Of the players interviewed in the Times when Grinnell’s program was suspended, all appeared to have sincere academic interests if I recall correctly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/sports/grinnell-football-season-canceled.html
This is what I had considered. I discussed this very thing with a current student, who mentioned that most issues with the athlete-student divide is actually more tangible with another sports team within the school, although noting that it wasn't very drastic.
hi there! first of all, congratulations on getting accepted to both of these fantastic schools. as a student at grinnell, i would love to add my perspective while trying to refrain from bias. 
first, let’s get a couple of things out of the way!
this, to be blunt, is one of those “half-truths.” grinnell DID have a team; however, the players THEMSELVES decided to pull out of the season because of a lack of ABLE-BODIED PLAYERS, not because of a general lack of players. the injured players simply pulled the number of willing and able players down, so they pulled out of the season. for what it’s worth, although they were devastated, all students supported them and their decision.
just by this one sentence alone, i feel like you will prefer grinnell over holy cross; HOWEVER, let me discuss a couple of your points…
yes, it is true that a grinnellian’s average salary is a little bit lower than our peer schools’. why? well, i can’t definitively answer that, but i can give some possible explanations.
the type of students you find at grinnell are people who really, really want to make a change in the world. people who want to make the world a better place and will do whatever they need to do in order to make that happen. with that being said, many students, after leaving grinnell, pursue programs such as the peace corps & pursue K-12 education among many other wonderful things. many people here pursue what they believe will yield a beneficial outcome in many different aspects rather than solely on a large salary. in other words, people here care about money, but it’s not the sole driving factor for receiving a grinnell degree. because of that, the pre-professional atmosphere is not really a thing (besides those who are pre-med). in typical grinnell fashion, many people also do not pursue a degree in economics, which yields a higher salary compared to sociology, biology, and political science degrees, which are all some of grinnell’s most popular majors. this is not to say holy cross doesn’t hold the same values, i’m just not as familiar with the institution and its student body like i am with grinnell.
furthermore, location possibly plays a role. grinnell is situated in the midwest, where it’s relatively cheap to live, depending on where (obviously Chicago will be different than Des Moines, which will be different than Madison). many students come from Chicago, the twin cities, Iowa itself, as well as other surrounding cities such as STL & Madison and choose to just go back after graduating. a $47K salary in the midwest could (possibly) be equivalent to a $58K salary in the northeast and the west. you never know. do keep in mind that grinnell has quite a large percentage of international students, so maybe that also affects the average?
what makes the salary question kind of hard to give a definitive answer to is the fact i really just don’t know. grinnell’s computer science department is impeccable + a very popular major as well, and i know compsci graduates secure really, really good jobs after graduating (think $70K base-salary jobs). continuing, many, many students do go on to receive PhDs, and many become professors, and those salaries i wouldn’t think are very small. it’s just weird.
continuing, as a shorter answer, i find grinnell’s career services to be very good! they do their jobs well, you just have to go and seek help if you need it!
this was much longer than anticipated, so let me know if you have any more questions! love and hugs (stay safe)!
Thanks for your in-depth response. The football team comment was derived from a current student, who simplified the given situation. Totally agree with your comments regarding Grinnell student’s career choices and major concentration in specific areas. I got Holy Cross’ financial package today and let’s just say that any comparison to Grinnell is no longer even slightly warranted. Going to wait on depositing because of two waitlists I’m on, Hamilton and Wesleyan (I’m not sure I’d choose either over Grinnell, but would like the options). Having Italian citizenship, I might want to move to Europe after college, and at that point the school’s name wouldn’t matter – bar some ivies and Oxbridge – but what I gained from it. In such a situation, it seems to be that Grinnell is one of the strongest schools for this.
To begin, Grinnel and Holy Cross are both fantastic LACs to attend!
One of your worries was about the disparity in selectivity among the two schools. However, selectivity can often be a disingenuous measure of a school. For example, Holy Cross and Grinnel are quite close in the number of applications they receive, yet Grinnel’s acceptance rate is lower, thus making it appear more selective. However, Grinnel aims to maintain a student population of 1,800 while Holy Cross maintains a student population of 3,200. Thus, Holy Cross will always accept more than Grinnel because it seeks a larger student body (while still maintaining small class sizes).
Additionally, selectively among the two schools in regards to SAT is unhelpful. Grinnel requires SAT scores while Holy Cross does not. Despite this, the NCAA requires all division 1 schools to report the SATS of student-athletes. So those slightly lower SAT scores of Holy Cross are greatly derived from athletes, which tend to hold lower SAT scores than your average student.
While Holy Cross is a D1 school, this shouldn’t make it appear any less prestigious academically. According to the NCAA, Holy Cross holds one of the nation’s top athlete graduation rates, and for the last decade it has also been ranked in the top 15 for APR of schools where it is in good company with the Ivies.
Further, it is important to acknowledge that Holy Cross, like the Ivies, does not hand out merit aid. The College is committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need. The school does not sacrifice lower-income students to attract high school students that are better off and tend to have higher stats, thus highlighting the school’s commitment to social justice.
Finally, the perception that Holy Cross is conservative and forces religion upon its students seems to be greatly misplaced. After a little of research, in the past few decades, Holy Cross has sported 6 different congressmen, all who were democrats. Also, Obama’s speech a writer and current political commentator Jon Favreau graduated from the college.
In regard to religion, while the school is Catholic, it appears that they do not force any religious views upon its students. Rather, they seem dedicated to having a multicultural student body through its support of other faiths on campus.
Grinnell places among the top 50 colleges nationally when considered by selectivity in this article from USA Today: https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/40090323.
I totally agree with your point on the religious aspect of Holy Cross, HC is a religiously inclusive environment and is in no way ‘conservative.’ However, for those who might be considering HC, some of the points you have do not hold much weight. I’m no longer considering Holy Cross because of the stark differences in financial packages but will comment on these points for anyone who might view this thread in the future. My criticisms are as follows: Holy Cross not giving merit yet giving football full rides is odd (and is precisely a very valid concern), if anything Grinnell being self-selective because of the location makes its selectivity even more noteworthy (reference @merc81 's post), and I already mentioned why HC being compared to the ivy league is not relevant (no athletic scholarships in the ivy league).
Congrats on your decision, Grinnell is a wonderful school! We visited multiple times with both of our kids, and my spouse has often said that, if there were one school where he wished he could just wave a magic wand and have his kid attend, it would be Grinnell.
I get your point about HC granting a full ride to some student athletes and then not having enough financial aid available for good students who are need eligible. Good point.
But for the record, let’s not kid ourselves about the Ivy League. The “no scholarships” has become a PR tactic that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. It should be no “official” scholarships. All Ivy League students get a full ride if their family income is low enough. That includes incomes up to $100,000 depending on the school. There are a whole lot of athletes in that group.
The real issue at Ivy League schools in the first place is admission in and of itself - admission to schools which reject 90-95% of their applicantss. The seats thAt sshould be going to many highly qualified students are going to athletes instead. Every single one of the Ivy League athletes is a high priority admit, who then becomes eligible for 100% of demonstrated need being met with no loans. Many of the best, brightest, and most qualified students in the country are being turned away from these same schools in favor of far less qualified students just because they happen to be athletes. At Dartmouth, for example, where the enrollment is a little over 4000, there are more than 1000 athletes. At the Little Ivies, it gets even worse. 35-40% of the spots at schools like Williams and Grinnell go to athletes when enrollment is 2000 or less. At Holy Cross, athletes ae a little over 25% of enrollment and a number of them are not on scholarships at all. It’s not as simple as D1 vs “no (official) scholarships”.
Fair point and this is a good distinction to make for students who have similar concerns to the ones that I have displayed. The prioritization of athletes over qualified student academics is increasingly becoming a problem as colleges become more competitive. I was fortunate enough to be in a situation where I could solely focus on my grades (and improving my high school test scores, to be frank) in my freshman year at college, and was able to polish a really strong application because of that. Getting into prestigious schools is only going to get increasingly difficult, and from this trend the student-athlete divide will probably only continue to become starker. Appreciate the information you have provided!
Thanks, it should be a very invigorating three years and I’m just thrilled to have such an option open to me.
Bill Marsh, are you saying that athletes are treated differently in terms of eligibility and amount of need based aid at Ivy League Schools? That would be interesting. Or, are you just saying they get an admission boost, even at “need aware” schools, so they end up taking up a disproportionate part of financial aid? (If course, other people will point out that the athletic programs likely attract additional alumni contrbutions, which (net) increases the amount if financial aid available. I guess a lot of moving parts here).
No that wasn’t the point they made. Schools like Harvard have much stronger financial aid than Holy Cross, and so for many athletes they will still get a full ride through the financial aid policy, negating the need for an athletic scholarship. For those who don’t qualify for substantial aid at Harvard, they would have to be quite well of, and at that point, a lack of athletic scholarships likely wouldn’t deter them from enrolling.