- Is it true that there is a lot of people who smoke weed here?
- Dating life for a straight guy? With such a small student body, is there much good fish in the sea?
- What is the most sought after dorm and what is the least sought after?
- With such small class sizes, do profs take attendance and count it against your grade? I have pretty poor health so yeah...
Also, how does one get to be in one of the theme houses? Is it lottery based? The theme houses have limited viability I’m assuming?
- It's america and college. Weed is very present everywhere.
- 180 incoming freshman girls, not too limited.
- Bundy is biggest, Barret is only one with AC, OA is quiet. All is equally sought after.
- it depends on professor.
Themed houses have applications, you fill them out after freshman year, discretion is up to members not Earlham.
I think with any small school, you are expected to come to class and participate. If you do not come to class, it will be noticed. Being a small school, the professors can be flexible for true medical issues, but if you don’t want to participate in classes small/liberal arts might not be the best fit. I am not saying that you don’t want to participate but that is the nature of learning there. It is a cooperative environment and you are supposed to participate.
Dorms depend on what you are looking for. Barret is solid and institutional with AC. Bundy is old and has character. Hoerner is very 1970’s with built in furniture.
My 5 cents about Earlham dorms: Barrett is also renovated (hence the a/c) and my daughter thought the bathrooms nicer and that the laundry rooms are next to the TV room and the kitchen if you want to multi-task. According to her, Bundy’s rooms are larger. Everyone survives.
what happens to dorm life with a 50 percent increase in enrolled students?
You should ask the school. Find out via the webpage who is in charge of housing. But overenrollment is something that happens at many schools. It certainly did when I went to college. Earlham had a lot of singles, it seemed to me; perhaps those will be doubles. I wouldn’t sweat it.
In terms of a large incoming class: I suppose there is always the chance that they don’t react quickly but… they could be more generous allowing upperclassmen housing exemptions. They could open more college owned houses to upperclass students. They could reclaim the apartments built as “married housing” for student use. They can turn doubles being used as singles back to doubles, and the same with triples being used as doubles. 20+ years ago they had as many students with two fewer dorms. They have the capacity if they can react quickly enough. Some things do take time, like the renovation of houses or turning commercial rental housing back into student housing, but I don’t expect to see a tent city on back campus 
@MomofM Does Bundy still not have A/C? My D was there first year, and it was pretty miserable because of that (she grew up in California where everything is air-conditioned though). She was in Barrett for one semester and I don’t remember any complaints.
@Ballislife23mjs You won’t have any trouble finding attractive, smart, interesting girls. Just ask my daughter’s boyfriend.
First year students aren’t allowed to be in theme or friendship houses. As you go through your first year, you’ll discover which house(s) are of interest to you. Not sure what you mean by limited viability, but if you mean limited space, yes. If something grabs your attention, talk to Res Life as early in the year as possible to find out about the process of getting in.
As far as attendance and participation, almost all of the classes are tiny, so yes, absence would be noticed. I wouldn’t worry so much about losing points, but the fact that you’ll be missing out on one of the best things about LAC life, which is the collaborative learning environment. OTOH, a place like Earlham is wonderful about working with individual students and getting creative with solutions. Do you anticipate having to miss a lot of classes on a regular basis?
@LasMa Yes, my daughter is staying in Bundy currently and it is not air conditioned . She was in Barret last year and it was. Both have large kitchens and laundry. One thing I like about the dorms at Earlham is that they are all conveniently located due to design of the campus.