Kalamazoo vs Allegheny vs Earlham. Which one should I take the offer?

I am an international student, 9 colleges have accepted me, and this is my top 3 choice: Kalamazoo College, Allegheny College, and Earlham College. If someone has attended these colleges, please give me some literature review (safety, college mates, professor, area around the college, weather, general about the college, etc.) Which one should I take the offer?

Costs of attendance that my family can contribute about 25k.
Financial aid and a scholarship each college offer me:

  • Kalamazoo College: 41k ā†’ after gift aid = 26k
  • Allegheny College: 38k ā†’ after gift aid = 30k
  • Earlham College: 38k ā†’ after gift aid = 24k

Based on cost alone, it seems Earlham is the best value. However, Kalamazoo is a bit more highly ranked. Itā€™s marginally more expensive, but Iā€™m sure you could work to make up the difference. Given Kalamazooā€™s location closer to Chicago and Detroit, where you my might have better possibilities for internships, and have more flight options, Iā€™d go for Kalamazoo I think.

For the extra cost, which will be $16,000 over four years, Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d choose Allegheny. However, if you are really interested, contact them and let them know about your other offers. They might match your others. As those colleges are fairly similar in ranking, you could possibly negotiate with any of them to get a little more money.

You donā€™t mention what you are interested in studying, so that might factor into your decision too.

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Weā€™ve visited all three ā€“ several times for Kalamazoo and Earlham, just once for Allegheny to watch a college sports event. I would say Kzoo and Earlham have the most in common, while Allegheny seems a little less diverse student population and there doesnā€™t seem to be a compelling reason to pay more each year, from my perspective.

Kzoo is 2 hours + from Chicago and Detroit. Kzoo is located in a small city, nestled on a few block area, students cross town streets ā€“ though there isnā€™t much traffic ā€“ to get to some buildings. There is a lovely grass quad which is not visible from the street, a charming dining hall with fireplaces, and a beautiful library renovation. The college is a few blocks away from a major public university, Western Michigan, so the area around the college has shops set up for a large student population. Academics at Kzoo are good ā€“ many students are attracted to the ā€œopenā€ curriculum ā€“ a student has more flexibility to design their own course of study and does not have a lot of mandatory areas of study. Students have to complete the requirements for their major, but other than a writing requirement and foreign language, they do not have mandatory science, humanities or other courses. Another consideration is that Kzoo operates on the trimester system ā€“ students typically take fewer classes than in a traditional semester system, but the classes move faster. That affects the academic calendar as well, because classes donā€™t start until later in September, whereas most semester schools start in early September. Finally, Kzoo does not have ā€œgreekā€ life. Weather at Kzoo will be variable ā€“ there is ā€œrealā€ winter, with plenty of snow since it is Michigan, but spring, summer and fall are lovely. It is less than an hour to the beaches at Lake Michigan, which can make for a fun weekend outing.

Earlham is located in a town, smaller than the city of Kalamazoo, about an hour from Indianapolis and 90 minutes from Columbus, Ohio. Earlhamā€™s campus is more of a traditional US college campus ā€“ separate from the town on its own, a peaceful, pretty campus with mostly red brick buildings. We found the swing hanging from a tree on the main part of campus to be charming, as students would stop and swing for a bit and talk with friends. Earlham has been renovating and expanding its science, athletic, arts, and dining halls over the past 10 years or so, and the facilities are excellent (the dining hall renovation had not begun when we visited, so I donā€™t know if that is on track). We live in Indiana, and we know many students who have chosen Earlham for its warmth and supportive community. The town of Richmond is not much to look at-- there is a small area of shops not far from campus, the basics are there including a hip coffee shop. Weather will be slightly less cold and snow than Kzoo, though still some snow.

Allegheny is about 90 minutes from Pittsburgh. Similar to Kzoo, campus is intersected by town streets though in a quiet area so there is not a lot of traffic. There is a single central dining hall, like Kzoo, and the athletic facilities were good. There is greek life at Allegheny and the student body seemed much less diverse than at Kzoo and Earlham. Unless there is an academic program at Allegheny which is not available at Kzoo or Earlham, I would remove it from the list.

Congrats on having good choices!

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Thanks for your response. :blush: I forgot to mention the major that I interested :sweat_smile:. Itā€™s business management, economics, and arts.

OMG, thank you soo much for this detailed review. :blush: Because Iā€™m a girl and studying abroad so my mommy is worrying about the safety around the school, do you have any information about this.

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Most small liberal arts colleges do not have business majors ā€“ though Allegheny does ā€“ and plenty of students go into business from LACs without a business major (my own kid did, as a Poli Sci major).

Fine arts facilities impressed us as stronger at Earlham, my kid was interested in continuing both his music performance and studio art so looked closely at opportunities at the schools we visited. Earlhamā€™s fine arts facilities are newly renovated and gorgeous.

I would recommend spending time on the Career Services sites at both schools to get information about internships, career development programs etc.

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I suspect that all three will have excellent campus security and I donā€™t think you have much to worry about in terms of pervasive community crime issues. The bigger worries about safety will probably have to do with alcohol consumption at campus parties.

I suggest you compare the three using the website Niche. I canā€™t link it, but you can google Niche Kalamazoo College, as an example. It gives ratings on party scene, safety, students, professors, etcā€¦ based on student reviews. And for,what itā€™s worth, be aware that not many colleges have an A rating for the safety category. This is probably due to the fact that security busts up the parties at many schoolsšŸ˜†

As most issues about crime are related to student alcohol use on campus, I advise you to look into the party culture at each school. Look at their Instagram pages, especially unofficial ones in which students have tagged their college. Understand that you donā€™t have to partake in the party scene, of course. You should be able to find likeminded students who want to avoid the party scene, or who just remain on the fringes of it.

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I graduated from K with a degree in Economics and Business, but that was a long time ago. It used to be a combined degree, but I just looked at the website and it seems they are now separate and you choose one or the other. K did a really good job of preparing me for grad school and career.

Most of my professors have retired, but Apps (Econ) and Moffit (Business) are both still there. I liked them both. Interesting side note, Apps was the mayor of Kalamazoo for a while in addition to being at K. Moffitā€™s one of my favorite professors. K grad, MBA from Dartmouth, has owned his own businesses and worked for a global company, so he really understands the material from an applied perspective. He ended up becoming a professor when he was asked to fill in for a professor on sabbatical and found he loved it. It looks like they still do small business projects, which are a great learning experience.

As I have gone on college tours with my daughters and the colleges have touted experiences like study abroad, internships and senior projects thatā€™s all essentially the K Plan, which K has done for 50+ years.

K is located between Western Michigan University and downtown Kalamazoo, both easy walking distance. I actually became friends with some WMU students, and attended some of their sporting events. So, while K is small there is opportunity to have some larger university town experiences if you are interested in that.

I donā€™t know anything about your other options to be able to help you compare.

Good luck on your decision and remember The End of Learning is Gracious Living (Day of Gracious Living is a K tradition).

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