Wellesley, Whitman, or Grinnell?

Father_of_the_Boarder
Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:14:47 +0000

I grew up in Boston, and believe me they drink on the campus at Wellesley. And, being all women, there are some countercultural activities there which may not be as open at coed schools.

Whitman is much more conservative than either. I think a blue skies Cal kid may despise the life of gray skies of Washington. And, I really canot equate it academically with Grinnell or Wellesley.

I attended Grinnell and really had to twist arms to get people to go out drinking. Grinnell has two natural sources to suppress the same: homework and money problems. Grinnell kids are far from loaded and – in my time – a dinner out was a novelty because of the expense.

Swimming is a religion at Grinnell. I could never get those guys to go out drinking. They would party, but at very select and very engineered times. A clique arises within the team – a good one – and much of your social life can be with the other swimmers who tend to be pre-med and clean cut.