<p>Hey! I have a few questions re. Earlham. If anyone (hopefully a present or past student) can answer any of them, that'd be great!!
1. Does anyone know about XC running at Earlham?
2. Does the college give merit scholarships?
3. Is it difficult to get into the classes you want?
Also, any additional info would be great! :)</p>
<p>Hi,
I don't have a clue about your first question :). But yes, Earlham gives merit scholarships. Both my daughters got merit scholarships. Some classes are hard to get into (some "wellness" classes fill fast as do the studio art ones for example). But it hasn't been a huge problem for my daughter.</p>
<p>Thanks, obesmom! On a more general note, how have your daughters liked their Earlham experiences? I live in MA, and nobody really khows about the college, let alone knows someone who goes there, so if you could just give some insight into what they like/dislike @ Earlham, that'd be great!!</p>
<p>Yeah, I know what you mean. We are in NY and the only folks here that have even heard of Earlham are in the Quaker community.</p>
<p>I've posted before about Earlham, if you click on my name you can find a link to previous posts and they might give you some ideas of my daughter's impressions. Overall my daughter has been happy at Earlham. She's liked most of the classes she's taken and has been very impressed by the faculty. They really take the time to get to know the students and work with them on an individual basis. The students are pretty hard working and serious for the most part--but different. Not your mainstream bunch of kids.</p>
<p>The food is terrible. The housing lottery is a pain. The administration (although nice folks individually) can be tough to work with. The paperwork makes the school sound much more unfriendly and inflexible than the people really are. Both my daughters found that they needed to contact folks (in admissions and fin. aid) directly and talk to a real person at several steps in the process. It always turned out fine, but if they had just accepted the form letters at face value they would have much worse off. </p>
<p>You should visit campus. Folks can usually tell if it's what they are looking for from a visit. The summer explore-a-college program is a good option as well for getting a feel for it. It's the campus culture that really tends to draw folks to Earlham. If it clicks, students fall in love with Earlham. That's what I hear over and over from Earlham students. They visited, fell in love with it and knew that it was the right place for them.</p>
<p>I am leaving for my visit in just a few hours. I can't wait to find out what Earlham is really like beyond the glossy viewbooks!</p>
<p>I second everything that Obesmom said. (And if I'm not mistaken, our kids have become friends, right?) Awful food, overcrowded dorms, not enough shuttles to and from the airport (thank goodness for friends with cars), and a surprising "stiffness" to the administration that seems out of place in this amazingly warm and tolerant community. The students are an idiosyncratic lot, and it's a wonderful school for the kid who marches to his or her own beat. (My younger son just returned from a visit, had a great time, but decided it was "too liberal" for him! And he is pretty quirky himself!)
I've had the pleasure of meeting and emailing my son's advisor and several professors over this past year and have been blown away by their dedication to teaching and connecting with their students. My son has probably spent as much time meeting one-on-one with his teachers as he has in class -- that's how available they are.
I agree with Obesmom that the students work very hard. I think this is a great school for a kid who is not Ivy-bound but nevertheless takes academics very seriously and has an intellectual bent.</p>
<p>Ok so I just found this college confidential site and I'm amazed at how helpful it is, especially since contact w/ a current student from Earlham is nearly impossible for a prospie. Anyways, I've been considering Earlham for a while now, and it's come down between there and Beloit (WI). However the significant difference is I will be about $30,000 in debt after graduating from Earlham. Now if I really like the college do you think it's worth it, even though Beloit is so similar? How easy is it to receive additional financial aid after my first year? Any other comments on Beloit vs. Earlham would also be helpful! Thanks.</p>
<p>Collegebound: To help you make a comparison between Beloit and Earlham, you might want to contact another parent, Carolyn, who posts regularly on CC. Her daughter was set on Earlham for a long time but has decided to attend Beloit, I believe. Also, contact with Earlham students is easy. There is an active livejournal site for Earlham students. Go to <a href="http://www.livejournal.com%5B/url%5D">www.livejournal.com</a> and search for "earlham" under "interests." The site is called "Earlhamites." Last year my son posted several questions there and lots of students responded. Earlham students are very friendly and welcoming to prospies! Good luck with your decision-making. Both are wonderful schools.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Likes2draw has some good suggestions. Carolyn should be able to help as she is very familiar with both schools. I've never visited Beloit so really can't compare the two. Good luck. It sounds like a tough choice.</p>
<p>Likes2draw, I do think our kiddos have become friends. cool.</p>
<p>I'm actually off to Earlham this morning. The first step in moving my daughter out. How did she get so much stuff!?</p>
<p>My daughter is interested in visiting Earlham. I have a good friend who grew up 50 miles away from the school, and she raves about how UGLY the town and the surrounding countryside is. Can anyone provide a contrary opinion?</p>
<p>Collegebound --</p>
<p>Interesting that you have it down to Beloit and Earlham. I graduated from Beloit and my younger brother graduated from Earlham. Further, my room mate's sister while I was at Beloit went to Earlham. I currently reside within an hour of Earlham and get down there periodically.</p>
<p>Beloit and Earlham tend to attract similar students. However, both schools have their unique strengths. Anthropology, geology and creative writing/English are probably stronger at Beloit, while Earlham probably has a slightly stronger reputation in chemistry, biology, and history. </p>
<p>In my opinion, at either Beloit or Earlham you will likely get an excellent education with professors dedicated to teaching, first and foremost. Earlham tends to attract a core of students who are dedicated to Quaker ideals. The closest thing Beloit has is the core of students dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, role playing, japanese animation, etc (the BSFFA contingents).</p>
<p>The question of whether Earlham is worth $30K more over 4 years than Beloit comes down to your personal preference and happiness. If you go the Beloit to save the cash, but then you hate every minute being there, then it obviously was not worth it. But the only way you can make that assessment, in my opinion, is to visit both places before you decide.</p>
<p>dg5052 -- regarding the ugliness of Richmond and the surrounding areas -- I can confirm that Richmond is not postcard pretty and the surrounding area is farmland -- corn and soybeans. While these years will not be looked upon as the golden age of Richmond, it is no different than many other smaller rust-belt communities who are looking for new industry to replace the plants that supplied the big three automobile makers with parts. There are prettier places in this world, but there are also uglier places as well. But the campus is very pretty.</p>
<p>Ditto on what icemaker says about Richmond. It's not beautiful, but its not horrible.</p>
<p>I think very few Earlham students chose Earlham because they fell in love with Richmond.</p>
<p>We live in a rural town of 12,000 with fairly high levels of poverty, yet with significant numbers of well educated professionals associated with a public university, government offices, and regional medical facilities, a profile not too different from Richmond. We felt quite comfortable with Richmond.</p>
<p>When we dropped our daughter off at Earlham we spent 5 days in the vicinity, staying at a bed and breakfast.</p>
<p>For us, getting to know many local residents, participating in their bicentennial activities, exploring the downtown, the local park system, favorite local restaurants, all helped to give us a fuller picture of Richmond. And for us, at least, the town is fun and welcoming. They have a dynamic mayor in Sally Hutton, are completing a new hospital, and are very excited about some new employers moving to the region.</p>
<p>As for the corn fields, try a late summer evening drive through the rolling countryside north of the interstate and you may come across Amish farmers in steel wheeled tractors or kids out in their horse drawn buggies. We explored places like the Cope Environmental Center and the Whitewater Gorge. I think if families could play tourist they would recognize more of Richmond's charms.</p>
<p>Remember that the wonderful Earlham staff and faculty make Richmond their home. Ask them for their impressions, too.</p>