Earlham College

Date: Dec 04 2002
Major: Math (This Major's Salary over time)
Earlham was presented to me as a liberal, engaging, creative communtiy with Quaker values. That was a lie. Earlham may have been like that at some point in the past (I have heard so many stories about the good old days when they were on trimesters), but Earlham is no longer interested in that spirit of creativity and learning. They are attempting to become a more normal college where athletics is all-important and lazy , academically unengaged students will feel at home.

The Housing situation is terrible, especially for sophomores. It divides students into the have-nice-rooms and the have-nots. I was a have-not; I spent my four years at Earlham living in various study rooms never meant to be occupied. I never had a closet.

Earlham still continues to draw bright, talented, creative people because of the way it is advertised. There was some liberal closed-mindedness, and I can't say I got along with everyone, but my friends and classmates at Earlham were the best part of being there, and the main reason I didn't leave my first year.

The faculty are not what I expected of them. They are pretty good, not great. They are talented, helpful, and uninterested in going beyond what what is required of them, and the students start to pick up this same mindset.

The administration is what dragged Earlham down from what it used to be to what it is today. If you must go to Earlham, stay far, far away from the administration. Their usual practice is to do as much as they can in secret, denying that there is anything going on, then spring things on you with no notice, and break up any resistance to their commands. I have been lied to by everyone from the president of the college, the Academic Dean, The Registrar, the Dean of Students, to Security. They don't even follow their own rules. They continued to count the semesters I had to take medical withdrawals when calculating my progress towards a degree even after I pointed out to them that their own rules didn't let them do so. When the football players living next door to me harrassed me to the point I was scared to leave my room, they wouldn't do more than warn them not to do it again, and refused to let me move when it continued. I was finally expelled when the Registrar refused to let one of my professors turn in my grade for the class, and continued to count the medical withdrawals in their accounting of the credits I should have had. Now I can't even get them to send my transcript anywhere, and they continue to bill bogus charges to my account.