So who is attending here?

dottified
Sat, 02 May 2009 09:33:14 +0000

I was accepted into both schools, and visited both. I was much more impressed by Oberlin, which is where I am attending. The schools are both progressive, liberal, academically challenging schools, and the students at both schools are open and friendly, but I feel like there is much more to do at Oberlin. I visited both schools on weeknights. At Oberlin, I went to an orchestra concert with one of my host’s friends. At Grinnell, I sat in the dorms.

Grinnell has a larger endowment and nicer facilities. For example, Grinnell has the school name and logo embossed on the paper napkins in the dining hall. Oberlin does not. Both schools are strong in science, and both have very nice science centers. Oberlin wins in music.

And even though both schools are in small towns, I feel like Grinnell, while a beautiful campus itself, is surrounded by a pretty podunk town in the middle of nowhere. The town of Oberlin is more charming, and only twenty or twenty-five minutes to the Cleveland Airport. Grinnell is at least an hour drive from the Des Moines Airport.

Grinnell is half the size of Oberlin, which could be good or bad depending on what you prefer. I did feel like Grinnell was more clique-ish than Oberlin.

You’re also going to find many, many more kids from the Northeast and the West at Oberlin, versus Grinnell which has a much larger population of students from the Midwest (particularly Minnesota and Illinois).