<p>Hi! I’ve been accepted to four colleges so far and am waiting on about six others. I haven’t been able to visit any of them and may not be able to visit them in order to make my final decision. (Unable to afford airfare) I’m looking for comparisons between the following schools: Earlham, Knox, Beloit and Hendrix. </p>
<p>Academic programs that interest me: International relations, anthropology/sociology (I know that Beloit has a top anthro program), gender studies, urban studies, educational policy/reform, strong Spanish program(?) (REALLY want to be fluent)</p>
<p>Are they very similar in terms of academic quality? Can you tell me more about the social life at each school? I’d like to live and learn with people who are respectful, kind and smart. Are students interested in their work? Are class discussions lively? How do food/dorms/facilities compare?</p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>I’m in a similar position. In my dual enrollment class for anthro, my prof said to stay away from departments that are combined. Knox and Earlham both have combined departments with soc. Beloit’s is not - I don’t know about Hendrix.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. I’m not necessarily planning on majoring in anthropology so that’s not very important to me.</p>
<p>I am, however, very interested in majoring in Health & Society. Are there any parents or current students who can offer first-hand info on this program?</p>
<p>There is a great deal of emphasis placed on an interdisiplinary approach to education at Beloit. The Health and Society major is one such example. The idea is that students learn different intellectual ways to examine, study and attack a problem or issue.</p>
<p>While this interdisciplinary approach has long been a focus at Beloit (with the option of creating your own major a fairly popular with students), in recent years there appears to be a more formalized approach to this interdisiplinary approach.</p>
<p>Of the four schools you list, Knox is probably the most traditional and attracts students who tend to be a bit more conservative than the other 3. One of the big diffences between Beloit and Earlham is the number of required courses. While Beloit has fairly broad distribution requirements, Earlham (and I would suspect Knox is this way as well) has more required courses and less flexibility. Frankly, I don’t know about Hendrix’s course requirements, but my guess is that it falls somewhere between Beloit and Earlham. </p>
<p>I graduated from Beloit and was attracted to the academic freedom built into Beloit’s degree requirements. However, my brother went to Earlham and felt like he received a top notch education as well. I think he would have done well at Beloit, and I probably would have enjoyed Earlham. But for me, Beloit just felt like a better match. Since I grew up in Indiana, getting out of the state appealed to me as an 18 year old as well. </p>
<p>Good luck. Since you indicate that you can’t visit any of the schools, I suggest that you really try to get a feel for the places by contacting current students at all four schools.</p>
<p>My son looked at all 4 schools and actually applied to two of them. I don’t think you can go wrong with the education quality at any of them. All of them (like most liberal arts colleges we visited) talked about the campus bubble. It didn’t bother them that they were in small towns because there was so much to do on campus. </p>
<p>Since you can’t visit them, study their websites, especially their current students section, hard. For example, their have been complaints about Beloit’s cafeteria. If you looked in their announcements you would see several meetings inviting students to discuss options. A while back, Hendrix was deciding whether or not to bring back football, their was a blog with the pr section covering the discussion.</p>
<p>Also look and see which clubs/sports/activities are posting. Again, it gives you an idea of what the common activities are on the campus.</p>
<p>Then there is also the money issue. My son applied to all small LAC’s and the amount of merit money offered varied by $13,000. That can add up over four years.</p>