I find it rather interesting that there could be two major colleges or universities located so close to each other yet be so far away, this is the case with Clarke University and Grinnell College.
Grinnell College was founded by idealistic young missionaries from Andover and Yale Seminaries and in 1846 they formed the Board of Trustees of Iowa College. From humble beginnings this school was formed and to think that today it is considered one of the richest schools in our country is very interesting. The school’s history as stated on the website is almost confusing to me and I don’t feel as though there were a real statement on the history as much as there was basic listing of different heads of power. However when I explored the website for Clarke University, it gave me a sense of pride about the school and its beginnings and I don’t even attend there. Clarke University was founded by an Irish woman by the name of Mary Frances Clarke and originally it was a congregation of religious women, the sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM’s). The history given tells more of a story about how the current school came to be and the ideals it was originally formed on. To me it was summed up in the paraphrases on the website from a letter written by Mary Frances Clarke to her fellow teachers; “Let us…keep our schools progressive with the times in which we live…In teaching, we must…endeavor to make students think.” The basic comparison of the foundation of the schools appears to me to be that one was founded by a woman and the other by men.
The class offerings at Grinnell are elaborate with many different selections. They also offer a well-rounded academic resource selection to provide support needed to students individual needs. Grinnell’s academic programs offer a bachelor of arts in 26 major fields. From what I can tell they take their academics very serious, I drew my conculsion of this based on their need-blind admissions policy. This policy simply states that Grinnell College offers admission to intellectually qualified individuals rather than economically qualified. To me this expresses the importance of the academic experience rather than just letting in whoever has money. A good education should be for those who will do something with it not just to the
