Phortie

Meh

Grinnell doesn't offer any athletic scholarships. Most people I knew took pride in how bad the football team was.

Easygoing Social Atmosphere

Grinnell students tend to be a very proud, self-focused bunch, almost to the point of acting spoiled. The faculty are largely very approachable and eager to help and the campus administration is exceptionally receptive to student demands, from a very vocal student body. I know I definitely graduated with an inflated ego and sense of entitlement, and I got hit in the face pretty hard when I tried to find a job and realized there actually were a few "limits" to my broad, liberal arts degree.

But on the other hand, leaving Grinnell where I spent a lot of time griping about this and that has left me feeling nostalgic for the community. It's rare to live in a place, I've come to realize, where you can show up to class barefoot in the same sweatshirt you wore yesterday and still expect to be treated with fairness and respect. Grinnell is the kind of place where the cross country team can streak through the library and half of the patrons won't notice. Where the student center can be plastered with provocative posters detailing the upcoming festivities planned for "Love Your Body Week" and nobody screeches about public indecency. Students generally don't form cliques and student government will reward your ingenuity through generous funding.

Smelled but Not Seen

As a pretty asocial student who lived in sub-free for two years, I'm really not the best person to answer this question, but in certain places I came to associate weekends with the smell of pot.