The college and seminary began with seven students, in a rented upper room on Spring Street, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with Geert Boer as the docent.

In 1900, the curriculum further broadened, making it more attractive to students interested in teaching or preparing for professional courses at universities, and Albertus Rooks became the school's principal.

In 1917, John Calvin Junior College moved to the Franklin Street Campus, which was the southeast edge of Grand Rapids at the time.

In 1925, the college began a teacher training program and, in 1926, appointed its first female faculty member, Johanna Timmer, as Dean of Women.

[6] In 1956, the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church authorized the college to purchase the Knollcrest Farm from J.C. Miller for $400,000 (approximately $3.6 million in 2018).

According to The Washington Post, more than 800 faculty members, alumni, students and friends of the school signed a full-page ad in the Grand Rapids Press, saying that Bush's policies "...violate many deeply held principles of Calvin College.

[15] The official policy of the college continues to be that the "proper place" for sexual relations is a "marriage relationship between a man and a woman".

Within months of assuming office, President Le Roy disclosed that Calvin faced a financial crisis, with $117 million in debt at the time.

[32] Its most popular undergraduate majors, in terms of 2023 graduates, were:[33] Calvin is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities[34] and as an institution in the Calvinist tradition, subscribes to a robust theology that produces a high regard for participating in and forming culture.

[37] Calvin university has a core curriculum with four parts: Foundations, Competencies & Skills, Knowledge & Understanding, and Cross-Disciplinary Integrations.

The average student takes 45 hours of core courses in the course of a four-year degree at Calvin, though engineering majors and students in other professional programs have flexible ways to meet core requirements because some majors now require a higher number of credits to confer a degree.

[44] Calvin acquired the 166-acre (0.67 km2) property in the mid-1950s and began a process of turning a biologically diverse farm into a center for Christian higher education.

In addition to the biology and chemistry departments, the building houses the West Michigan Regional Lab, a consortium between the college and local hospital, Spectrum Health.

The Engineering Building was constructed in 1999 and houses faculty and student research facilities, metal and wood shops, a wind tunnel, a three-dimensional printer, and an anechoic chamber.

[49] The Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex, located on the north end of campus, houses a number of classrooms and the Kinesiology department.

With many rare items, books, manuscripts, articles and literature, the Meeter Center is the largest collection of Calvin materials in North America.

[53] The Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex is home to the combined health, physical education, recreation, dance and sport department.

[54] The Hoogenboom Health and Recreation Center contains the original renovated gym that is now used for basketball, volleyball, PE classes, intramurals, and concerts.

Shaped as an octagon, with seating in the round, the chapel offers exceptional acoustics for both instrumental and vocal music, in addition to the spoken word.

A tunnel system connecting to the Spoelhof Center creates an outdoor plaza at ground level and the multi-use Lab Theatre below.

The Museum serves as a home for the collection and an outreach resource for local school and hobby groups, as well as hosting casual visitors during open hours.

[66] The Student Activities Office at Calvin plans and hosts many films, concerts, and lectures to foster cultural engagement and discernment in a Christian context.

Calvin has hosted a variety of acts including:[68] Fun., Switchfoot, Death Cab for Cutie, Sufjan Stevens, MuteMath, Gungor, MGMT, the Soil & the Sun, Twin Forks, Ingrid Michaelson, Home Free, Regina Spektor, Over the Rhine, Anberlin, Jon Foreman, Peter Rollins and David Bazan, Kishi Bashi, All Sons & Daughters, NEEDTOBREATHE, Shad, Miracles of Modern Science, Diego Garcia, San Fermin, The Brilliance, Delorean, Pop Scholars, Okkervil River, The Head and The Heart, The National, Julianna Barwick, Lone Bellow, The Milk Carton Kids, Lily & Madeleine, and Lecrae.

According to an official statement released by Calvin, the concert was cancelled after several complaints were made due to the band's name referring to pornography.

At that time, all campus safety supervisors were issued collapsible batons, chemical spray, and handcuffs as standard policy, even if they were not armed with a firearm.

The Campus Safety Department director, William Corner, stated that student officers were not fully qualified for the risk level of some of the incidents they were responding too.

[72] A Calvin College campus safety supervisor was criminally charged with "reckless use of a firearm" after a November 2016 on-duty incident.

[75] The armed supervisor, Lee Swafford, allegedly did not fire his duty firearm in the incident that resulted in his arrest, but after a routine review of body camera footage by the Campus Safety Department director, William Corner, the college placed Swafford on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

The college forwarded its evidence to the Grand Rapids Police Department and Kent County prosecutors then laid charges in February 2017.

Student filmmakers have also made many short films and videos, like the popular Lipdub at Calvin College and the super-low-budget adaptation of Homer's Iliad, Meynin, both in 2010.