Hi everyone! Thank you for your quick and detailed response. It means a lot to me.
It seem like Earlham is a nice place to be with its diversity and all. My reason of going abroad is, after all, to experience the world.
To answer a few of you asking, I’m planning to study International Relation/ Political Science (I haven’t decided between those two). From what I can see, the head of the Political Science department is a professor on Cold war era’s US foreign policy and politics, which is pretty much my favorite era to learn about. So that’s a plus.
I’m leaning a bit to Earlham, do you know if it has a good International Relation/ Political Science major?
These appear to be some of your options in terms of majors:
Earlham
Politics
International Studies
Peace and Global Studies
St. Lawrence
Government
Political Science
International Studies
Global Studies
Peace Studies
Earlham is very international oriented (20% of students are international, and 50% of students in the international studies program are international), which is a plus if you’re studying International Relations and want a very international/multicultural environment. St.Lawrence has some great study abroad options, but Earlham has some good ones too.
Seems like Earlham could be a good fit for what you’re looking for.
There’s some good words for its International Studies program here: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/nerdscholar-favorites-international-studies-programs/
A school strong in your fields of interest should offer a range of classes in these subfields: American politics, political theory, comparative politics, international relations. You may want to peruse the course descriptions at your two choices for evidence of strength in these areas.
Courses on the Cold War may be available through their history departments as well.
@ScaredNJDad First year freshman at Earlham are also often foreign, many of the foreigners go back home or only spend a couple semesters at Earlham(from what I’ve heard). Earlham has 65% graduation rate for 4 years, that is very good considering how many students take an extra semester in normal . 71% overall isn’t bad at all. Graduation is up to the student, some students do better than others.
@Abigail221 If I were you, I would choose Earlham. It is huge on international stuff, they also let you study abroad for the same cost of attendance at Earlham, something most colleges don’t do.
Earlham is also very strong in the field you want to study. I highly recommend it.
@ScaredNJDadI I have a friend that goes there, he says that a lot of it has to do with being homesick. 10% difference in graduation rate is something to be considered, but with how successful Earlham grads are, I wouldn’t decide on this factor alone.
Earlham is 53% white which would make it significantly more diverse. 17% are foreign born, and/or international.
Earlham also has a ration of 300k of endowment for every student, SLU is 100k. Earlham has more money to fund more things and has basically been completely renovated in the last 5 years.
DS applied to and was accepted at SLU with generous merit aid, unfortunately we were unable to visit and part of the reason was there is no easy way to get to the school. However, he was impressed with what he had learned about the school. DS is in his first year at a rural SLAC college.
We did visit Earlham and were very excited for the visit, it was high on his list prior to the visit. After the visit, he decided not to apply for several reasons. I found the town to be somewhat depressing, son did not feel the same. The cafeteria was tiny, about the size of 2 small classrooms and the food was not good. The dorm room we saw was very small and the entire building smelled a bit of mold. Again DS was okay with these things, I was more concerned, but the final straws were financial and academic issues.
At every school we toured, I ask various current students what they would change about the school. The answers I heard over and over again at Earlham were I wish the aid was better and I couldn’t take classes/or study abroad options I wanted because they were only offered every other year. Several kids said they or there friends had to leave school for a year to go home and work to earn money, another talked about working 3 on campus jobs to stay in school.
Just coming back to reiterate – they are both wonderful schools with good reputations as small liberal arts colleges. I’m from the east coast, and live in the midwest now, and many folks consider both schools “hidden gems” which have been under appreciated in the past. I wouldn’t say either schools is noticeably “better,” and both will have plenty of academic opportunities.
They are, however, distinct kinds of places. St L is in a more remote location, with cold, snowy, long winters; many students are attracted to St L because of the outdoors opportunities, camping, hiking, snow sports. I believe the Common Data Set shows it is roughly 75% white. The student center and athletic facilities are gorgeous, student center looks like a three story ski lodge. Some of the dorms and other facilities are showing their age, though there is a gorgeous new dorm built within the past few years. Earlham is in Indiana, not so remote, and not so cold. Earlham’s student body is more diverse than St L, both in terms of US students and international students. Earlham has been building and renovating its facilities, – new arts and music building, new and renovated athletic facilities, new and renovated science buildings. The Quaker heritage emphasizes tolerance and inclusion.
No right or wrong choice here, just depends on the OP’s preferences.
@ScaredNJDadI I visited earlham this fall. I will be going again in april and will attend in the fall.
Earlham has added a lot of things in the last 2 years. The new science building is amazing, full cadaver lab and multiple presentation rooms with projectors for students to collaborate.
They got a new food provider for fall 2016 to make the food better. @Mom24boys The dorm you were in was probably barret, it is the smallest and the only one not recently renovated, the rest of them are amazing though. Much bigger and everything is new(8 or so years).
Earlham was very generous with my aid, lower than instate tuition at UT and they paid for my ticket to come visit again in april for an accepted students event.
The town of Richmond is small, I would compare the feel to that of a smaller A&M college station. Indy Cincinnati and Chicago are not too far though.
Earlham also has 24% of attendees on pell grants so the money issue may not be that Earlham is unfair, but that these familes efc may not be what they want to pay without having to give up some stuff, let’s face it. College is always going to cost more than what we want to pay, even if we get a fair price.
I know that I would be happy to go to school for 15k a year, I know that I can’t though. I am waiting on the financial aid decision, but from what has been received I am at 31k before grants. With the npc saying it’ll be like 21k.
Richmond looks pretty run down if you are coming from the east off the interstate. But if you are driving from the west or the north to Richmond, and enter via the Williamsburg Pike, it looks much better. (Made that mistake with my D, and driving through the east part of Richmond adversely affected her impression from the start.)
“I have on two occasions been to SLU, and the campus and facilities are on par with every elite school in the Northeast” (#29)
This is not an exaggeration. Think about it, @Snowybuny. (While keeping in mind that not all of us have been to Earlham.)
@MidwestDad3 I would like to add.
Richmond has a really good tex mex food place, bagel place, and donut place. That is all I saw in Richmond though.
In terms of graduation rate, both Earlham and SLU “over-perform.” Earlham does so by one point, St. Lawrence by eight. (From USNWR figures.)
@merc81 ?? I never dissed SLU, quite frankly I don’t know much about it. I only commented to congratulate the OP and say what I thought were Earlham’s strong suits. Like SeniorStruggling I received very good merit aid (haven’t received my FA packet yet) and Earlham is paying for my flight.
@Snowybuny: Sorry! I’d meant in #33 to refer to the OP, @Abigail221. Earlham sounds like a great place, and the OP is going to have a tough choice to make between these schools. Hoping to see a post at some point when you have made your own decision.
It now has a popular Indian restaurant as well (however, not in walking distance of campus but a short car ride).
OP, I hope you mean you are comparing net cost at each school. Cost of attendance at SLU is almost $9,000 more than at Earlham, so if the aid is the same, it will cost you $35,000 more to attend SLU.
@alooknac : I did. I pursue need-based scholarship so they sent me a direct number. Tks for asking though.
And my family still hadn’t make any decision. We need some more time to consider the options.
I’d choose based on your interests.
I think we may have had the same guide as @MidwestDad3 at Earlham and came away really liking it. It had a very friendly (Friendly??) vibe, and we’ve gathered from the people we know who have gone there that there is a lot of faculty engagement and support. We didn’t look at St. Lawrence, so I can’t compare.