If you take a look at UW admission chatter now, out of state students who don’t have at least a 3.7 unweighted and a 30 or 31 are usually rejected.
When my UW kid was also looking at LACs (under duress, we gave up and he was deciding between public flagships by the end of the process), Grinnell had an acceptance rate around 40%. The education hasn’t changed in the 4-5 years since he was visiting colleges, the competitiveness of the process has, driving up applications and encouraging folks back east to consider the charms of Iowa.