The tutorial establishes the first ongoing relationship between student and professor, so that from the beginning, each student knows at least one professor well. The tutorial professor serves as the student's academic adviser until a major is declared. Because the tutorial is limited to 13 students, the tutorial professor can discover what each student wants and needs in an academic course of study. This close student-adviser relationship has been the basis of Grinnell's academic advising system for more than 25 years.

All first-year students and many transfer students enroll in a tutorial, a one-semester, four-credit course - one of three or four courses taken during the fall semester. Although not all tutorial sections progress in exactly the same way, most begin with an introduction to college-level writing, oral presentation and discussion, and critical analysis. Students then undertake independent study of the tutorial topic, working individually or in small groups and meeting regularly with the professor in and out of class. The instructor provides a written evaluation of the student's performance in addition to the course grade.

Each year, faculty members offer tutorials in about 30 topics, allowing students to choose a subject that interests them.