I am going to walk you through what the official data—the data the United States government collects from every college in the country—say about this school. I am not going to tell you whether it is right for your child. No article can know that. But if, when you finish reading, you understand what kind of place it is and what questions you still need to ask, the reading will have been worthwhile.
What Grinnell College is and where it stands
Let us start with the basics, because the basics already say a great deal here.
Grinnell College is a private, nonprofit, four-year college focused on the arts and sciences. The system that classifies colleges in this country also places it in a specific group: small, highly residential bachelor's-degree colleges where at least half of the students live in institution-owned housing and at least 80 out of every 100 attend full time. That same system also places it in its most selective admissions group. We will look at the numbers behind that term later, but you can already keep this idea in mind: not everyone who applies gets in.
A bachelor's degree is the highest credential level the institution reports offering. That does not mean every major necessarily ends in that degree or that all programs are available in the same way: if your child has a specific major in mind, that detail should be verified directly with the school, not assumed from the institutional data.
Grinnell, Iowa, is in Poweshiek County. The official code that classifies its setting describes it as a remote town, far from any large urban area. If your family does not live nearby, this has a practical consequence that does not appear in any brochure: you need to calculate separately where your child would live, how your child would get to campus, and how far from home your child would feel on an ordinary weekend. The data locate the school's address. They do not locate your family or measure the distance between the two.
And a note about special designations: Grinnell is not listed as a historically Black college or university, a tribal college or university, or a land-grant institution. Of a directory of 3,012 colleges, 138 do carry at least one of those three labels. Grinnell's not having them says nothing about which students it serves today, how many Latino students are on campus, or how your child would feel there. Those are matters to ask about directly: which cultural centers exist, which student organizations are active, and—if you can—whether you can speak with someone who already attends.
A small community, and what that means in numbers
Grinnell had 1,775 students enrolled in the official fall count. That is a midrange size within the universe of schools similar to it—private, four-year institutions with selective admissions—neither among the largest nor among the smallest. All of those students are undergraduates; there is no graduate enrollment in that count.
The campus is almost evenly divided between men and women: 54 out of every 100 are women. The percentage of students ages 25 to 64 rounds to zero, which does not mean there is no one that age, but rather that there are almost none. If your child imagines a campus with adult students returning to college, this is not that profile.
Here is a number worth looking at directly: 8 out of every 100 undergraduate students are Hispanic or Latino. That is a small minority, and compared with the 941 selective private schools in this census that report the data, Grinnell falls below the midpoint of the group. Having few Latino students does not make the school bad, nor would having many make it good—this number only counts who is enrolled. But if your child will be one of the few, the question to ask during a visit is concrete: which student groups exist, what support is available, and whether anyone in the office speaks Spanish.
Another significant figure: fewer than 25 out of every 100 first-time students were permanent residents of Iowa. In fact, it was only 8 out of every 100. The rest come from other states or other countries. This means that if your child enrolls at Grinnell, your child will be surrounded mostly by people who also traveled from far away to get there. This is not a local campus; it is a campus of people who moved there.
The student-to-instructional-staff ratio is 9 to 1, one of the lowest among similar schools—it falls in the bottom quarter among 941 comparable institutions, with fewer students per instructor than three out of every four schools in that group. But a low ratio does not guarantee small classes: the figure compares full-time-equivalent totals; it does not count seats in a classroom. If this matters to your family, ask directly how many students are in first-year classes.
How students study there
Grinnell's academic year is organized into semesters: two terms of about 15 weeks each. The institution accepts credit for AP exams, but did not report accepting credit for life experience. Accepting AP does not mean it awards credit for every exam at every score: request the equivalency evaluation in writing before enrolling, and do not budget for the savings until you have it in hand.
In a recent year, Grinnell awarded 390 bachelor's degrees across 13 fields-of-study families. The family awarding the most degrees was social sciences, with 29 out of every 100 degrees—no other area accounts for the bulk of them; the degrees are broadly distributed. Compared with similar schools, Grinnell is in the quarter with the fewest fields-of-study families represented in its bachelor's-degree detail. This counts degrees awarded in one year, not people or the current catalog of majors. If your child already has a major in mind, ask specifically about it: how many students graduate in it, how long it takes, and what the curriculum is like.
Grinnell also reports structured academic opportunities: study abroad and several pathways related to teacher certification, including state approval of the program for initial certification.
The entrance gate: how many get in and who they are
This is where Grinnell becomes, plainly, a difficult school to get into.
In the 2023 cycle, it received 9,988 first-time applications and offered admission to 1,266. That is 13 out of every 100. Nearly 8,722 applicants did not receive an offer. Compared with 942 selective private schools in this same census, Grinnell is among those that admit the smallest share: nine out of ten schools in that group admitted a higher percentage of their applicants.
Put plainly, this number says how many admission offers were made. It says nothing about your child's worth. A low percentage does not make a school better, nor does a high one make it worse. What is advisable is for your child's college list to include schools on both sides—some selective ones like this and others that admit most of those who apply.
Admission is not only a matter of paperwork. Of nine possible considerations, Grinnell marked three as required: the high school record, the personal essay, and the English-proficiency exam for those to whom it applies. That means one concrete thing: your child has to write. The essay is not optional here. Other components—grade point average, class rank, recommendation letters, a portfolio, work experience, and whether a relative attended—are considered if submitted, but are not required. On that last point, if no one in your family attended Grinnell, do not spend energy on it. Spend it on what is within your control. The published undergraduate application fee, by the way, is $0.
The SAT and ACT are not required—the policy is “test optional.” But among those who enrolled, 30 out of every 100 did submit SAT scores, a high proportion compared with similar schools. Among those who submitted scores, the middle half scored between 698 and 760 in reading and writing and between 720 and 790 in mathematics. Be careful: those numbers are for students who had already enrolled and chose to submit their scores, not for all applicants, and they do not prove that the score was decisive in any particular admission decision.
One figure that helps explain the behavior of admitted families: out of every 100 students Grinnell admitted for the first year of 2023, only 36 ultimately enrolled. The other 64 had an acceptance letter in hand and still chose another school. This is higher than at most comparable schools, where a smaller share of admitted students enrolls. This number does not measure how difficult it is to get in—we already saw that above. It measures what other families decided after receiving an offer. When your child's letters from several schools arrive, place them side by side and compare net price, major, and distance. That is what actually determines the decision, not this percentage.
Regarding transfers: in the fall of 2023, Grinnell reported only 7 students who arrived by transferring from another institution. That is a low count compared with similar schools, although it is consistent with Grinnell's small size. The school did not report its transfer-out rate, so that information simply is not available here; its absence does not prove that no one transfers.
The sticker price, and why almost no one pays it in full
At Grinnell College, among 26 first-time, full-time credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid and whose EFC records showed family income below $30,000, the average net price was $6,739. Among 27 students from the same population with EFC family income from $48,001 to $75,000, it was $6,220; among 35 students with EFC family income above $110,000, it was $36,265. For dependent students, the band combines their parents' income and their own.
The difference between the average for the lowest-income band (26 students) and the average for the highest-income band (35 students) is $29,526. These are group averages, not a prediction of your family's price. Among first-year students who received any grant or scholarship aid, the average was $33,446.
Among the 937 schools of the same type and control included in this census that reported these data with the same time coverage, Grinnell falls in the least expensive quarter for lower-income families after grants and scholarships are subtracted. That does not mean it will be inexpensive for your family. It is a meaningful data point when you build the list of schools to which your child will apply.
Because the price changes so much from one income band to another, correctly identifying yours is the first step. The income bands in this profile describe first-time, full-time credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid; at public institutions, they use the in-state or in-district rate. The overall average with grant or scholarship aid, when shown, describes first-time, full-time credential-seeking students who received federal, state, local, or institutional grants or scholarships. The aid letter you receive is what governs.
How it is paid for: grants, loans, and what the report leaves out
At Grinnell, 91 out of every 100 degree-seeking students received some grant or scholarship aid that does not have to be repaid. Receiving something here is the norm, not the exception. Among those who received it, the average was $46,318 for the year—although that average includes people who received much more and people who received much less.
But there is an important distinction you should not overlook: the Pell Grant—federal aid specifically for low-income families—reached only 17 out of every 100 students. That means at least 74 out of every 100 received aid that was not Pell, but came from another source: the school itself, the state, or somewhere else. The report combines all that aid without saying exactly where it came from, so it cannot tell you what you would receive. Ask directly: who provides the grant or scholarship, who qualifies, and what is required to renew it each year.
For federal loans, the picture is different from what many expect: only 12 out of every 100 Grinnell undergraduate students received a federal student loan in 2022-23. Most did not use one. Compared with similar schools, Grinnell relies on federal loans less than almost all of them—nine out of ten schools in the comparison group had a higher proportion.
Among those who did borrow, each received an average of $5,643 that year. A student's appearance in this count does not mean the loan was enough to cover everything that remained—it only means the student borrowed. And this is an average for a single year, covering only federal loans in the student's name: it does not include PLUS loans that parents sometimes take out, debt from banks, or credit cards, and it also does not represent the total debt with which someone graduates after several years.
Grinnell also reports that an installment tuition payment plan is available as a way to manage the cost.
Campus life: required housing, no reported ROTC, no distance courses
Some practical facts change the real calculation of both cost and daily life.
Living on campus is not optional at Grinnell: the school reports that first-time, full-time students are required to live there or in housing controlled by the institution. That means room and board are not expenses that can be cut—they are part of the bill from the first day. The reported maximum capacity of institutional housing is 1,450 students.
Grinnell did not mark any ROTC opportunity in its report—neither the general box nor any of the three branches—unlike 926 of the 1,786 four-year institutions in this guide that did. If your child's plan includes ROTC, this does not necessarily mean no nearby pathway exists: it only says none was reported here. Ask admissions directly before ruling out the school for this reason.
It does compete in intercollegiate athletics and is affiliated with the NCAA, with reported participation in football, basketball, baseball, and cross-country or track and field, among other sports. These data do not say which division each sport competes in or whether athletic scholarships are available. If your child is an athlete, contact the coach for the relevant sport directly and request the answer in writing.
Grinnell does not offer any distance courses, at either the undergraduate or graduate level—zero students took all their classes that way. If your child needs scheduling flexibility because of work or caring for someone at home, everything here is in person.
The library operates with paid staff, and its annual expenditures exceeded the threshold tracked by the government. It has physical and digital materials and participates in interlibrary lending. The school also reports combined academic and career counseling, employment services for students, placement services for program completers, participation in the Yellow Ribbon program, and a webpage for services for people with disabilities.
How far those who enter go
Here Grinnell displays one of its most consistent patterns: the people who enter stay, and the people who stay finish.
Of the cohort that entered in the fall of 2022, 93 out of every 100 were still enrolled or had already completed a bachelor's degree the following year. Compared with 930 similar schools, Grinnell is among those that retain the largest share of their first-year students. This number combines two distinct groups—those still enrolled and those who had already finished—and does not reveal what happened to the rest.
Of those who entered bachelor's-degree programs in 2017, 87 out of every 100 left with a degree within six years—391 of 447 students. At the shorter four-year mark, the figure falls to 74 out of every 100. Compared with similar schools, Grinnell is among those that graduate the largest share.
And at an even longer point—eight years, following the cohort that entered in 2015-16—87 out of every 100 had earned a degree or certificate from this school. Among Pell Grant recipients, that figure was 79 out of every 100, ten points below the group without Pell. It is worth asking the school what concrete support exists for those students: an assigned adviser, emergency aid, and whether the institutional grant or scholarship is renewed from year to year.
A high number is not a promise for your child. It is what happened to a specific cohort at this specific school. What is within your control—and your child's—is making sure your child enters with credits in order, knows from the first semester who the adviser is, and does not miss registration dates for courses in the major.
What you already know, and what remains to be gathered
You now know something real about Grinnell College: it is a small college in a remote Iowa town, highly selective at the point of entry, with few Latino students in its community, an extremely high sticker price that drops dramatically after aid for many low-income families, required housing, no distance courses, and retention and graduation figures that are among the highest in its comparison group.
None of this tells you whether your child would be happy there, whether the specific major of interest is well designed, or whether your family can or wants to pay the amount that ultimately appears in the aid letter. That depends on what your child wants and has built, and on what you can and are willing to take on as a family.
If you live far from Iowa, calculate the cost and logistics of the distance separately. If a particular major matters to your child, ask directly about it, not about the school in general.
You now have a deep understanding of one of the pieces you need to decide. Combine it with what your child wants, what your child has built, and what your family can pay. A plan emerges from that combination.
Source note: the information in this article comes from data reported by Grinnell College to the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), corresponding to different years and cycles as indicated in each section. Best College Aid does not represent Grinnell College or any government agency.