I don’t see how a site in which neither Grinnell nor Oberlin appear would be helpful to the OP.
You mean, because neither of them appeared in a list of the top fifty colleges or universities in America?
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Please keep the conversation meaningful to the OP and focused on schools they should reasonably consider. Any discussion of rankings sites is off topic and better suited for PM or another thread. Thanks.
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Yes, I just meant that Life article included men’s colleges and coed colleges, but not women’s colleges. So in that sense it was a list of colleges men could consider.
Hello @iceheist!
The schools listed by @NiceUnparticularMan are all great, but I think the list could be longer. I also think that continuing as a D1 varsity athlete (or even a large D3 varsity athlete) will usually be harder than as an LAC varsity athlete. I’m going to assume for the purposes of this post you do want to continue and that your interactions thus far have indicated you are a better fit for LAC teams.
It sounds like you already reached out to coaches from various LACs beyond Grinnell and Oberlin. Were Carleton or Swarthmore among them? I would consider adding those to the schools recommended by @NiceUnparticularMan.
It sounds like your first choice major is Linguistics. While Oberlin has one actual Linguistics course (beyond independent study type classes), Grinnell has six this year, so that’s certainly more of an academic fit. Carleton however has 15; there it’s available as an actual major. It’s also available as an actual major with a great breadth of courses at Swarthmore.
There are many different ways of studying linguistics. I note your interest in math, and also the first paragraph of Carleton’s linguistics department description states “We examine the nature of languages using various mathematical techniques.” For what it’s worth, it was the only introductory description my brief search turned up that explicitly mentioned math as foundational to a department’s approach to linguistics. I hope it’s not out of bounds for me to mention, but if you are interested in the computational aspects of linguistic study, it may also be worth noting which schools offer Cognitive Science (it’s available as a major at Carleton and Swarthmore, among other places, but not at Grinnell or Oberlin.)
I believe the schools mentioned regard themselves as “need aware” for internationals. That’s not always a bad thing; sometimes need aware allows for more generous packages when offered, even for domestic students. Still I thought I would mention Bowdoin and Amherst are need blind for internationals, but neither offers linguistics as a major.
It might be helpful to look at item H6 from the Common Data Sets of the schools you are researching. There you can see the average financial aid granted to international students and how many such students received any aid. So, for Oberlin 280 international students received an average of 44k (full price of 87k.) For Grinnell, 219 students received an average of 56k (full price of 85k). Carleton had a more generous average of 63k (full price of 86k), but over a smaller number of students (90.) Swarthmore averaged 78k (full price 86k) over 78 students. I thought I would also mention Pomona, another LAC with both actual linguistics and cognitive science majors, averages 74k (full price 89k) over 86 students, and Macalester averages 62k over 218 students (full price of 84k, also offers a linguistics major but no cognitive science).
If it matters to you, Minneapolis (Carleton and Macalester), Philadelphia (Swarthmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr), and Los Angeles (Pomona) all have one stop flights to Mumbai.
Regarding the question of Grinnell v Oberlin, for your interests I agree with those preferring Grinnell. While a difference of 40 or so spots in the US News rankings might imply a significant difference in prestige in the general public, among the most educated and informed the reputation difference is more modest. That can be seen in things like the peer assessment scores that US News compiles (4.3/5 for Grinnell and 4.0 for Oberlin) and, perhaps more importantly, a difference of far fewer spots on PhD feeder rankings (this one is perhaps the most helpful for overall rates as it has the actual percentages, goes to 100, and uses a 10 year average. Though you may not be thinking of pursuing a PhD program now, matriculation rates into them can be a useful gauge of the reputation for rigor and quality within academia, not to mention the academic disposition of the students.)
Still, Grinnell has more of a linguistics program than Oberlin, and since that appears to be your primary interest, and all these schools have (good!) math programs, I would say that gives Grinnell the edge. A reasonable argument could be made that an international student might appreciate the 60% larger student body at Oberlin, or its more convenient location for exploring a major metro area in a new county. But I’m guessing you would probably spend much more time appreciating the amazing swimming complex at Grinnell compared to touring Cleveland!
So in a nutshell my advice would be to consider quickly reaching out now to coaches at schools like Carleton, Swarthmore, and Pomona, if you haven’t already. If nothing materializes there before your ED1 deadline, I would recommend going with Grinnell.
Good luck!
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It is extremely late for '25 recruiting, and I suspect that there very well may be no spots with coach support available at any selective d3 school today. Personally, my view is that Grinnell is an excellent school, certainly on a par with those you mention, and it is MUCH better to go with the bird in hand.
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It’s much better to go with the bird in hand than what? To be clear, I wasn’t suggesting OP walk away from either offer if nothing else materializes by the ED1 deadline. I was offering suggestions on other schools to reach out to, since they asked (in part) for exactly that. I think the sooner they reach out the better, since there’s both a (admittedly small) chance they could receive more options in 2 weeks, and there’s a (probably less small) chance the ED1 aid package could be insufficient, and waiting til that’s known in mid December would narrow the field of available recruit spots even more. Carleton, Swarthmore, and Pomona all have ED2, and I’ve known even D1 recruits to get offers as late as spring, but, yes, it’s getting late, so my advice is not to delay. Grinnell is a fantastic school, and so is Oberlin, but if one is a believer in “fit,” the availability of the first choice major (which I take linguistics to be) is at least as much a reason to select a school as overall prestige, if not more so, not to mention all these other schools are also highly regarded.
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I emailed most of the schools you’ve mentioned, except for Pomona. Swarthmore showed some interest, but nothing came of it. I’m considering applying to all of them Regular Decision if Grinnell isn’t financially viable. I’m confident I’ll be able to walk on to all of them; in fact, Amherst actually suggested I do so if admitted since they had already finalized the team before I reached out.
In any case, I’ve just submitted an Early Decision 1 application to Grinnell, so I’m most likely going to end up committing there. I realized that even though Oberlin is quite close to Cleveland, Grinnell isn’t too far from Chicago either—maybe just 3-4 hours away—so I could probably visit on the weekends.
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Des Moines and Cedar Rapids/Iowa City are also going to be worth day trips or possibly weekend visits. The Twin Cities are about the same distance as Chicago and very cool. But I think you will find there is also a lot of stuff happening each week on campus too.
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