Grinnell College

Date: Apr 10 2005
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
The school has high academic standards—you study a lot for A's and B's. However, the English Department is small and traditional—not enough multicultural literature for my taste. The Grinnell-In-London program was great! It can be VERY hard to get into courses that are popular if they're not in your major, and if you don't beg. For instance "American History" will have 70 students sign up for 20 slots—there's only one section of most classes. The professor either picks randomly, picks based on who went and begged, has you write a letter about why you want in the class, or picks based on who is in the major. This is true for most any course related to American history, multiculturalism, feminism or sexuality. The students are friendly, but there's a lot of depression, too. It can seem like a cold place if you're depressed. It's also difficult to get work study for more than 6 hours a week, but if you manage to piece together 2 jobs you'll spend most of your life studying, working and being exhausted. Also, the small town can seem very confining if you don't own a car. In reptrospect I would have been happier in a large city.