Founded in 1846, Grinnell College is an undergraduate, private, four-year, coeducational residential college that seeks to develop in students both analytical and imaginative thinking in the liberal arts. The College's primary mission is to provide students with a broad, deep, and life-enhancing education that fosters professional success, personal growth, and social responsibility. To this end, Grinnell graduates should be equipped to pursue successful careers, satisfying personal lives, effective community service, and intellectually stimulating and physically active leisure. Grinnell offers an exceptional, rigorous, comprehensive, and opportunity-rich educational experience that has, at its heart, one-on-one interactions of students, faculty, alumni, and staff. As a result, Grinnell College is consistently ranked among the top selective liberal arts colleges in the United States. Additionally, it ranks in the top ten among all colleges and universities in endowment resources per student and the top twenty in alumni gifts per student.

Grinnell College enrolls approximately 1,300 undergraduate students from the United States, the District of Columbia, and over 55 other countries. Because the College is small, it encourages a sense of closeness among students, faculty, and staff and recognition of individual differences. Grinnell is distinguished from other selective national liberal arts colleges by the degree of participation expected of students in shaping their own educations. The open curriculum requires each student to devise an individual academic plan. This process challenges students to define their academic goals and to take an active role in exploring all Grinnell has to offer. The comprehensive academic plan, submitted when declaring a major, must show a balanced selection of courses across disciplines. With 26 majors and 10 interdisciplinary concentrations, there are many opportunities to conduct original research and undertake advanced study in a wide variety of areas.

Faculty members at Grinnell College are committed to working closely with students as instructors and advisers and view classroom teaching as their top priority. They are respected scholars and practitioners in their fields, active in producing original, significant work. The faculty also play the leading role in making decisions about curriculum and policy affecting academic matters. Courses offered at Grinnell are determined by the people who teach them. Interaction thrives between academic departments, fostering an atmosphere of intellectual discovery and excitement on campus that is shared by faculty and students. A student/faculty ratio of 10 to 1 ensures that each student has an opportunity to interact individually with faculty members, both on and off campus.

After commencement, 85 percent of Grinnell students plan to attend graduate school within five years, and one third intend to pursue a doctorate in their field of study while the rest enter employment or volunteer with such organizations as AmeriCorps. The College is proud of its graduates and their important work in education, business, technology, law, science, medicine, and the arts. No matter what they do, most graduates report that they continue to be influenced by their years at Grinnell, where they learned to translate their ideals into action.

The Grinnell College campus offers state-of-the-art facilities on a spacious campus. A recent $15.3 million renovation to the Robert N. Noyce '49 Science center gives students access to research tools they would not normally use until graduate school. The Matthew and Carolyn Swartz '51 Bucksbaum Center for the Arts' $22 million addition more than doubles existing arts space and offers a new recital hall, art gallery, theatre, scene shop, and studio space. Burling Library has a collection of 440,000 volumes and 3,061 serials with an online catalog system and CD-ROM databases. The campus-wide network of computers features the latest in technology. Every residence hall room has access to the Internet, as do all 16 campus computer labs.

The College is located in the town of Grinnell, Iowa, 55 minutes east of Des Moines, Iowa's capital. With a population of 8,900, the town is small enough to be friendly and accessible, but large enough to have a variety of restaurants, recreational programs and activities, shops, churches, and medical services. Many Grinnell students participate in community projects, ranging from volunteer service at a day care center to participation in local political affairs. The Iowa location also provides many students with material for research projects in both natural and social sciences, especially in biology, anthropology, sociology, government, and American history. As a residential college, Grinnell has a busy intellectual and social life on the campus with concerts, lectures, symposia, and theatre performances as well as films, parties, and other recreation. Other events are available in Des Moines, Iowa City (home of the University of Iowa), and Ames (home of Iowa State University).

Grinnell College offers a competitive and comprehensive benefit package, including health, dental, life, and long-term disability insurance. A TIAA-CREF retirement plan is also available. Generous holiday leave and four weeks of paid vacation are part of the benefit package, as well. Educational benefits include free courses at Grinnell for employees and their spouses, tuition remission for dependent children, and exchange programs with 22 other colleges. The College also offers a relocation allowance to employees who must relocate to Grinnell. All employees and their families receive free admission to most college events

Grinnell College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to employing a highly qualified staff who reflects the diversity of the nation. No applicant shall be discriminated against on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, creed or disability.