Hey guys,
I am an international athletic recruit and have been offered roster spots from many colleges. I have narrowed my choice to these colleges. The social scene does play a part in my decision? How are the students like at these prestigious institutions?
Grinnell is a school we know well, from multiple visit with both our kids, including one being an athletic recruit. Grinnell’s community is a range of kids, no dominant “type.” The college supports lots of entertainment and social opportunities – concerts, movies, etc. – and there are plenty of parties. There is no greek life – fraternities and sororities – which reflects its commitment to inclusion. While we never visited Carleton, we know several current and recent students, and the culture overlaps a lot with Grinnell, including the no-greek life aspect and the culture of inclusion. You will find drinking and smoking at all three schools. Swarthmore was in the news last spring when students occupied a building to protest a fraternity after fraternity documents showed a culture of tolerance for sexual assault. As a result of the protest, the two remaining fraternities on campus disbanded. Broadly, Swarthmore is known for its intensity, a junior version of the University of Chicago “where fun goes to die” culture.
For a college athlete, the core of your social life will often be your team, so the first step is to get a sense of the team culture. Ask the coach if you can chat with team members, maybe the captains, by Face Time or otherwise. An individual sport like tennis may differ from team sports like hockey, but you all will still spend a lot of time together in practice, traveling for matches, etc. so compatibility with the team’s values makes life a lot easier.
Congrats on your recruiting status, these are wonderful colleges!
I am leaning more towards grinnell and carleton. Swarthmore is not particularly on my list because of its intense academics and I would not be able to balance CS+Pre med+ Tennis. Also socialising will not be possible there due to a jam pakced schedule. Do the students at both carleton and grinnell like to socialise or they pretend to be nerds? I like partying once a week and both of these colleges seem to be in line with that. Both teams are nice and fun to be with, I think a couple of internationals are playing for grinnell this year. Both are open to internationals and have diverse culture which is a plus point.
This forum and people like you will really help with my college decision. Thank you 
Is double majoring in pre-med & CS doable ?
Pre-med isn’t a major at these schools. Pre-med at these LACs is just about taking a certain string of coursework and hopefully excelling in it.
There are students at Swarthmore who party, plenty. There are students at Swarthmore who are CS majors and athletes as well.
I understand that “pre-med” is not a specific major. Nevertheless, the typical pre-med courses are demanding and most CS majors are quite demanding, so my question remains: “Is it realistically doable to pursue both a pre-med curriculum & a CS major ?”
^Really? Is CS demanding or is it just time consuming?
Grinnell and Carleton are much more rural and remote (and cold in the winter) than Swarthmore. Social life is much more on campus because it takes more effort to get to a city
How are the students like at these colleges? Any updates??
My daughter plays tennis at Grinnell and loves it. She has a happy, active social life and has made many wonderful friends. There are themed parties every weekend, lots of activities, and the students are generally very friendly and supportive of one another. Although Grinnell is in a very small town, she never gets bored. The men’s tennis team has an off-campus house where most of them live, but athletes have the option of staying in the on-campus dorms too.
Grinnell has the best athletic facilities of any Div. 3 school in the U.S. There are four indoor tennis courts and eight new outdoor courts. The school has an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The tennis teams go to the National Tennis Center in Florida over spring break.
Grinnell has an unusually high percentage of international students (about 20%), which I believe is quite a bit higher than the percentages at either Carleton or Swarthmore.
All three are great schools, so you can’t make a bad choice. Good luck with the decision-making process!
@ellivdeal I am glad that your daughter is enjoying and able to balance tennis with academics at the highest level. Yes, the only reason I’m hesitating on choosing Grinnell is because of it’s remote location.
True, the facilities are world class.
international student proportion is not a factor that I’m considering because a new country does have its own pros and cons. I’ll live to make new friends and promote my culture.
Are drugs and alcohol prevalent on campus?
lin123, there are drugs and alcohol on campus, and I suspect you’ll find them on any college campus in the U.S. I don’t think they are more or less prevalent than on other college campuses (I have four kids in college, all at different schools, so I have some idea of what life is like at other schools.) However, there is no pressure to use them, and people can indulge as much or as little as they wish without peer pressure. Some of my daughter’s friends don’t drink at all, and they still enjoy the many parties. If you want to avoid drugs and alcohol, there are substance-free dorms, floors within dorms, and off-campus project houses (“Game House”, a project house for people interested in board and role-playing games, is sub-free.) Because of the remote location, Grinnell is not for everyone. My daughter finds herself so busy on campus that she would not have time to spend in a big city, even if one were nearby, but you need to decide for yourself what environment would suit you. The tennis teams travel quite a bit around the MidWest (and to Orlando, Florida, for a week over spring break), so you would get to see parts of the U.S. Feel free to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer them. You can’t make a bad choice with the three schools you’re looking at.