College Spotlight
Earlham College
Richmond, Indiana

By Christina Wright
College Counselor
Collegewise — Irvine, CA

I am obsessed with writing. If I've written an especially good email, I'll save it, just to relish in my writing chops whenever I feel like it. I receive daily vocabulary words in my inbox from dictionary.com—if you hear me mumbling alone in my office, I'm probably trying to memorize a word like "carapace" or "odium." So I am sure that I would have loved attending Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Before any class discussion can occur, students must respond in writing to what they've just read. And they do so with reckless abandon, unfettered by the prospect that a classmate may disagree with their opinion.

In fact, Earlham relishes diversity—of ideas, of race, of culture. While an undergraduate at Columbia University, my favorite admissions officer was an Earlham graduate. We had lively discussions about jazz while I was enrolled in a Duke Ellington class taught by a famous jazz critic. This admissions officer reminded me to never merely accept what I was taught. Instead of blindly adhering to my professor's beliefs that Ellington's traditional style was the only way, I began appreciating the inventiveness and modernity of Myles Davis. Now that it is my job to be an expert on colleges, I fully understand how Earlham shaped him into the kind of thinker that he is.

I wouldn't pursue Earlham if you want an "Animal House" styled college experience. This is a school where late-night talks replace frat house antics and "extra-curriculars" are never really extra. Earlham students take the Literature of the Industrial Age course during the day and attend a lecture about the impact of that time period's art movement at night. Later they contemplate what they've learned that day with their professor around the fireplace in the coffee shop. And they address their professors by first names—this is not a place for archaic formalities. I'd love to learn in this environment, making life-long friends with both my dorm-mates and teachers.

This community of ideas is epitomized by the Opinion Board hanging in the student union. The Board is the pulse of the school's thriving ongoing debate. I wouldn't post a complaint about the lumpiness of the cafeteria's mashed potatoes here, though. The Opinion Board is taken seriously, with disparate ideas about international politics or campus issues coexisting happily for anyone to ponder. If I attended Earlham, I would plaster that Opinion Board with my thoughts—and not merely to see my writing publicized.

As I sat at my computer crafting this College Spotlight, I realized that I needed some personalized flavor to fully capture the essence of Earlham. It is the beginning of application reading season at Columbia and I was sure that my admissions buddy would be swamped with work. I sent him an email, asking for a quick glimpse into the Earlham experience. What I received was a lengthy account of a remarkable college journey at a place where the student truly grows, strengthening one's own beliefs and acquiring a few new ideas along the way. In fact, he started a radical civil rights group with a mission statement that was opposed by many. The college president wanted to meet with him, but not as a punishment—he was invited to join a long range college planning committee. I was awestruck. I am planning to send this admissions officer an extensive thank-you for his insight. I'm going to take time to ensure that it is my best writing. And I'll probably save both his and my emails.

Christina is a 2003 graduate of Columbia University.  She and the other members of the Collegewise staff love colleges, like Earlham, where your professors know your perspective on Industrial Age art as well as how you like your coffee.