Hi everybody!
I am accepted to both schools this year, and have nearly full need. What schools should I consider? About amount of Ph.D, , expectations to attend grad school, amount research I can conducts? About off campus activities.
Anyone helps me, please!
My DS attends Wabash and a very good friend’s D attends Earlham. They have very different personalities. At both places, there are a lot of activities through the school because they are in small towns. Wabash has great sports facilities, and is a very masculine environment. There are many strange traditions. My own DS is not a jock, is going to med school and feels blessed by the close relationships with his professors. They have a great Career Center, plenty of paid research and internships in the summer and an extremely active alumni.
Earlham leans more toward graduate school than professional schools. Wabash has an active and diverse fraternity system, while Earlham has no Greek system but “houses” such as language, social justice, etc.
At both schools, I would check out the career centers, the research opportunities. For Wabash in particular, you will need to decide if you want to go to an all-male school. It has many benefits, but is not for everyone.
I am interested in Biological science. What schools I should chose?
I can oly speak for Wabash right now on that subject. If it is a PhD in biology, you will have plenty of opportunities at Wabash. They do immersion programs and have multiple students that do research on local flora and fauna. If health is more your thing, Wabash runs a Global Health project that takes students to Peru to work with a medical school to do health screenings and a long-term study. My own DS thinks the bio department doesn’t cover what he is interested in (human biology) to fit his taste, but there are plenty of research opportunities, most of them paid in the summer, and the opportunity sometimes to do the research as part of work-study or for credit. The chemistry department is stellar and the psychology department is very neuro-based, with research opportunities there as well.
I suggest you look at the faculty at both schools, see what they are working on, what they have published.
My D is an Earlham graduate, sorry, I know very little about Wabash.
Earlham is one of the top schools in the country for PhD production (percentage of students who go on to grad school). One of the great things about an LAC is that undergrads get to be research assistants to the profs, since there are few if any grad students. At Earlham, students work side by side with their profs on their research, and you can expect to develop close relationships with them regardless of your major . One thing Earlham is very strong on, if you’re interested, is study abroad, usually in connection with a research trip. Bio is one of their strong programs, and I know that one of the profs is doing NIH-grant work on the malaria genome. My D was in the humanities, so I’m not terribly familiar with what else is going on, but you can check it out: http://www.earlham.edu/biology/
MizzBee is right that Richmond IN is a very small town, but there is constant activity on campus, including weekends. The campus is very liberal, highly inclusive, and is run on the Quaker values of respect, integrity, service and consensus. There is no Greek life, as MizzBee also noted. Sports aren’t big, except women’s soccer, but arts are huge (music, dance, theater, visual arts).
If possible, I’d suggest you visit both schools, because they sound very different in terms of atmosphere.
Very different schools. Go where you feel most comfortable. You’ll be fine wherever you decide.
I don’t think either is better than the other. Just different cultures. Pick the one you like best.
Thank you very much. I imagine a little bit of each environment of each school. I am an international students and visting them may be hard for me. By the way, any one enjoying real Biology from Wabash and Earlham? I want to collect more information before making final decision. What I am concerning is research expectation, career and outcome after the school. Especially, I want to know more Wabash student studying Biology at this school. I am so fascinated by the way the Wabash Admission Committee has treated me to go there.
Can you request to speak to biology majors and to international students? Both schools have a lot of PhD candidates so you can’t go wrong there. Earlham and Wabash send a lot of people to grad schools.
If you contact Admissions (at either school), they might be willing to put you in touch with current students who could answer your questions. You could also try emailing a professor or two in the department; I know at Earlham, and I’d bet at Wabash, profs are quite willing to talk to prospective students.
I have a brother studying bio at earlham. He has gotten fully funded international research internships the past two summers, studying different bio topics (one with a prof and one thru a funded earlham program). He is pre med and doing very well. Let me know if u have questions he could answer! I also know there are many international students and it has a social justice-y vibe