Anonymous wrote:About 900 students in a boring area.

Life is too short to spend 4 of the most precious years of one's life in isolation.

On the other hand, if your kid is a real outsider, then maybe this is a chance to fit in.

It's a choice.

Agree.

Life is too short, but if your kid doesn't feel comfortable in most typical situations, then this may be a chance to fit in (somewhat like Wheaton College in Massachusetts although not as isolated).

Anonymous wrote:Earlham prepares students for graduate and professional school only. If you have other plans, go around this school. Culture is DEI, feminine, and anti-capitalist. If you plan a business career don't go here. Earlham has terrible name recognition outside businesses of religion and education. Earlham also lacks a professionally staffed career planning office.
Richmond Indiana is not a tourist destination to put it mildly. Only for monkish students.

Feminine or feminist ? Big difference as they are polar opposites.

Anonymous wrote:Earlham prepares students for graduate and professional school only. If you have other plans, go around this school. Culture is DEI, feminine, and anti-capitalist. If you plan a business career don't go here. Earlham has terrible name recognition outside businesses of religion and education. Earlham also lacks a professionally staffed career planning office.
Richmond Indiana is not a tourist destination to put it mildly. Only for monkish students.

hahaha

This is so funny, one of my good friends went there and is definitively not "DEI, feminine, and anti-capitalist" but had a great time at Earlham and did get a PhD--in medieval studies. (Monkish!) I think for those kinds of students it is a perfectly fine place to go.

Earlham prepares students for graduate and professional school only. If you have other plans, go around this school. Culture is DEI, feminine, and anti-capitalist. If you plan a business career don't go here. Earlham has terrible name recognition outside businesses of religion and education. Earlham also lacks a professionally staffed career planning office.
Richmond Indiana is not a tourist destination to put it mildly. Only for monkish students.

About 900 students in a boring area.

Life is too short to spend 4 of the most precious years of one's life in isolation.

On the other hand, if your kid is a real outsider, then maybe this is a chance to fit in.

It's a choice.

I went to Earlham, 30ish years ago. I have not been back but have classmates whose kids went there recently. I think they have made a lot of changes to rein in the financial challenges, which did not have the support of the previous, and very popular, college president (sounded like it had to do with cutting faculty positions). I lost interest in Earlham when he left partially because of his departure and also because I realized my own kids would never be happy there (they don't like to read and write, lol).

But from what I know, recent students and grads are happy with the current administration and the school. You can still expect to find the positives you mentioned. The only thing I am not sure about is current enrollment. Is it like 700? I feel almost certain when I attended it was more like 1100. That's a big drop.

I have not been back to Richmond since shortly after graduation, but unless it has changed it is isolated and economically depressed, and the relationship between students and town isn't great. I'm a white woman who dressed a little masc/goth when I went to Earlham and I remember being uncomfortable when I was in town alone. Nothing happened except occasionally receiving snide comments, though. I would guess that this is true at other small schools in small towns.

I think it's definitely worth looking at it and visiting. Ideally your child would get a chance to talk to other students about what it's like to live there. The education has always been top notch. It was an Earlham connection that helped me get my first real job, and it was that job that got me into a top grad program. My friends from that time have done well, too.

Also, crummy weather? Do you mean snow? Maybe it just wasn't that different from KY, but I wouldn't categorize it that way. Some of my best memories are from snow days. Also, about half the dorms did not have a/c when I went there, which made them hot at the beginning and end of year, but I don't remember the cold weather ever being an issue. The campus is really small...super easy to go from one building to the next even if they do get a big snow.

My colleague went there. She is very bright (eventually got a PhD), and the philosophy clearly impacted her approach (say to running a meeting), decades later . She wanted my DD to consider it (they had strength in her area of interest), but my DD was not open to Indiana.

We haven’t looked at it because my kid wants a bigger school, but I know it is well regarded by my kid’s Friends school. The school often sends kids to Earlham, and by all accounts it is a really good educational experience.

It keeps getting recommended for my kid, and she is intrigued. I know about the financial concerns and enrollment challenges (though I also observe that Forbes gave them an A grade for financial health and they have a decent endowment). I understand that the location is crummy, and that Indiana is a deep red state, which has implications for any potential student. I know about the crummy weather. I definitely know that many DCUMers would never consider this school.

Still, the overall ethos (Quaker, egalitarian, quiet commitment to justice, strong-but-non competitive liberal arts education, etc.) resonates pretty deeply for my kid. So I would still love to hear from anyone who has actual experience with the place. Have you visited? If so, what did you observe? And if your child actually attends/attended, can you share how the financial issues/location actually played out, and/or what their overall experience was?