Hello!
Need some serious advice asap on whether to attend Grinnell or not. I’m an international, and have been thinking about taking a gap year, and going to a better school next year. I just can’t see how $160k+ is worth it for a school like Grinell. Another option is to go to a community college in california, and then transferring into one of the UCs. What do you guys think would be better, considering my goal of breaking into CS?
Do you have the money to pay $80k/year for UC?
For the 3rd and 4th year? Yes
Not for the entire 4 years tho
In addition to the costs to attend the community college in CA, you will need money for all living expenses, and that is costly there. Do you have relatives where you can stay for free?
@Gumbymom how easy is it for internationals to transfer to the UCs after community college?
Also, what is the OOS cost of those CCs?
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“Is it worth it?” is too subjective a question for us to answer.
Questions to ask yourself and your parents:
Can they afford the Grinnell financial package?
Can they afford the CA CC + UC plan, which will be more than $160k?
How important is undergraduate prestige in your home country? In the US, the CS field is agnostic… if you have the skills and pass the recruiting tests your college does not matter much if it all. But as an international you most likely will be returning home so that may need to be a consideration.
In the US, Grinnell is well respected for its academics. It has a healthy endowment which allows it to provide extensive resources to its students. It would most likely be more popular and well-known if it were not located in a rural area of Iowa in the Midwestern part of the country. This makes it less desirable to some because of the travel challenges and distance from urban activities.
So is it worth it? That’s up to you and your family. You will not be sacrificing anything academically by attending Grinnell, but it will be a very different personal experience from a UC.
Best of luck and congratulations on your acceptance! It is a selective school with a very low acceptance rate so that is quite an achievement! 
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Got it. Thanks for the help.
For perspective, when compared among colleges and universities nationally, Grinnell placed 43rd in this site:
In comparison to the UCs, Grinnell placed behind only UCLA (#28), UCSD (#34), UCB (#35) and UCI (#37).
As an opinion, Grinnell offers an excellent computer science program.
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Adding to the above… have you communicated with any international students (preferably from your country or region) currently attending Grinnell? The admissions office can connect you. That may give you needed insight.
Best wishes!
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If you have the money, yes - considering how good Grinnell is academically and what a strong college experience I’d provide, I’m not sure you can count on “doing better” unless by that you mean a flagship university that’s perhaps less highly thought of academically but the name of which is better known in your country.
The CC+UC/CSU experience is likely to be less comprehensive and supportive than Grinnell, more expensive, and with a huge uncertainty factor after the 2 years of CC unless you don’t mind going to UC Merced.
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As an international student in need of financial aid, your potential options are quite limited due to the current political climate and due to very limited need based financial aid for international students.
To which other colleges and universities did you apply ?
Have you considered any Canadian universities ?
Grinnell College is fine, but is mostly unknown outside of the USA. It is small and located in a rural, fairly isolated area, but the academics are solid.
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Grinnell college is a very good school. You can get a very good education there. Whether it is worth it is going to depend upon multiple issues.
One important issue is that as an international student you should not expect to be allowed to stay in the US after getting your bachelor’s degree. International students are usually required to return home after graduating. Grinnell is probably not all that well known outside of the US. Thus if you go there it is likely that you will be applying for jobs in your home country and applying to hiring managers who most likely do not know Grinnell.
Another issue is what your family’s finances look like. How difficult will it be for your family to come up with the money?
Another question is: What alternatives do you have? Have you been accepted to other schools and are they still options?
Given the current situation with student visas in the US, I also have to wonder whether you have options that are outside the US. My personal interpretation of the visa situation is that it is unknown and difficult to predict.
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$40K/year for Grinnell is a very good offer.
You can do the CCC-to-UC thing, sure. But understand that what you’re looking at is:
- a close-to-30K/year budget for the first two years, for the privilege of:
- taking lower-division classes with a peer group that is mostly CA students who are living at home and attending for free and thus
- a high rate of attrition - only 20% of CA community college students end up transferring to a four-year school (and only a minority of those end up at UC’s).
- Then you have the stress and uncertainty of another application process, and the transition to another campus - there’s no default option to stay where you are and finish a four-year degree.
- And then once you transfer, your last two years will cost as much as your entire degree at Grinnell would have.
- And further, there’s no guarantee of being able to finish the whole process in four calendar years - that takes both planning and a bit of luck. Don’t underestimate how much of a grind the whole thing would be.
So, here’s my opinion. You have an excellent “bird in the hand” offer with Grinnell at less than half of its “sticker price.” If you would somehow be able to scrounge up an extra 60K (or more if additional semesters were needed to finish) for the CCC-to-UC path, you could just as easily budget that amount for a masters program at a “name brand” public university, after Grinnell.
If you get to Grinnell and feel that four years in the LAC environment is too much for you, you can still consider transferring. Those first two years at Grinnell, as noted, are only costing you 10K/year more than attending a CCC as an international student, and trust me when I say you’ll be getting much more for your money. If you want a highly-regarded research university that is far more affordable than a UC, gather some friends together and drive over to Iowa State for a tour. It’s only about an hour away. And if you transferred there, the full-pay cost of attendance for an international student is only about $47K/year - vastly more affordable than a UC, but Iowa State still has a strong STEM reputation both in the US and internationally. And you can still apply to UC’s if you want to consider spending that much.
Alternatively, do your undergrad in your home country or elsewhere, and consider grad school in the US in four years, depending on how things unfold here between now and then.
But IMHO, trading Grinnell for a community college at 75% of the yearly budget is not a win.
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Thank you everybody for writing such detailed answers. Really helped a lot.
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Estimated costs for 1 year at a California CC as an International student(Santa Monica College for example) is around $33K/year which includes tuition/fees for 24 units, mandatory health insurance and living expenses. Living expenses will dependent upon where you live in the Santa Monica/LA area.
International transfers to the UC’s via the California CC pathway is higher than non-CCC transfers.
UCLA’s International transfer admit rate for 2024 from a CCC was 24% while Berkeley was 17% but for both of these top schools you are looking at Transfer GPA admit ranges around 3.9-4.0 so academically very competitive even for transfers. Of course other UC’s are not as competitive but still looking at achieving a 3.7+ Transfer GPA for the rest of these schools for the best chances.
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