Earlham College

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Major: Neuroscience – On the pre-medical track
Minor: Public Health
Student Self Identifies as: Biracial: Asian-American and Latinx Straight Female

Summary

I’m a student-athlete. I’m part of the Minority Association of Pre-health Students (MAPS), I’m part of a scholarship program called Bonner, I do a lot of work at a local hospital, I’m part of Earlham’s internal review board, and I’m a research assistant for a psychology lab.

Background

Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Biracial: Asian-American and Latinx
Sexual Orientation: Straight

High School Experience: Private high school in New York, New York with a graduating class of about 200 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: Yes
Major: Neuroscience – On the pre-medical track
Minor: Public Health

Extracurricular Activities: I’m a student-athlete. I’m part of the Minority Association of Pre-health Students (MAPS), I’m part of a scholarship program called Bonner, I do a lot of work at a local hospital, I’m part of Earlham’s internal review board, and I’m a research assistant for a psychology lab.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience? In what ways?
They all have. I do a lot of stuff and part of that is motivated by being a pre-med. I do think all of them are pretty big aspects of why I like being at Earlham. In terms of my scholarship program, you enter your freshman year with a cohort of fifteen people, and those fifteen other people have to go through the same sort of struggle that you do to handle school, their extracurricular activities, and doing the 10 hours of service per week. We have a pretty tight-knit community there. It’s helped me make a lot of friends. Through my work at the hospital, I really solidified that pre-health is what I want to do. A lot of the other things have been resume builders, but there is also a way for me to get my hands dirty into something I didn’t think I’d be able to do. Being part of the internal review board allowed me to be part of ethnical discussions other undergraduates wouldn’t be able to participate in.

Academic Experience

Can you describe the weekly coursework for your major?
It varies from class to class, but for the most part, your grade comes from exams and labs. There are problem sets and labs at least once a week. As a pre-med student, you have to take a pretty heavy course load. I average around 17 credits per semester, and the maximum is 18.
Is there anything you feel that your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
In Neuroscience and pre-med, because Earlham is a very small and Quaker school, we go by a first-name basis with all the professors. We’re really close to a lot of our professors so it’s easy to get a letter of recommendation. If they have a research opportunity they’ll just ask if you want it, and you can take it. They make opportunities readily available to you. They’re also pretty receptive to questions. I don’t think I’ve had a bad professor in the Neuroscience department at all.
How would you describe the learning environment? Is it particularly competitive or collaborative?
I’d call it collaborative. In pre-med at Earlham, there may be one or two people who are really competitive about it, but for the most part, the highest and lowest-achieving students are friends, hang out, and do school work together. We all realize everyone wants to end up at a different place, so it doesn’t necessarily matter if one person is doing better than another because we all have different goals. Also, the professors make the learning environment pretty welcoming. You can ask questions and the professors really want to sit down and explain it to you.
How accessible are your professors?
Very accessible. I feel so comfortable going to a professor at any time for anything, even if it’s not class-related. Sometimes my friends and I will wander the halls looking for a professor we like and go and hang out with them.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I originally wanted to come in and [major in] psychology because I always enjoyed it, but I also knew I wanted to do pre-med. The overlap between psychology and pre-med was going to be really difficult. Neuroscience was going to encompass pre-med and psychology in the ways I wanted it to, so it was the perfect major for me. Neuroscience is also one of the majors at Earlham that, because it’s interdisciplinary, you get the best professors out of the Biology, Biochemistry, and Psychology departments.
How was managing both your sport and coursework?
I don’t want to say it’s easy, but it’s definitely manageable. There are a lot of student-athletes at Earlham that want to put their athletics before being a student, which is not the point of Division III athletics. It’s manageable if you take the time to make sure academics are your priority.

Reasons to Attend

1) If you can get a really good financial aid package and intend on going to graduate school, Earlham is the school for you. We have a really good graduate school placement rate. We set students up to be academics. There is a lot of research that goes on in the classroom. [Earlham is ranked 36th among 1,592 institutions of higher learning in the U.S. in the percentage of graduates who go on to receive PhDs.]
2) If you’re into the idea of engaging the community that you’re going to be in, it’s really easy to do community service in Richmond.
3) If you’re really into getting involved in things, it’s really easy at Earlham. If you’re someone who wants a strong resume by the end of your senior year and wants really solid letters of recommendation.

Reasons Not to Attend

1) Being a small school that nobody knows about is a negative in my opinion. A lot of people at Earlham like to think we’re a fancy and renowned school when we’re really not. For the amount of work we do, it is a good school. But, if nobody knows how much work you put in to get the grades you have, people may just see it as going to an easy school.
2) As easy as it is to get those opportunities for your resume, half the battle is your work. If somebody isn’t willing to put in the work you shouldn’t come.
3) If you don’t like the idea of not being in a city.

Around Campus

Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Olvey-Andis hall with one roommate
Sophomore: Mills Hall with one roommate
Junior: Warren Hall with one roommate
What was your favorite living situation?
This year or last year because this year I basically have a single because my roommate isn’t there very much. The downside to living in this room is, even though I have a ton more room than I used to, I don’t have a private bathroom whereas in the suite I had a private bathroom.
How was transitioning from your hometown to Richmond, Indiana?
It was pretty rough. I’m from New York City and have lived in a city all my life. I went to high school in the city, so I was used to urban life. When I came to Richmond I thought it wouldn’t be too crazy, but I didn’t have a car and I wasn’t used to the food. It was harder for me than a lot of other people who go to Earlham since a lot of them are from the Midwest and not big cities. I don’t think it’s crazy difficult, but the hardest thing to deal with was the fact that I didn’t have a mode of transportation to go wherever I wanted.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
I’d say it’s pretty safe. I’m from New York City and I know what it is to go out at night and feel pretty unsafe. I’ve walked around Earlham’s campus at 4 AM and have felt completely safe.

Social Opportunities

What kind of nightlife or weekend activities do you like to participate in?
I’m probably hanging out with my friends. I don’t like going out, especially this time of year because it’s so cold. I do go out and there are parties at the theme houses we have on campus, but I don’t really think they’re all that amazing. It’s fun, but it’s more fun to just have a party with your friends.
What are your favorite events or activities at Earlham?
The school puts on events, but sometimes they’re not that great. Sometimes the timing is really off for the events like they’ll have some super fun event during the week when we typically all have exams, so nobody goes. There are other events where a ton of people go but maybe the DJ isn’t that good or something like that. I feel like a lot of people don’t really go to the school-hosted events for the event itself, they’re going so they can transition to the after-party which will be at one of the houses.
What nights of the week do you regularly do things? Are there regular places you go or things you do on certain nights?
Probably Friday and Saturday. If we were going out to just eat and hang out, that could happen any day of the week depending on what my friends’ schedules look like.
How happy are you with the weekend activities or nightlife at Earlham? Is there anything you would change if you could?
I think it’s hard because we don’t have any sort of big enough space for people who like to go to parties, so a lot of times the parties are far too crowded. The houses that would be big enough to throw parties like that don’t. If there was housing for students to do that type of thing, that would improve things drastically.

Campus Culture

How did you meet your closest friends?
I met a lot of them through [my sport]. When I first got to Earlham as a freshman I had to go through my Bonner orientation which is also how I met a lot of my close friends. I was also immediately thrown into playing my sport. Also, my pre-med cohort is all pretty close with each other because we’ve been taking the same classes from freshman year and on.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Earlham?
Earlham is one of those places where everyone finds their people. It’s a pretty diverse campus. I don’t think there is any singular type of personality that comes to Earlham. A bunch of different types of people come, you show up, then you find people you like and make friends with them.
To what extent do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
It’s certainly not the picture of diversity where everybody is friends with people who are completely different from them. There are a lot of people who want to hang out with people of their own race, but there are other people who hang out with all different types of people. It’s the same with sexual orientations. [The undergraduate population is 7% Black, 49% White, 3% Asian, and 8% Hispanic.]
How do you like the size of Earlham in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has it impacted your experience? [Earlham has about 1,000 undergraduates.]
I really love it. I’ve been in small schools pretty much my whole life. The idea of knowing everybody and having the professors know you on a personal level has always been really appealing to me.
How would you describe the student body?
Earlham attracts people who are really into the idea of being a big fish in a small pond. There are a lot of people who genuinely are there to be change-makers in the future. They have big plans for what they want to do, and they’re there to go and get it. I think Earlham also attracts some people who just wanted to go to a college and they don’t really know what they want to do, and that’s okay too. It’s a pretty even mix of people who know what they want to do and people who really don’t know what they want to do.
How strong is the Quaker presence on campus?
It’s really not that strong in terms of the school forcing you to do anything related. I think it’s much easier to see the main sects of religion on campus. There are a lot of Muslim people, there are a lot of people that follow Buddhism, but they’re not as advertised as the Jewish and Christian groups, which comes down to population. I think there are just more of those people on campus. Because Quakerism is a sort of philosophy as well as a religion, reflection is important in the Quaker religion, so writing reflections are prevalent in the classroom.
Do people generally seem happy with Earlham by senior year? Do people leave loving Earlham?
I think the people who didn’t want to be there by their senior year probably already left. We don’t have a very good retention rate, so we have a pretty big drop after freshman year off of people who figure out this isn’t what they wanted. I’d say less than a fifth of the people in the graduating class really didn’t want to be at Earlham. [The freshman to sophomore retention rate is 80%.]

Careers

Has the alumni network helped you find internships or jobs?
For sure. Earlham has so many opportunities for pre-health students. I think if someone doesn’t find a summer internship or something to that effect, it’s a little bit on the student. They have so many opportunities where you just apply through Earlham and then they will give you the position.
What have you used the career office for? How helpful have they been?
Pre-health students have a specific individual who helps with all of their advising and career stuff. The person who the pre-health students have is amazing. She does everything from helping you research what school you want to go to for graduate school to helping you with resumes and cover letters or applying to summer stuff. She’ll read all of your essays. She even reads people’s essays for class.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, accommodating was the office to your needs?
Bonner helped cover my financial aid. The agreement the scholarship program has with Earlham and the other schools is that someone part of the Bonner program will have all of the financial aid up to their family’s financial contribution limit.