Grinnell College has an attractive 108-acre campus of creatively designed buildings including the Noyce Science Center featured in architectural journals and the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts designed by Cesar Pelli. The college also owns the 365-acre Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA), a natural areas research station located about 14 miles from the campus and used on a regular basis for research and teaching.

The town of Grinnell, three miles north of Interstate 80, has a population of 9,100 and is ranked among the 25 "Best Small Towns in America" in the book of that title. Home to two major service corporations and several light industries as well as the college, the town of Grinnell offers a regional medical center, financial institutions, restaurants, bed-and-breakfast inns, city parks, a nine-hole golf course (with an 18-hole course nearby), and the Ahrens Family Center, a 45-acre recreational and child-care facility.

From Grinnell, it is less than an hour’s drive to Des Moines and about an hour to Iowa City, a vibrant community with a renowned state university and teaching hospital. The metropolitan attractions of Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Omaha, Kansas City, and Chicago are all accessible within a four- to five-hour drive.