<p>and beware - dont ask for too much aid at places like WPI - they didnt give me ANY aid because of that… because they thought it would be better to meet 2 people’s need rather than mine… i asked them the reason for my waitlist and they said because i asked for too much aid…</p>
<p>I still think Clark is a good safety for strong applicants, SUNY brockport offers full ride for those students who have 7 or more A’s in their O levels/IGCSE</p>
<p>ronty my senior got NEU with full tuition and took out 40-50k loan,</p>
<p>Options like Clark, WPI and Ohio Wesleyan are good ONLY if you are not seeking full aid or anywhere near there. You need to be contributing at least 10K a year to be considered competitive…</p>
<p>Here’s my 2cents on the OPs question.</p>
<p>Grinnell: Its a really good LAC. They have a 3+2 program which lets you do LAC education at Grinnell, and Engineering at Columbia, WUSTL, CalTech pr RPI…provided you keep up a minimum GPA required. They are very liberal with aid (with $1,4billion adn less than 1600 students, they better be).</p>
<p>So, if your looking for quality LAC education and an Engineering degree at the same time, Grinnell’s a very good choice.</p>
<p>Grinell is not too unlike Clark, WPI and Ohio Wesleyan, which give out a lot of aid (maybe not Clark) to many applicants who each receive a limited share. But yeah Grinnell is one of the richest LACs out there.</p>
<p>BUT remember financial aid is unlikely at the engineering school</p>
<p>in fact grinnell is the richest lac’s out there, its endowment is larger than all big names like williams, swarthmore and amherst. i don’t think it can be considered a real safety for many people espacially those applying to amherst and williams as reaches. i know a kid who got in at harvey mudd but not in at grinnell. it is definitely becoming more difficult these days. the acceptance rate was 60+% just seven years ago but now (last year) was down to 36% with the test scores higher than those of ucb and uchicago. i would think it’s more of a match than a safety.</p>
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<p>Really? test scores higher than Chicago!!!..wow!</p>
<p>surprisingly yes, higher than uchicago! one of my brothers graduated from grinnell in 2003 and he said it was much easier for him to get in back then, he said he’d have no chance getting in now.</p>
<p>class of 2009;</p>
<p><a href=“http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=377[/url]”>http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=377</a>
Mid 50% ACT 2832 …so median~30?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/classprofile/[/url]”>http://www.grinnell.edu/admission/classprofile/</a>
Median ACT Composite Score: 31 </p>
<p>not saying grinnell is difficult to get in but one should think a little more carefully when picking it as a safety.</p>
<p>With 61% scoring in the range of 30-36, the median ACT for Chicago might very well be 31 instead of 32. So not much of a difference there compared to Grinnell’s. Maybe we should examine other indicators: </p>
<p>Comparing 25th-75th percentile SAT scores data on USNEWS 2004 data (sorry I didn’t want to waste the money to buy newer versions), Grinnell’s is significantly lower than Chicago’s. </p>
<p>Chicago: 1310-1500 (median ~ 1405)
Grinnell: 1250-1440 (median ~ 1345)</p>
<p>And freshmen top 10% in HS data are as follows: </p>
<p>Chicago: 79%
Grinnell: 59% </p>
<p>So, Grinnell might be selective, but I really don’t think it’s more selective than Chicago.</p>
<p>class of 2009;</p>
<p>chicago: acceptance rate 39.6%
grinnell: acceptance rate 36.6% </p>
<p>And freshmen top 10% in HS data (up-dated) are as follows: </p>
<p>Chicago: 78%
Grinnell: 72%</p>
<p>say they both have the same median act: 31</p>
<p>statistically, i think it is slightly more competitive than uchicago.</p>
<p>either way it doesn’t matter because this thread is for internationals and not general applicants. grinnell attracts more internationals percentagewise than chicago, which completely changes the dynamics of the process for intls to grinnell. all these stats that you post are correct but they very well might look different for internationals.</p>
<p>Acceptance rate is an erroneous measure of student selectivity, especially when applicants to Uchicago are self-selective in the first place. And 36.6% is in no an impressive admission rate for a top LAC anyway… </p>
<p>And yes this is a rather pointless discussion. The applicant pool for the two schools are totally different. But one thing for sure, if I am an international seeking financial aid, I wouldn’t waste money applying to UChicago (It’s stingy and too many intels applying there are not seeking aid), but I know I’ll have a decent shot at Grinnell.</p>
<p>thats true woebegone…</p>
<p>clark univeristy and Dickinson college are both very good schools that are not as competitive as say amherst and williams and such. and they give very generous aid, </p>
<p>so if any of you are looking for a lot of aid, consider these 2 schools. Dickinson and Clark</p>
<p>college of wooster… they take in ppl even with low sat scores n offer upto 50% max in scholarships… but then its nt very high ranked…</p>