IS THE LOCATION REALLY THAT BAD

Mochese
Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:16:07 +0000

Unlike most of the above posters, I actually attend Grinnell.

The location is a contentious issue.

I’m an American who grew up in a much larger metro in Iowa (40x bigger than Grinnell), and almost all of my friends are like you, international students. Here is my perspective.

All of us hate the location. If there aren’t events on campus, which there often the case, then you’ll have to go to town. Unfortunately, town consists of a handful of restaurants, a small movie theater, and a few random shops. The movies get boring pretty quickly and the restaurants are pretty mediocre, but not bad. In the Winter, you will rarely leave campus to venture to town. It’s just not really worth it, when it is 0F or -10F with wind chill.

On campus, you’re basically trapped into attending Gardner, Harris, or [weekend]. If you drink or do drugs or don’t mind being around a lot of substance use, then this might be good for you. Gardner is an event where a band comes to play, and Harris is a themed dance party. Both have high levels of substance use or pre-gaming. As for [weekend], it’s an organization that throws ridiculous substance free activities. They usually ask us 17-23 year olds to come decorate cookies, gingerbread houses, play gym games, or board games. Unfortunately, you can only decorate cookies a few times a semester before you lose your sanity. If you want to go to Iowa City or Des Moines, it’s possible, but the shuttles ARE NOT every week. You may realistically be able to go to Des Moines or Iowa City once a month. Des Moines and Iowa City are much more enjoyable towns and have a lot more to do than Grinnell.

I’ll be transferring to Vanderbilt for the 2015-2016 academic year, because I just can’t really handle so many aspects of this school anymore. The academics are great, but the social scene, substance culture, and geographic isolation are just terrible. I know about 5-6 other students who are also transferring and about 5-6 who want to but can’t, because Grinnell’s financial aid is just too good.

We had a survey first semester that asked #GRINHELL or #GRINWELL. If I remember correctly, it was 54% #GRINHELL and 46% #GRINWELL.

This school is great for individuals who want a great academic experience and have a really peculiar niche, play Division III athletics, or like/engage in heavy substance culture.