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Old 05-30-2013, 10:18 PM
 
Location: The New England part of Ohio
23,891 posts, read 32,193,454 times
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Does anyone know anything about these colleges, preferably from personal experience?

My daughter is an excellent student. She is mostly looking at colleges in Ohio, New York and Indiana.
We live in OH.
She grew up in NY until 8th grade when we relocated.

Which school desires a diverse student body? Are any of these colleges less than welcome to students who are from the East Coast? Conversely, do any of them actively recruit students who add diversity, or in the case of Valpo, students who are Lutheran. Is that a plus or minus for her?

Also, she was adopted from Asia, On the East Coast, Asian students are not sought after because there are so many strong Asian applicants.

Is this also true of Indiana?

Thank you for your help!
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Old 05-31-2013, 03:27 AM
 
Location: San Diego
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IU Bloomington has a very diverse student population, and while I have no insider knowledge of their acceptance criteria other than grades and SAT scores, I am confident that a good student with good SAT scores would have little to no problem getting accepted to IU regardless of ethnicity or religion.
IU is a great school with much to recommend it, but it is very different from Valparaiso and Earlham, much bigger, fairly liberal, no religious affiliation, and a rep as a party school.
If you haven't already done the campus tours yet, I would also suggest looking into Purdue if it fits your daughters academic interest. My cousin chose Purdue over IU in part because she found the size of IU to be a little intimidating and liked the relative intimacy of Purdue.

Last edited by JoodleBug; 05-31-2013 at 03:30 AM.. Reason: Clarity
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Old 05-31-2013, 03:37 AM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,015,322 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12 View Post
Does anyone know anything about these colleges, preferably from personal experience?

My daughter is an excellent student. She is mostly looking at colleges in Ohio, New York and Indiana.
We live in OH.
She grew up in NY until 8th grade when we relocated.

Which school desires a diverse student body? Are any of these colleges less than welcome to students who are from the East Coast? Conversely, do any of them actively recruit students who add diversity, or in the case of Valpo, students who are Lutheran. Is that a plus or minus for her?

Also, she was adopted from Asia, On the East Coast, Asian students are not sought after because there are so many strong Asian applicants.

Is this also true of Indiana?

Thank you for your help!
My son in law got his PhD in Mathematics at Bloomington and they absolutely loved the town as well. Plus she will be living where John Mellencamp does.
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Old 05-31-2013, 04:28 AM
 
Location: Turn Left at Greenland
17,763 posts, read 39,612,632 times
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Earlham is a very small liberal arts college is a small town. And as you know, is run by the Quakers. It's a nice place. I have friends who graduated from there who are part of the Friends Church. She loved going there, but said that the folks in the town of Richmond were sometimes hostile toward them.

Valpo. Used to teach as the law school. Loved it there. When I taught there, it wasn't very walker friendly, but from what I understand they are making it feel much more like a residential and walkable campus. I found it odd when I taught there that students actually drove from class to class. They have a relatively new campus library that is top notch. It's also close enough to Chicago where your daughter can get into the city for some fun. I never felt and overarching Lutheran Church feel. It was a great place to work.

IU is a large residential public university and easily the most diverse of the three schools. I went there for grad school and loved every single second of it. But I went there as a 22 year old. There's plenty of activities, clubs and other opportunities to be part of something.
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Old 05-31-2013, 07:40 AM
 
Location: Bloomington IN
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I know a lot about IU-Bloomington. I have lived in B-ton/Monroe County for the past decade, am an IU grad, a parent of a recent grad and of a current student. My best advice is to apply early. The app is typically available in early August.

An east coast student will not feel out of place here. If memory serves me correctly, the third largest out-of-state student group comes from the east coast. (IL and OH are first and second). A student that is Asian would not really be considered as adding to the diversity of IU, and IU does not take race into account with admissions. Spring 2013 enrollment figures show a student body composed of 3.9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 4.0 percent African American and 4.0 percent Asian American. There are at least 2500 international students from Asian countries.

I also have to call out this "My cousin chose Purdue over IU in part because she found the size of IU to be a little intimidating and liked the relative intimacy of Purdue." Do you mean the number of students? Student population is similar in size. Do you mean the amount of land the university owns? IU may own more land, but student classrooms are concentrated in an area I suspect is similar in size to Purdue classroom space.

As for the party reputation-yep, it exists. Does a student have to party to have friends and fit in? Absolutely not. Because of the size of the undergrad student population, kids can find other kids like them.

Yes, IU is known as being the more liberal campus compared to Purdue. I suspect, based upon some young people I know that went to Earlham, that Earlham is more liberal. Earlham is very small and adheres to Quaker values. Quakers don't generally shove their beliefs down people's throats. They just live their values.
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Old 05-31-2013, 08:29 AM
 
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I agree that attending IU is a great choice. To piggy-back off the answers above, if she ever wanted to relocate mid-study there any many IU campuses throughout Indiana that might make her closer to home.
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Old 05-31-2013, 10:47 PM
 
797 posts, read 2,329,209 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rrah View Post
I also have to call out this "My cousin chose Purdue over IU in part because she found the size of IU to be a little intimidating and liked the relative intimacy of Purdue."
Yeah, I was just about to say something about this as well. Both of the main campuses for IU and Purdue are roughly around 40,000 students strong and from what I've seen of Purdue I wouldn't call it an 'intimate' environment.

IU is fairly large and diverse. There are lots of groups and different types of students that one could associate with. I've heard of a number of east coast kids coming to IU and have seen many Asians. I don't think your daughter's ethnicity would be a problem at all. Bloomington is also a great place to be and the most scenic area of the three colleges you mention.

My wife lived in Richmond for a short time not far from Earlham. We walked the campus a few times and it seemed fairly nice, but is very small and I wouldn't think it could possibly have the diversity of an IU. Richmond itself is shady and run down in a lot of areas. Not all of it, mind you, but there really isn't much in the area that would interest a college student unless they are really into antiquing or are super excited to delve into the Indiana High School Football Hall of Fame. I think the location of a college and the opportunities around it are important in helping a young person develop in addition to the university itself. Valpo would at least have the Indiana Dunes Lakeshore nearby for outdoor activities and exploration, or Chicago not far away for urban cultural experiences and day trips. Bloomington also has a lot of stuff that goes on in town due to the University, Indy is only an hour away, and there are a lot of great things to see and do in the scenic areas of southern Indiana in the counties around Bloomington.

What is your daughter planning to study? That is also an important part of the decision. Earlham may has some good programs and, while it may not be my first recommendation of the three for an overall 'growing up' experience, it might be the best fit based on what she wants to do. Or maybe another university altogether might fit. As long as you're going to be paying that out of state tuition, I might as well give a shout out to my old alma mater, Butler University. They've made some nice developments since I left.
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Old 05-31-2013, 11:46 PM
 
Location: Edmonds, WA
8,975 posts, read 10,130,705 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12 View Post
Does anyone know anything about these colleges, preferably from personal experience?

My daughter is an excellent student. She is mostly looking at colleges in Ohio, New York and Indiana.
We live in OH.
She grew up in NY until 8th grade when we relocated.

Which school desires a diverse student body? Are any of these colleges less than welcome to students who are from the East Coast? Conversely, do any of them actively recruit students who add diversity, or in the case of Valpo, students who are Lutheran. Is that a plus or minus for her?

Also, she was adopted from Asia, On the East Coast, Asian students are not sought after because there are so many strong Asian applicants.

Is this also true of Indiana?

Thank you for your help!
Well I grew up in Valpo and while I went to Purdue, I had many friends who went to VU and I spent a good amount of time there. I can say with some confidence that she'll be very much welcomed there - there are plenty of out-of-state students and about 10% are international students and 17% of the student population is minority. As far as whether they "actively recruit" based on that, I don't know.

That being said, VU literally has 1/10 the student population of IU so it will not be the same "college experience" so to speak. But as others have said Valpo is close to Chicago which is a big plus, and Valpo is a good-sized city by Indiana standards.

About
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Old 06-01-2013, 07:22 PM
 
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My daughter grew up in Bloomington, but she wanted to go to a small school. We looked at Grinnell, Earlham, Denison, and Kenyon. All are really good schools, but they each felt different to her. She was accepted to all, but Denison offered the biggest scholarship and she had a great experience there.

After things get narrowed down a bit, I suggest visiting to let her get a feel for the place.
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Old 06-03-2013, 06:03 PM
 
3,513 posts, read 5,131,814 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12 View Post
Does anyone know anything about these colleges, preferably from personal experience?

My daughter is an excellent student. She is mostly looking at colleges in Ohio, New York and Indiana.
We live in OH.
She grew up in NY until 8th grade when we relocated.

Which school desires a diverse student body? Are any of these colleges less than welcome to students who are from the East Coast? Conversely, do any of them actively recruit students who add diversity, or in the case of Valpo, students who are Lutheran. Is that a plus or minus for her?

Also, she was adopted from Asia, On the East Coast, Asian students are not sought after because there are so many strong Asian applicants.

Is this also true of Indiana?

Thank you for your help!
What's her major? Or her main interests?

Each of those colleges has a very distinct personality. Earlham would probably be better for a more creative and introverted student, Valpo for a more conservative and introverted student, and IU for a more extroverted student. It would be easier to slip through the cracks at IU than Earlham (which is more of a traditional LAC experience) or Valpo (which is more of a small Christian U experience), but IU affords more opportunity.


Also, from this list of schools, I'm guessing she's looking at Miami University in Ohio as well. If that's the case, feel free to ask me anything about it! I'm a current student there, and I promise to be honest (even if it's harsh). Best of luck!
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