Congratulations on your acceptances! These are two of the very top institutions anywhere for undergraduate study generally and for your fields of interest specifically.
I hesitated to write all this, because perhaps you need to focus on the many positives of Grinnell given your particular financial situation. That’s really hard for me to judge confidently, so I thought I should just focus on what I happen to know of the schools, which of course isn’t the full picture even where just the schools are concerned!
I know a student with similar interests that had to pick between the two. I thought it might be useful to summarize what they concluded. I’ll try to add a few perspectives on other considerations you brought up.
First though I need to say that while the other student ultimately chose Carleton there were two key differences between their situation and yours. First and more importantly, while Grinnell would’ve been less expensive for them, their parents were the ones who would’ve absorbed the difference. It is indeed important to graduate with as little debt as possible. How much weight to put on that difference is a personal call that takes into account many things including just how much more you may feel drawn to Carleton, which I understand to be the case. It’s good advice to reach out Monday to Carleton to explain the situation. I think you should emphasize that you are the one who personally would be taking on the debt. The second difference with the student I know was not nearly as significant, but their home city on the coast did not have regular direct flights to Des Moines. (More connections can mean more lost luggage!) But thankfully that’s not an issue in your case.
So in the other student’s case the initial differences they gleaned were things you probably already know. Things like Carleton having a nearly 10x larger campus better suited for getting immersed in nature (eg, their arboretum), a ~15% large student body, a 2x larger town, a 20 min shorter drive to a 5x larger metro area, another college 2 miles away, etc. These things may not matter to you, but I mention them because they were noteworthy to the other student.
When that student dug into the curriculums, they noticed, like you, that Carleton had more courses that seemed extra exciting. It’s of course true you will not run out of courses at Grinnell, or anywhere for that matter! But it’s nice to have more classes that stand out as especially interesting. You may not get to take all of them for one reason or another, but you will probably take more classes in specific topics you find appealing at the college offering more to begin with. For math/stats and also for physics, Carleton has nearly double the course descriptions. Some of that is due to Carleton being 15% larger, and some is the simple result of Carleton being on a trimester system where students end up taking ~36 courses vs Grinnell’s ~32. You will get to spend more time on a particular class at Grinnell by virtue of the semester calendar. But you will get to pick specific classes of interest more easily and frequently at Carleton. You will also get to focus more on fewer classes at any one time (usually 3), which may not be a bonus in everyone’s eyes but it was for the other student. To be fair, the Econ course listings at the two colleges is about the same.
Digging deeper, the other student noticed Grinnell advertises an “open curriculum.” While they weren’t really against distribution requirements, they did like the idea of being able to focus heavily on areas of interest. This was a very STEMy student who liked the focus on STEM at an individual student’s program of study at a place like Caltech or MIT but also liked the idea of more non-STEM students on campus and the idea of an entirely undergraduate-focused faculty.
Digging still deeper, they learned to their surprise that it would actually be possible to take more STEM classes at Carleton than at Grinnell, not just that there were more to pick from. While Grinnell doesn’t have distribution requirements, they do have limits on the number of courses that can be taken within a major (about 38% of total) and within a division (about 72% of total.) At Grinnell, the departments of Math/Statistics, Computer Science, and all of the natural sciences are in the “Science” division. (Econ is in their “Social Studies” division.) The student concluded if they wanted to take closer to the ~80% courses load they would at a STEM-focused school but in an LAC setting, Carleton was the better fit. Note at Carleton, outside of CS (where there’s a saturation effect), nearly all those STEM courses could in theory be from one dept. The difference between ~80% and ~72% is not significant for most, but the difference between ~80% and 38% can be. I say “nearly” cause there is a requirement to take at least one science class, and the science majors require at least one math class.
As a side-note, the above depends a bit on how carefully one selects their distribution requirements at Carleton. There are a significant number, but it is possible to satisfy multiple requirements simultaneously. It also depends on the degree to which a student has already satisfied the foreign language requirement before entry. It is possible to satisfy the language requirement entirely by getting an AP foreign language score of 4 or 5; it’s also possible to take a placement exam to place further into a language sequence based on high school work.
Grinnell is not unique in limiting courses by department by the way; in my experience it’s an oft-overlooked factor, especially in the context of the “open curriculum” schools (though not for all of them.)
The deep dive into curriculum research revealed another interesting thing specific to physics, which I understand you are considering. Among the general purpose LACs, Carleton has a very high percentage of physics majors (and also a very high percentage of majors in the physical sciences, which includes Chemistry and Geology.) It’s fairly well known to those familiar with undergraduate physics programs that a significant number of first years start off interested in physics but then change to something else. High schoolers hear about how the field has relevance to so many others and how profound the problems are, but then in college often find themselves working very hard on what can feel like very dry problems before they get to the “fun” stuff.
Grinnell is a bit typical in its required first course being introductory classical mechanics and the second introductory electromagnetism. Those are critical topics, but it isn’t until their third course, after a full year of difficult sequential study, that students see things like relativity and quantum physics. Carleton is very unusual in presenting those who took some physics and calculus in high school its introduction to mechanics in the context of astrophysical systems in the very first required course, which I think is a terrific example of the clever and effective pedagogy they are so known for. Astrophysical systems are just less dry than, say, weights and pulleys, and provide an opportunity to study relativity right off the bat. Their typical physics major then sees an introduction to quantum physics in the very next course in the sequence the following fall. Calendar wise, it may not seem like a big difference, but I think the first two courses being so interesting helps drive excitement for the field and a higher degree of students continuing on to declare it as their major.
Incidentally, some Carleton departments such as Physics and Math have 1 unit (vs the normal 6) seminars specifically designed to give first and second year students a survey of their fields so students can make better informed decisions regarding course selections, majors, or who to approach regarding research. (The physics version also goes into career opportunities.) These are Pass/Fail courses that typically require little work beyond attendance but help a student get a better feel for what a given field is really about. See Math 106 and Physics 123 descriptions if interested. I didn’t see equivalent 1 unit courses on the Grinnell site.
Another aspect the aforementioned student considered a Carleton bonus was the long winter break. The 6 weeks off is unusual and provides another opportunity for internship experiences, which the college helps match students to. A student won’t master anything in the 1-3 week time, but it can be useful in figuring out what they want to learn more about.
I think you would have no problem finding trombone opportunities at either school. Carleton has a cross-registration program with St. Olaf, which has a particularly famous music program. It’s not super common to cross-register because the calendars don’t align perfectly, but that might be less of an issue for you if you are driving distance and the class only meets a few times over break. Carleton students who are cross-registered at St Olaf are also eligible for staying on campus over break.
I noticed you mentioned Grinnell having more diversity. I think that can be measured in more than one way; certainly Grinnell has more international students, which could be important to you. By some measures Carleton has more diversity, fwiw.
I truly believe you would be happy at either of these fantastic schools. Congratulations once more! I hope financial constraints don’t dictate your decision, but either way rest assured you will get an amazing education!
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