basically every student is involved in some extracurricular activities.” However, “studying will take a good portion of the weekdays” at this “always busy” school, so “fun is usually reserved for the weekends, which are full of socializing and club activities.” Students note that when it’s warmer out, “students can be seen LARPing [live action role-playing] outside on the field, or playing Frisbee with a group of friends.” Outside of those on-campus activities, “you better be creative and active in searching for/creating your own fun, because Grinnell is no metropolis.” And while there aren’t a lot of events in Grinnell, “there are a variety of locations off campus (pubs, bars, bowling alleys, farms, restaurants, and parks)” where students can also decompress.
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