Some questions about Earlham

Colleges and Universities A-Z Earlham College
1

I was admitted to Earlham EA and I was wondering if any current students could fill me in on a few things:

  1. How politically active are students at Earlham? Do they tend to be politically radical, or more moderate-left?
  2. How prevalent is the use of drugs other than marijuana?
  3. On the whole, does the campus have more of a serious, studious vibe... or more of a "work hard, play harder" vibe?

Thanks!

2

Congratulations on your acceptance! As a parent, it sounds to me that if you can pull it off financially and time-wise, it looks like you really should visit the campus next semester including sleeping over so that you can ask many students these questions. I will point out that Earlham doesn’t have fraternities/sororities or major athletics, both of which I usually think of in terms of the “work hard play harder vibe”. But anyway, I hope you can visit the campus, which, to a parent, has a warm, friendly vibe.

3

Parent who has visited with student – I’m not sure where to draw the line between radical and moderate-left. During my student’s visit, there was a lunch time demonstration, so my sense was that the campus is politically active. As for drug use, my student observed that there was certainly marijuana, but didn’t run into anything more than that (on an overnight). I wouldn’t say its a work-hard/play hard campus, felt more mellow to me and my kid. On his midweek visit, there were a few kids smoking, but most were in the library and then relaxing with friends.

4

According to daughter, who is an Earlham student, the only drugs she has noticed are alcohol, pot, and tobacco.

5

I’d love to hear what you learn on your visit @pullitiesculting. DS is applying there, and over the years, I’ve met lot of grads from there (recent and not-so-recent), and they’ve all been really friendly and accomplished.

6

I stayed the weekend and went to a couple social events

students are very liberal but from a lot of countries so 20% is socialist/communist in some matters.

They are very involved in eachothers student concerts and extracarriculars and definetyl have a work hard play hard as there were roughly 150 people at a party, or a good amount of the school

typically it is split up by blocks and years so the people in your grade will really be who you party with though there definitly is some over lap

I saw pot and alcohol at my stay, nothing worse than any other school and most kids seemed to drink resposibly and not over their limits.

Overall a really great school where you won’t face a lot of struggle fitting in as there were also a lot of people who stayed sober.

7

Thanks for your update @SeniorStruggling Glad to hear that there’s a good social environment at the school itself as Richmond is a bit quiet. I think DS would like it!

8

The students are some of the most diverse and fun people i have ever met.

9

This is all really nice to hear since my D is a first-year student there. She isn’t that trilled with Richmond (although I’ve seen worse) but the school is close to a supermarket and has its own student-run coffee coop. More importantly, if you check out the Earham College events page, they seem to make an effort to bring a lot of speakers and music events to campus. In fact, Ladysmith Black Mazambo will be performing there in February.