Help! Beloit or Earlham or illinois Wesleyan?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello! There’s only one week left, but I still can not decide which to choose.

All are LACs:
Beliot College (costs 31k)

Earlham College (costs 25k)
illinois Wesleyan University (costs 27k)

I plan to major in biology or physics. I wish I could visit every college by myself, but unfortunately I am still in Asia now. That makes it more difficult to make a decision.

My considerations: (prioritized in order of importance)

  • Academics ability and education (in science)
  • Friendness
  • Location
  • extracurricular activities
  • Beautiful campus/nice dorms

Any kind of advice will be really helpful! Thanks a lot!!

2

I don’t know much about Beloit other than it is very similar to Earlham, but Earlham is a tad better. They are both ranked 61 in lacs on US News and Earlham is ranked 40 spots higher on forbes.

Earlham has amazing sciences with a Cadaver lab for undergrad research. Earlham also has a new science building and most buildings have been renovated recently.

Earlham is 1.5-4 hours away from 3 major cities but Richmond isn’t anything too special.

Most people at Earlham are very friendly, and you can find your niche.

3

My daughter was accepted to Earlham and visited. It is surprisingly strong for its size, but she is leaning towards a school with a slightly larger student body. They have definitely been putting money into the campus in recent years, but mostly in the labs, academic facilities, and campus center. The dorms are nothing special.

4

Beloit campus is quite small. It is pretty but it is not surrounded by scenic vistas. The dorms we not 'beautiful" but then it depends on what you are looking for.

I’d suggest you use Google Maps and “walk” around the areas you are interested in if you really cannot visit. Or ask to see campus photos with students on the admitted student FB pages for the schools.

5

Earlham is very strong in the sciences, and very, very friendly, students and professors. I wouldn’t say it’s the most beautiful campus, but it’s nice, and I know there are accessible woods for biology classes. Richmond is not an especially interesting location, but it’s only an hour to Dayton or Indianapolis, and about 4 hours from Chicago. Earlham has a great study abroad program with lots of options, and seems like many students take advantage of this for a semester during their junior year. There are lots of extracurricular activities, my son was most involved in music related activities. The dorms were so-so, there are also a number of college run houses that were pretty nice. Good luck with your decision!

6

We only visited Beloit, but will try to share some context and thoughts; this’ll be biased because that’s where S decided to commit after visiting :wink: Beloit and Earlham do seem to attract very similar students. I gather that both are good in sciences, but S isn’t going into the sciences so that wasn’t a factor. Beloit students seemed really friendly, and there seems to be a wealth of extracurriculars for such a small place – but since both schools seem to get cross-applications, I expect both places are friendly, with pretty active students who are into their studies but also want to be involved in clubs etc.

On the location: We were expecting to be underwhelmed by the town of Beloit, but were pleasantly surprised by the little “downtown” area, which has a few shops and restaurants for hanging out, and S liked its vibe of being an old industrial town that is getting at least a bit of funky-ish restoration. The campus is sandwiched between the “downtown” (note the quote marks :wink: ) and a residential area with charming old Victorian houses. While it didn’t exactly seem like Bright Lights Big City or a hip destination town, S felt it had a nice sense of place. It didn’t feel like bland suburbia or the middle of nowhere.

It’s also an easy (hour and a half) shuttle bus ride to Chicago, so while I doubt the students go there much, it’s close enough for field trips, and for our purposes, the int’l airport makes travel a lot easier than having to make connections. (We also live overseas.) Madison is only an hour away, and it’s a famously fun college town – “Mad City” – so while an “hour” can take a lot longer in a snowy Midwest winter, I think students do go there sometimes.

Earlham is less conveniently located IMO; it’s within 2 hours of several cities, but the closest one, Dayton, isn’t really a big attraction. The nicest near-ish cities are probably Cincinnati (1.5 hours) and Columbus (just under 2 hours). But in terms of campus size, Earlham is way bigger – 800 acres vs Beloit’s 40 acres – and it seems quite pretty online. My son didn’t think that Beloit’s campus felt small, though. We both expected a kind of cramped quad, but it was pleasant, rolling, tree-filled and had enough distinct areas that you wouldn’t feel like you were in just one place all the time. At least that was our impression. He initially was leaning towards a larger school, and he’s kind of a city guy, but he really felt comfortable there and now he’s actively chatting with other future students on the FB page! So you can probably get a lot of info from kids there, including internationals. (Of course it didn’t hurt that Beloit came out cheapest for us; you’re looking at different figures.So there’s that to consider, too!)

Don’t know anything about Illinois Wesleyan, sorry! Anyway hope that helps.

7

As a Beloit parent, I’ll confirm that Chicago is a field trip destination (my D has been at least twice this year). She also went to Madison to see a Broadway show for free through the student activities group. On the whole, most kids stay on campus and are completely involved in campus life.

The science facilities are newish (2008, I think) and amazing. My D is not a science major, so I can’t speak to those academic departments. Except for a couple of growing pain issues (Class of 2019 is the largest since the 1970s), we are thoroughly pleased with the school and the growth opportunities that have been available to my D.

8

I have a daughter at Beloit currently and one who graduated from Earlham. Both majored or majoring in Biology and both happy with their courses and professors. I would say that there is more emphasis on extra curriculars at Beloit. Earlham has a higher percentage of international students though so perhaps there are more activities for them there. Frankly, for $6000 less I would choose Earlham as I think they are very comparable in terms of academics and experience.

9

@tigerfish Thank you very much! The problem is that I just received an Email from Beloit. They give me more $10,000… Now I really do not know what to do. I like both colleges. It is so hard to make a decison!

10

If all academic and social matters are mostly equal, follow the money…

11

Beloit and Earlham are very similar. You can’t choose wrong - both are friendly and are highly rated for grad schools.
Illinois Wesleyan is larger and in a larger college town.

12

@Charlene97 If cost is not a consideration between the two I might be a little more inclined to recommend Beloit. They really emphasize fun extra curricular activities and there are dozens to choose from for all tastes. I don’t think Earlham has nearly the breadth of clubs that Beloit has. Also, it is really easy to get to the Chicago airport or train station from Beloit as there is a bus running several times daily from South Beloit to Chicago. However, as MYOS1634 says they are very similar and you can’t choose wrong.

13

Congrats on that extra money! When you’re calculating costs, remember to include travel, which for you would be a lot higher than the college’s estimated “transportation costs.” From our location in Asia the costs of traveling to smaller cities (in the case of Earlham that’d be Dayton or Indianapolis, I think) can be as much as $600 more per trip than Chicago, because you need a domestic flight leg and smaller airports in the US are expensive to fly to. If you’re planning on going home for summers that could be something you’d want to factor in

14

We (my D and I) visited both Beloit and Illinois Wesleyan, recently. (It’s been a very long time since i visited Earlham, so don’t know if my memories of it would even be valid… I remember, at 18 years old, not being impressed with Richmond.)

IL Wesleyan is not much larger than either Beloit or Earlham. They may have a few hundred more students, but all three schools are basically around 2k students, i believe.

Bloomington/Normal is a larger town(s) (twin cities), though, than either Richmond or Beloit, and there is a LOT more to do there. The train going into downtown Chicago is a fifteen to twenty minute walk from IWU’s campus. It takes 2 hours (so does the drive from Beloit to Chicago.)

Illinois State is also next door, 15 minutes on foot. With the two universities, and ISU being so big, Bloomington/Normal has much more of a college-town feel.

Beloit - despite Beloit’s actual distance to Chicago being closer -the drive is over an hour to the NW suburbs, so will be longer into Chicago proper, or the airport, almost two hours. Beloit probably runs a shuttle to the airport for students during holidays - but it will be inconvenient to just drive into Chicago for the afternoon or even weekend, due to the traffic in the NW 'burbs.**
Madison WI would be a much more convenient road trip.

Finally, the vibe at Beloit is somewhat liberal, somewhat “hipster”. That was just my observation the limited time I was there… I’ve always heard Earlham has a similar vibe, maybe more so…
IWU seemed more preppy, and has less of a national student body, I think (more regional, many kids from Chicago area, and all over IL) than the other two.

Beloit’s dorms - the ones they showed us - were older, but roomier than the ones we saw at IWU.

Both campuses are very attractive.

I think all three have equally good reputations as liberal arts colleges, and you’d get a fine education at any of the three. I can see why it’d be a tough decision!

** Just saw the above post re: the bus from South Beloit to Chicago. Would still be a long bus ride.

Imo, both Beloit and IWU are far enough away that I would not necessarily use proximity to Chicago as a deciding factor.

As for flights home - Earlham is about an hour away from the Indianapolis airport, and Indianapolis, and half an hour away from Ball State’s campus, if you get really bored with Richmond and someone has a car. Indiana U, in Bloomington, is about 2 hours away.

15

$21K is a steal for Beloit! As I said above, I’m a Beloit parent, so I have a small bias. However, my son and I have become enamored with Earlham for him (HS Class of '18). We will be visiting this summer. It seems like you would do equally well with either, so I would follow the money and the ease of transportation. Transportation was one of the final deciders when my D15 had to choose: something that had nothing to do with the college or the academics, but a significant issue with regard to quality of life.

16

interesting group of schools.
not sure which I would choose.

17

Re BeeDAre’s comment about “if you have a car at Earlham”. Earlham has a car sharing program, through Enterprise, I believe. It does cost but if you have a few students to split it, it seems like a nice way to get errands done without relying on the campus shuttle or for spending a day out of town. Neither my daughter or her Earlham friends can drive, however…But my D has gone on Earlham-sponsored trips to Dayton and Indianapolis for a film festival once and a few trips to see theater so the college does seem to try to get kids off of campus once in a while.

18

Hi everyone. I have been accepted to Beloit too and I am an international student. I have also been accepted to DePauw University and i really cant decide b/w depauw and beloit. I also have to pay 21k to Beloit and something like 28k to DePauw. I want to major in Computer Science or 3-2 engineering. DePauw has a better ranking and i think it is better for sciences. what are your views?

19

Start a new thread!

20

Hello. THANK YOU SO MUCH for all advice and help! After much thought I decided to enroll Earlham. Choosing a college takes a lot of thoughts, and I believe you all can feel that. I chose Earlham because of the amazing people. Since I can’t visit in person, I joined FB groups of BC and EC, and met lots of new students. Beloit is great, but in Earlham, I feel warmer and more homey. Everybody is very nice to me. I feel very cozy and warm in this small community. As you said, Beloiters are also very friendly, but Earlham is just more suitable for me I guess. I am also doing the August Wilderness (pre-orientation) of Earlham. I am very glad that I found a place I like.

@SeniorStrugglling @TytoAlba @rnl2691 @hop @MYOS1634 @BeeDAre Thank you very much for your advice. They are very helpful! And @AroundHere @MomOnALaptop @1518mom @tigerfish @MomofM Thank you and wish your children have a wonderful college life!