Plenty of NY students attend Grinnell, in fact it New York is listed as the 5th most likely home state of students after Illinois, California, Iowa and Minnesota. My son made new friends among Grinnell students on almost every flight home to the East Coast. However, you won’t get good bagels in Iowa and corn is a topping on pizza.
And you can get away from “your existing world” since 20% of the students are international while experiencing Iowa nice. And get a break with study abroad, the Grinnell in London program is exceptional.
OP - Pick your battles. Mom and Dad are looking at every penny they can save and there’s not enough information available to them at this stage to soothe their nerves when it comes to FA. Save your ammo for the RD process when, with any luck, it will be Grinnell versus some other LAC with its own set of drawbacks.
And although I told my kids “no geographic restrictions if the environment/academics are what you are looking for”, that was in the pre-Covid world. I know parents who dropped a kid at college two weeks ago-- and got a text when they were halfway home to come back and pick the kid up. This was an 8 hour drive- so painful. But you’re looking at a much greater distance here.
your parents may be right, or they may be wrong- but it’s WAY too early to to the mats on this!