@usualhopeful They met my need and actually gave the most financial aid of any school I applied to. It would have cost a little over 3,000 a year for me to go there (not counting work study).
@Dustyfeathers The large endowment probably helps a ton, @usualhopeful Earlham does meet all need, not sure where you got your info from.
Since there is some interest here about merit from some of these schools, I will add that schools like Lawrence University and Beloit in WI, Kalamazoo in MI, Knox in Illinois, Earlham in IN, and Wooster in Ohio are all schools with strong faculty and programs and give good merit awards. Many of them have a lower “list” price to start with, for both tuition and room and board, than schools back east or in Ohio, like Kenyon and Oberlin, so with merit awards, can be significantly more affordable for families not eligible for financial aid but still looking for a small school, with strong faculty.
As an academic family, in researching for our kids, we looked at where faculty got their Ph.D from as a short hand for the strength of the faculty. To do that, it is useful to know something about various academic fields, since it is not intuitive that Rutgers and Pitt are top philosophy programs or that Cincinnati is a top classical archaeology program. When you look at faculty training at the top “cluster” of LACs, as well as mid-range LACs, the differences are not as significant as you might expect. Anecdotally, perhaps the best class my kid sat in on during 15+ college visits was at Knox, where a Harvard trained prof mesmerized the entire class and my kid said the discussion was active and intelligent. In contrast, at one NESCAC school, he felt the class discussion and instruction was below his public high school. The point is not that Knox is better than NESCAC, but that families should have an open mind when researching and visiting. And of course, like tours, a single class or faculty member should not be the basis for assuming that the entire institution is similar.
This “hidden gem” list, like CTCL, is a useful way to publicize that there are many schools where students can flourish and succeed beyond those which carry the US News rankings stamp of approval.
@Midwestmomofboys College of wooster was my most expensive, priced me a full 10k over earlham, so beware. They will meet efc with loans.
@SeniorStruggling I was a referring specifically to merit awards for families who are not eligible for financial aid. I don’t claim to have experience with financial aid comparisons at these schools.
@Midwestmomofboys Merit aid was good for me at both schools. That is true, Wooster is about 58k right now, I got 22500 from them. I got 21000 from earlham.
Earlham would have been 2k cheaper if I didn’t need aid. So wooster definitely is competitive, though they have a weird relationship with police. After my visit I learned that they will gladly ticket and give records to students found with alcohol(underage) or pot. Other schools I visited had a policy where they would just give them academic and ec suspension/probation
@SeniorStruggling looking at the CollegeBoard data, it says Earlham met 93% of need on average in 2015. Where are you finding the information that they guarantee to meet need?
@usualhopeful On their website they claim to as well as in pamphlets they mail out, however I know for a fact that they do ask more of internationals. So the fully met need could be mainly for only us students.
Eitherway, in my case they gave me more grants than Wooster who supposedly meets all need as well.
Earlham does not meet need nor does their web site say so
http://www.earlham.edu/financial-aid/applying-for-aid/frequently-asked-questions/
Notice the operative word, WORKS.
http://www.earlham.edu/financial-aid/
Operative words there are DO OUR BEST
That is not to downplay the merit and FA they award which I appreciate, but you must understand the wording. It would be nice if it were made more clear.
@“Erin’s Dad” I’ll try to find a pamphlet, it said that they were need blind in admissions and all that good stuff. Maybe you’re right and it does not specifically say that they meet all need, but in my experience they went above and beyond.
Need Blind in admissions is very different from meeting need. The vast majority of Public Us are need blind in admissions. They just gap students in FA.