Grinnell College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was established as Iowa College in 1846 by a group of Congregationalists from New England. It has an "open curriculum," which means students need not follow a prescribed list of classes. The college's campus includes several listings on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
In 1843, eleven Congregational ministers, all of whom trained at Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, set out to preach on the frontier. The group also sought to establish a college, which followed in 1846, when they collectively established Iowa College in Davenport.
The first 25 years of Grinnell's history saw a change in name and location. In Davenport, the college had advocated against slavery and saloons, leading to conflict with the Davenport city council, which retaliated by constructing roads that transected the campus. Iowa College moved farther west from Davenport to the town of Grinnell and unofficially adopted the name of its new home, which itself had been named for the abolitionist minister Josiah Bushnell Grinnell. The name of the corporation, "The Trustees of Iowa College", remained, but in 1909 the name "Grinnell" was adopted by the trustees for the institution.
In its early years, the college experienced setbacks. Although two students received Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1854 (the first to be granted by a college west of the Mississippi River), within 10 years the Civil War had claimed most of Grinnell's students and professors. In the decade following the war, growth resumed: women were officially admitted as candidates for degrees, and the curriculum was enlarged to include then-new areas of academic studies, such as natural sciences with laboratory work.
In 1879, the first African American graduated from Grinnell College. Hannibal Kershaw became a teacher, minister, and a South Carolina legislator. Kershaw unfortunately died in 1883, only four years after his graduation. A residence hall was named in his honor in 2005. Kershaw Hall is a white limestone building on East Campus.
In 1882, Grinnell College was struck by a tornado—then called a cyclone, after which the college yearbook was named. The storm devastated the campus and destroyed both college buildings. Rebuilding began immediately, and the determination to expand was not limited to architecture: the curriculum was again extended to include departments in political science (one of the first in the United States—the University of Minnesota's department was founded in 1879, three years earlier) and modern languages.
Grinnell became known as the center of the Social Gospel reform movement,. see footnote 4. as Robert Handy writes, "The movement centered on the campus of Iowa (now Grinnell) College. Its leading figures were Professor George D. Herron and President George A. Gates". Other firsts pointed to the lighter side of college life: the first intercollegiate football and baseball games west of the Mississippi were played in Grinnell, and the home teams won.
As the 20th century began, Grinnell established a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, introduced the departmental "major" system of study, began Grinnell-in-China (an educational mission that lasted until the Japanese invasion and resumed in 1987), and built a women's residence hall system that became a national model. The social consciousness fostered at Grinnell during these years became evident during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, when Grinnell graduates Harry Hopkins '12, Chester Davis '11, Paul Appleby '13, Hallie Flanagan '11, and Florence Kerr '12 became influential New Deal administrators. Concern with social issues, educational innovation, and individual expression continue to shape Grinnell. As an example, the school's "5th year travel-service program", preceded the establishment of the Peace Corps by many years. Other recent innovations include first-year tutorials, cooperative pre-professional programs, and programs in quantitative studies and the societal impacts of technology. Every year, the college awards the $100,000 Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize, which is split between the recipient and their organization.
In 1937, the first African-American woman graduated from Grinnell College. Mrs. Edith Renfrow Smith majored in psychology and minored in sociology and economics. Following graduation, Renfrow moved to Chicago and worked at the YWCA, the University of Chicago and then as a public schoolteacher in Chicago for over twenty years. In 2024, Grinnell College honored Renfrow Smith by naming and dedicating a residence building, which includes the Civic Engagement Quad (CEQ), as Renfrow Hall.
In 1975, Grinnell College through their Grinnell Communications subsidiary purchased NBC affiliate WLWD from Avco Broadcasting Corporation for about $13 million. The station changed its call letters to WDTN once the sale closed. Shortly after WDTN became an ABC affiliate, the station was sold off to Hearst Broadcasting for $45–$48 million.
In 2022, Grinnell became the first fully unionized undergraduate school in the U.S., when student workers voted to expand their dining hall workers union to include all student workers. The move was supported by the president of the college.
Campus Grinnell College is located in the town of Grinnell, Iowa, about halfway between Des Moines and Iowa City. The main campus, which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad,Pitsker, Kaitlin. (February 2016). Kiplinger’s College Rankings 2016. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, 70(2), 28–32. is bounded by 6th Avenue on the south, 10th Avenue on the north, East Street on the east and Park Street on the west. The campus contains sixty-three buildings ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to Bauhaus to Tudor to Modernist.Blumenstyk, G. (7 April 2006). In Iowa, 2 Colleges Separated by 150 Miles and $1.37-Billion: Grinnell, now the nation’s richest liberal-arts college, tries to use its wealth to benefit its students. Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(31), A14–A17. Goodnow Hall and Mears Cottage (1889) are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Immediately west of the college is the North Grinnell Historic District, which contains over 200 National Register of Historic Places contributing buildings.
The residential part of campus is divided into three sections: North Campus, East Campus, and South Campus. North and South Campus' dormitories are modeled explicitly after the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The four East Campus dormitories feature a modern, LEED-certified design constructed from Iowa limestone.
All three campuses feature dormitory buildings connected by loggia, an architectural signature of the college. The loggia on South Campus is the only entirely closed loggia, while the loggias on East and North campus are only partially closed. From the time that the first dorm opened in 1915 until the fall of 1968, the nine north campus dorms were used exclusively for male students, and the six south campus dorms reserved for female students. The dorm halls house significantly fewer students than halls at other colleges.
Most academic buildings are located on the southwestern quarter of campus. The athletic facilities are mostly located north of 10th Avenue.
The college maintains a environmental research area called the Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA). The U.S. Green Building Council awarded CERA's Environmental Education Center a gold certification.United States Green Building Council. "Cera Environmental Education Center LEED Scorecard" . Accessed May 14, 2007. The building is the first in Iowa to receive the designation.American Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. AAASHE Bulletin "Grinnell College Education Center Receives LEED Gold Certification", June 8, 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
During the 2000s, the college completed the Charles Benson Bear '39 Recreation and Athletic Center,Charles Benson Bear '39 Recreation and Athletic Center Grinnell College. (2012). Athletic Business, 36(6), 56–57. the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts, the renovation of the Robert Noyce '49 Science Center and the Joe Rosenfield '25 Student Center. Internationally renowned architect César Pelli designed the athletics center, the Joe Rosenfield '25 Student Center, and the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts.Hebel, Sara. "In Iowa, 2 Colleges Separated by 150 Miles and $1.37-Billion" , The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 7, 2006. Retrieved 30 April 2008.
The college is going through a period of new construction which is expected to last until 2034.
Academics Grinnell's open curriculum encourages students to take initiative and to assume responsibility for choosing their own courses of study. The sole core, or general education, requirement is the completion of the First-Year Tutorial, a one-semester, four-credit special topics seminar that stresses methods of inquiry, critical analysis, and writing skills. All other classes are chosen, with the direct guidance of a faculty member in the student's major department, by the student.
Grinnell's three most popular majors among 2021 graduates were Computer Science, Biology/Biological Sciences, and Research & Experimental Psychology.
Graduate programs Although the college does not offer any graduate degrees, it does have dual degree programs with several universities that let Grinnell students move directly into graduate programs. Grinnell participates in a 3–2 engineering dual degree program with Columbia University, Washington University in St. Louis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and California Institute of Technology. It also has a 2–1–1–1 engineering program with Dartmouth College and a Master of Public Health cooperative degree program with University of Iowa.
Reputation
Grinnell College has been listed in each edition of Howard & Matthew Greene's guides The Hidden Ivies.
The 2025-26 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report rates it tied for the 13th best liberal arts college overall in the U.S., 3rd for "Best Undergraduate Teaching, 8th for "Best Value", and 13th for "Most Innovative".The Princeton Review ranks Grinnell as 10th in Best Classroom Experience. Grinnell is ranked 5th in the 2021 Washington Monthly rankings for liberal arts colleges, which focus on key outputs such as research, dollar value of scientific grants won, the number of graduates going on to earn Ph.D. degrees, and certain types of public service. Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranked Grinnell 14th in its 2019 ranking of "best value" liberal arts colleges in the United States. In Forbes magazine's 2015 rankings of academic institutions, "America's Top Colleges" (which uses a non-traditional ranking system based on RateMyProfessors.com evaluations, notable alumni, student debt, percentage of students graduating in four years, and the number of students or faculty receiving prestigious awards), Grinnell College was ranked 81st among all colleges and universities, 21st among liberal arts colleges, and 10th in the Midwest.
Faculty Grinnell had 173 full-time faculty in fall 2020, all of whom possess a doctorate or the terminal degree in their field. In 2026, U.S. News & World Report ranked Grinnell #3 in Best Undergraduate Teaching.
Admission
In 2019, U.S. News & World Report classified Grinnell's selectivity as "most selective". For Fall 2022, Grinnell received 9,997 freshmen applications; 1,076 were admitted (10.76%). During the 2020-2021 application season, Grinnell offered a standardized test-optional application, due to limited testing access caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.