Hamilton vs. Bates vs. Grinnell

[visual marlin]

Intended major: Biological sciences
Similarities: Small LACs (student to faculty ratio is 8-10:1 wtf), cold weather, kind of in the middle of nowhere, politically left-leaning, accessible and student-focused professors, great student community, assigned roomates, great food!
Hamilton+Grinnell are undergraduates only and have an open curriculum (pros).
Bates+Hamilton have a focus on nature(pros).
fin. aid. is not a factor.

✨ Hamilton (did not apply for financial aid)
Pros:

• strong alumni network
• great summer research opportunities
• there's a dog in the outing house 🥺 i know i will miss my own dog
• highest ranking LAC (#12 on niche)
• extra advisor for pre-health
• has sororities + frats! others don't

Cons:

• big con – seems very writing-intensive: not a big fan of writing in the first place

✨ Bates (did not apply for financial aid)
Pros:

• basically a private beach for students
• Short Term Program: 4 weeks for one specialized course off-campus. this is in addition to 2 semesters
• less writing-intensive than Hamilton, which I like since I know communication skills are important regardless of major
• core curriculum honestly seems relatively chill
• senior thesis/capstone seminar!

Cons:

• lowest percentage of Asian students (5%) (I'm asian)

✨ Grinnell (did apply for financial aid)
Pros:

• 26k/year for 4 years merit scholarship
• great mental health support
• highest ranking for my major (#60 on niche)
• smallest student to faculty ratio (8:1)

Cons:

• seems like there's a very bad connection between students and administration
• summers are humid

Tiebreaking considerations: mental health support, housing, esp the cleaniness of dorm bathrooms (very specific ik but when I visited my sister at UC Berkeley they were ewww)

Side-note: I have been given a Cornell transfer option for sophomore year, and coloquially, it seems like it's a guaranteed transfer as long as I meet all requirements. I'm applying, but not 100% sure I will transfer (it's nonbinding).

honestly, i think all three are great schools and i don't think i can go wrong with any of them.

whoever reads all of this, thank you in advance!

[grim narwhal]

@orchid herald Hi! Since you are our LAC expert, would you care to weigh in?

[visual marlin]

i actually DMed him about grinnell a while back haha but definitely open to his input!

[orchid herald]

Thanks for letting me know, Sandy!

[grim narwhal]

You are most welcome, hope I didn't bother you in some way :)

[orchid herald]

You can't go wrong with any of these schools for sure, they are all absolutely amazing.

But yeah, I am super duper biased for Grinnell!

I love them so much and leaving them is one of my biggest regrets.

[orchid herald]

No worries at all, you didn't bother me at all!

[visual marlin]

alright! hopefully my visit to all 3 will clear some things up ^^

[orchid herald]

I hope you have fun!

[torpid sluice]

I can speak for Hamilton a bit because I grew up in that area, knew a few of the professors there as friends/teachers, as well as a few students.

The people are really cool. It does get very cold and snowy in the winters (10-20 deg F), not sure where Bates or Grinnell are. I think all or almost all students live on campus, so housing should be great. Would probably agree on the writing intensive part, but that is second hand, take it with a grain of salt. Campus is really pretty too.

I would not dismiss the Cornell Transfer option. Especially as a Bio major, Cornell would likely have much better connections than any of these (again, grain of salt, never heard of any except Hamilton myself).

[grim narwhal]

Strongly agreed, TO is a great advantage and it's a good idea to see which school can better help your transition to Cornell if you do end up doing that

e.g., how will credit transfer, that sorta thing

[orchid herald]

If you're positive on transferring to Cornell, I wanted to recommend Grinnell because Grinnell was really helpful to me when I tried to apply for transfer admission.

The Registrar was really supportive.

[visual marlin]

Hi AgentK9, thanks for your comments! It's great to hear that housing is great! As for the Cornell Transfer Option part, just to explain myself a little, I'm not exactly dismissing it: despite it being pretty much guaranteed, I won't know for sure until the results come out. So I'd like to pick a college that I can be happy at for all 4 years. And I'm not certain that I'd like to transfer because of Cornell's high workload/stress environment as well as grade deflation.

[visual marlin]

I have looked into credit transferring actually! The course requirements are not bad, and I could fulfill them at any of these colleges.

[grim narwhal]

Nice

[visual marlin]

I see! I'll take that into account ^^

[orchid herald]

If it also helps, I got into Cornell as a transfer from the school and a student grade above me did too!

So the AOs seem to be relatively familiar with Grinnell.

[visual marlin]

That is very helpful! Just wondering though, were you given the "Transfer Option" as a high school senior/rising college freshman? The "Transfer Option" I was offered is different from the traditional external transfer according to Cornell.

[orchid herald]

I wasn’t!

I didn’t apply there back in high school unfortunately, I applied for the first time as a transfer student.

[visual marlin]

I see! Is Cornell the school you liked more and would've transferred to the first time?

[orchid herald]

It was another school, but I did like them a lot too!

[visual marlin]

Okay! Thank you so much for the information

[orchid herald]

No problem, I wish you the best!

[visual marlin]

i visited all three colleges and i’ve decided to commit to hamilton! time to pay the deposit xDDD 🥳

also ended up getting around 6K per year in fin aid so that’s not bad!

[orchid herald]

Congratulations!!!

They are very lucky to have you, and I hope you have an amazing time there.

[visual marlin]

Thanks eccentricgalaxy!! Best of luck to your college journey as well!