What are Grinnell College's admission requirements? While there are a lot of pieces that go into a college application, you should focus on only a few critical things:
In this guide we'll cover what you need to get into Grinnell College and build a strong application.
School location: Grinnell, IA
If you want to get in, the first thing to look at is the acceptance rate. This tells you how competitive the school is and how serious their requirements are.
The acceptance rate at Grinnell College is 10.8%. For every 100 applicants, only 11 are admitted.
This means the school is extremely selective. Meeting their GPA requirements and SAT/ACT requirements is very important to getting past their first round of filters and proving your academic preparation. If you don't meet their expectations, your chance of getting in is nearly zero.
After crossing this hurdle, you'll need to impress Grinnell College application readers through their other application requirements, including extracurriculars, essays, and letters of recommendation. We'll cover more below.
We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League.
We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.
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Many schools specify a minimum GPA requirement, but this is often just the bare minimum to submit an application without immediately getting rejected.
The GPA requirement that really matters is the GPA you need for a real chance of getting in. For this, we look at the school's average GPA for its current students.
The average GPA at Grinnell College is 4.06.
(Most schools use a weighted GPA out of 4.0, though some report an unweighted GPA. This school did not officially report its average GPA, but we've estimated it here using data from over 1,000 schools.)
With a GPA of 4.06, Grinnell College requires you to be at the top of your class. You'll need nearly straight A's in all your classes to compete with other applicants. Furthermore, you should be taking hard classes - AP or IB courses - to show that college-level academics is a breeze.
If you're currently a junior or senior, your GPA is hard to change in time for college applications. If your GPA is at or below the school average of 4.06, you'll need a higher SAT or ACT score to compensate. This will help you compete effectively against other applicants who have higher GPAs than you.
Each school has different requirements for standardized testing. Only a few schools require the SAT or ACT, but many consider your scores if you choose to submit them.
You must take either the SAT or ACT to submit an application to Grinnell College. More importantly, you need to do well to have a strong application.
Many schools say they have no SAT score cutoff, but the truth is that there is a hidden SAT requirement. This is based on the school's average score.
The average SAT score composite at Grinnell College is a 1460 on the 1600 SAT scale.
This score makes Grinnell College Strongly Competitive for SAT test scores.
The 25th percentile SAT score is 1410, and the 75th percentile SAT score is 1520. In other words, a 1410 on the SAT places you below average, while a 1520 will move you up to above average.
Here's the breakdown of SAT scores by section:
| Section | Average | 25th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
| Math | 750 | 700 | 780 |
| Reading + Writing | 730 | 680 | 750 |
| Composite | 1460 | 1410 | 1520 |
The Score Choice policy at your school is an important part of your testing strategy.
Grinnell College has the Score Choice policy of "Highest Section."
This is also known as "superscoring." This means that you can choose which SAT tests you want to send to the school. Of all the scores they receive, your application readers will consider your highest section scores across all SAT test dates you submit.
Click below to learn more about how superscoring critically affects your test strategy.
For example, say you submit the following 3 test scores:
| Section | R+W | Math | Composite |
| Test 1 | 700 | 300 | 1000 |
| Test 2 | 300 | 700 | 1000 |
| Test 3 | 300 | 300 | 600 |
| Superscore | 700 | 700 | 1400 |
Even though the highest total you scored on any one test date was 1000, Grinnell College will take your highest section score from all your test dates, then combine them to form your Superscore. You can raise your composite score from 1000 to 1400 in this example.
This is important for your testing strategy. Because you can choose which tests to send in, and Grinnell College forms your Superscore, you can take the SAT as many times as you want, then submit only the tests that give you the highest Superscore. Your application readers will only see that one score.
Therefore, if your SAT superscore is currently below a 1520, we strongly recommend that you consider prepping for the SAT and retaking it. You have a very good chance of raising your score, which will significantly boost your chances of getting in.
Even better, because of the Superscore, you can focus all your energy on a single section at a time. If your Reading score is lower than your other sections, prep only for the Reading section, then take the SAT. Then focus on Math for the next test, and so on. This will give you the highest Superscore possible.
Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and SAT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.
Just like for the SAT, Grinnell College likely doesn't have a hard ACT cutoff, but if you score too low, your application will get tossed in the trash.
The average ACT score at Grinnell College is 33. This score makes Grinnell College Strongly Competitive for ACT scores.
The 25th percentile ACT score is 31, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 34.
Even though Grinnell College likely says they have no minimum ACT requirement, if you apply with a 31 or below, you'll have a very hard time getting in, unless you have something else very impressive in your application. There are so many applicants scoring 33 and above that a 31 will look academically weak.
If you're taking the ACT as opposed to the SAT, you have a huge advantage in how you send scores, and this dramatically affects your testing strategy.
Here it is: when you send ACT scores to colleges, you have absolute control over which tests you send. You could take 10 tests, and only send your highest one. This is unlike the SAT, where many schools require you to send all your tests ever taken.
This means that you have more chances than you think to improve your ACT score. To try to aim for the school's ACT requirement of 34 and above, you should try to take the ACT as many times as you can. When you have the final score that you're happy with, you can then send only that score to all your schools.
By and large, most colleges do not superscore the ACT. (Superscore means that the school takes your best section scores from all the test dates you submit, and then combines them into the best possible composite score). Thus, most schools will just take your highest ACT score from a single sitting.
We weren't able to find the school's exact ACT policy, which most likely means that it does not Superscore. Regardless, you can choose your single best ACT score to send in to Grinnell College, so you should prep until you reach our recommended target ACT score of 34.
Download our free guide on the top 5 strategies you must be using to improve your score. This guide was written by Harvard graduates and ACT perfect scorers. If you apply the strategies in this guide, you'll study smarter and make huge score improvements.
Currently, only the ACT has an optional essay section that all students can take. The SAT used to also have an optional Essay section, but since June 2021, this has been discontinued unless you are taking the test as part of school-day testing in a few states. Because of this, no school requires the SAT Essay or ACT Writing section, but some schools do recommend certain students submit their results if they have them.
Grinnell College considers the SAT Essay/ACT Writing section optional and may not include it as part of their admissions consideration. You don't need to worry too much about Writing for this school, but other schools you're applying to may require or recommend it.
Because this school is extremely selective, getting a high SAT/ACT score and GPA is vital to having a chance at getting in. If you don't pass their SAT/ACT and GPA requirements, they'll likely reject you without much consideration.
To have the best shot of getting in, you should aim for the 75th percentile, with a 1520 SAT or a 34 ACT. You should also have a 4.06 GPA or higher. If your GPA is lower than this, you need to compensate with a higher SAT/ACT score.
For a school as selective as Grinnell College, you'll also need to impress them with the rest of your application. We'll cover those details next.
But if you apply with a score below a 1520 SAT or a 34 ACT, you unfortunately start out with the odds against you and have a tiny chance of getting in. There are just too many students with high SAT/ACT scores and strong applications, and you need to compete against them.
We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League.
We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.
Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.
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Every school requires an application with the bare essentials - high school transcript and GPA, application form, and other core information. Many schools, as explained above, also require SAT and ACT scores, as well as letters of recommendation, application essays, and interviews. We'll cover the exact requirements of Grinnell College here.
If you're interested in Grinnell College, you'll probably be interested in these schools as well. We've divided them into 3 categories depending on how hard they are to get into, relative to Grinnell College.
These schools are have higher average ACT scores than Grinnell College. If you improve your ACT score, you'll be competitive for these schools.
| School Name | Location | SAT Avg | ACT Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA | 1540 | 35 |
| Brown University | Providence, RI | 1540 | 35 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA | 1540 | 35 |
| University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | 1540 | 35 |
| Columbia University | New York, NY | 1524 | 35 |
| Harvard University | Cambridge, MA | 1550 | 35 |
| Rice University | Houston, TX | 1530 | 35 |
If you're competitive for Grinnell College, these schools will offer you a similar chance of admission.
| School Name | Location | SAT Avg | ACT Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | 1518 | 34 |
| Boston College | Chestnut Hill, MA | 1485 | 34 |
| Tufts University | Medford, MA | 1500 | 34 |
| Yale University | New Haven, CT | 1540 | 34 |
| Villanova University | Villanova, PA | 1440 | 33 |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Troy, NY | 1428 | 32 |
| Boston University | Boston, MA | 1418 | 32 |
If you're currently competitive for Grinnell College, you should have no problem getting into these schools. If Grinnell College is currently out of your reach, you might already be competitive for these schools.
| School Name | Location | SAT Avg | ACT Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binghamton University | Binghamton, NY | 1430 | 31 |
| Stony Brook University | Stony Brook, NY | 1396 | 31 |
| Rochester Institute of Technology | Rochester, NY | 1352 | 31 |
| United States Military Academy | West Point, NY | 1331 | 30 |
| University of Massachusetts Amherst | Amherst, MA | 1358 | 30 |
| Penn State University Park | University Park, PA | 1310 | 29 |
| Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY | 1310 | 29 |
Data on this page is sourced from Peterson's Databases © 2024 (Peterson's LLC. All rights reserved.) as well as additional publicly available sources.
We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League.
We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools.
Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.
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