Hi, I’m a student from Vietnam and recently I got admitted to both Earlham and StL.
I know that STL is a bigger school with higher selectivity; but I’ve also heard many praise about Earlham. Can anyone tell me which is the better school to go to? And reason why? My scholarship and Aid from both school is technically the same so only on academic aspect and dorms, lifestyle,…
Thank you in advance!!
SLU has an incredible location between the St. Lawrence River and the Adirondacks, and is not that far either from Ottawa and Montréal. I wouldn’t regard SLU as being more selective than Earlham, however, in that in an important component of selectivity, student standardized scores, Earlham appears to outpace SLU. Overall, St. Lawrence is a beautiful school.
Earlham seems like a great place. Note though, that at currently less than 1000 students, it is small by even small college standards, and may consequently be more limited in its academic offerings compared to other colleges of its general type.
Congratulations either way on having these choices open to you.
Congratulations on your good fortune!
A major consideration for int’l students is airport access and flight frequency. I would guess that there would be many more options for airtravel and ride sharing at Earlham because it’s surrounded by a number of major metropolitan areas and many other colleges. I suggest u search for flight options on Expedia.
They’re similar enough that you can’t say one is “better” than the other in terms academics and outcomes. So I suggest you look at the majors and courses offered at each one to see what fits best with what you are interested in, or if there’s anything in particular that appeals you about either school that could tip the scales.
All other things being equal I would pick St.Lawrence - for its beautiful up-state NY location and a little larger size.
Earlham has a religious affiliation (Quaker) which could be a plus or a minus depending on your views.
Someone correct me if I’m mistaken. I get the impression that Quakers are pretty much low maintenance.
@GMTplus7 yes, very much so compared to Evangelicals at least. Probably more like a Jesuit college in that respect. But they do mention it in their description of themselves which means it’s important to them–and therefore more likely to attract students with similar views. (Not that I have any problem with that–I generally like Quaker values.) So like I said, this could be a plus or a minus (or neither I guess).
Both colleges seem to offer great educational opportunities. Earlham seems to have a social-active orientation which is quite nice.
We have visited both with my son. They have a lot in common, with some important differences.
St L is gorgeous location, but has serious winters, it is 30 miles from the Canadian border, and not easy to get in and out of because Syracuse NY is the nearest major airport and that is close to 2 hours away. Sports are a big student activity, especially the D1 Men’s Hockey team. Kids who love camping, hiking and winter sports tend to love St L. There is some Greek life (fraternities and sororities) but they are not dominant in the student experience. St L is working hard to create a more diverse student body, though it is still fairly white (you can look at the Common Data Set for racial and ethnic distribution of the school). Canton NY, where the college is located, is a small, charming town, with a nice farmer’s market, a movie theater, coffee shop and restaurants 2 blocks from campus.
Earlham is about an hour east or so of Indianapolis, a lovely campus with gorgeous new art and music building and a beautifully renovated athletic facility as well as new and renovated science buildings. The Quaker ethos emphasizes tolerance and mutual respect, and there are no fraternities or sororities as that structure, which excludes some from the group, is incompatible with the ethos of the school. Haverford College is also a Quaker school, and I don’t think many people would consider Haverford a “religious” school; Earlham is very much the same type of community. We were struck by how diverse a community Earlham is, many international students as well as students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, again, check the Common Data Set. Earlham strikes me, and this is very subjective, as more “activist” than St L, perhaps the combination of Quaker emphasis on justice and the diversity of the students. The town of Richmond is bigger than Canton NY, and has some interesting, artsy shops and restaurants, though also the usual suburban/small city type shopping areas, with Walmart etc.
A student would get a wonderful education at each school, there really isn’t a “wrong” choice here, just a weighing of preferences.
@insanedreamer They are quaker, but that just means that they follow quaker values. No one is better than anyone else, everyone is on a first name basis with staff and it’s about being friends and a community rather than a cutthroat competative school.
Everyone helps everyone succeed.
Quaker affiliation is easily the best religious affiliation ever.
I would consider which size school you prefer, which location you prefer, as well as which school seems to offer the coursework you want. You should be able to check online to get an idea of the courses offered at each school.
If you want to try to get the vibe of the schools see if you can find the school newspaper online. And if you can find any college guide books where you are (ex, Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) they would be helpful to read as well.
I don’t think the Quaker affiliation should influence your choice as it will have a minimal (if any) impact.
Congratulations OP. We visited Earlham last year, had a tour given by an international student, and were very impressed. It felt like a very vibrant place, and they are taking steps to grow the student body a bit over the next few years. The Quaker tradition is a very positive influence, and not constraining in any way that I saw.
Earlham is also an NWO school. Keep that in mind.
NWO?
Funny I got accepted into both schools and I am also Vietnamese lol(I go to a high school in the US though so I’m not international).
Congrats OP on getting accepted.
Earlham is more selective than St Lawrence. You shouldn’t always rely on acceptance rate for selectivity. If you look at the CDS of Earlham, the average GPAs and SAT scores for entering freshmen are a lot higher at Earlham than St Lawrence. Also St Lawrence is on the East coast while Earlham is in a small city(though pretty close to Indy) in the midwest. From what I heard, if Earlham was on the East coast it would be so hard to get in and have like a 15-30% acceptance rate. It is that good. I got a 2310 on the SAT and St Lawrence was actually my safety lol. Earlham was more of a match or high safety.
Do you plan on studying Japanese? Earlham is one of the nation’s best colleges to study Japanese. A lot of Japanese exchange students are here too.
In terms of dorms and lifestyle, I did go to a campus tour of Earlham last week and the dorms are pretty spacious and are a lot bigger than average. I still fell in love with the campus. I think Earlham would be perfect for me in every way. It had everything I wanted in a college. I think it is actually better if a college is smaller. The smaller the class size, the better one on one attention with the professors.
I got accepted into really selective schools like NYU and Duke, but in the end I am going to go to Earlham for Fall of 2016! I hope you do too!
In reading #12, skepticism is in order. Duke, for instance, has not yet released their RD decisions and their ED program comes with a firm expectation of attendance. Claims regarding an acceptance to SLU may be similarly unreliable.
Some schools have EA. EA is nonbinding.
Some schools do offer a non-binding EA option. However, Duke does not.
@merc81 EYeager received a likely letter from Duke…
To the OP: Congrats on your acceptances! Earlham is one of my top schools and what really drew me to it was the focus on community service and their strong premed program! What major/s are you interested in?
@dlurk1 I apologize I was very tired when I typed that, I mixed up acronyms.
I can’t actually remember it, they told us when we visited a long time ago.
Something about worldwide sister school program.
Basically ties all over the world with universities for study abroad.
I’d thought Earlham might be calling for a New World Order.
I received an email from Duke this morning so not exactly a letter but it still pretty much says I’m accepted. I did get a likely letter from NYU though(guessing cause I came in contact with a coach). I applied RD to both of them not EA though.