Spend any length of time around the business community in the Indianapolis area, and you’re bound to bump into high-profile
graduates of DePauw University and Wabash College, two of the state’s four premier liberal arts institutions.
DePauw boasts of Cummins chief Tim Solso, Indiana Economic Development Corp. CEO Mitch Roob and entrepreneur David Becker.
Wabash points to Lilly Endowment President Clay Robbins, City-County Council President Ryan Vaughn and Dr. Don Shelbourne,
a leading knee replacement specialist.
But what about two other colleges arguably as good—Earlham College
and Taylor University? Academically, Earlham, DePauw, Taylor and Wabash stand in a league of their own in this state.
However, can you name a well-known Earlham or Taylor graduate here? If not, don’t feel bad. The schools struggle,
too.
An Earlham spokesman fingered one—State Rep. Greg Porter. A Taylor spokesman mentioned Beulah Coughenour,
the longtime City-County Council member who watched over public works until retiring in 2004.
How do you interpret
this? Are Earlham and Taylor grads overlooked for top jobs? Are their students more likely to go to graduate schools elsewhere
or otherwise leave the state? Something else?
Which of the four is the best school?
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Welcome to the archives for NewsTalk, an IBJ blog published from November 2007 through December 2010.
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Laura-the festivals and tastings are free. What does is strengthen the sense of community with activities. What are those empty lots doing for the Village? it's sad you can't see the good that this progress can do for the area. No one is requiring anyone to shop there. I guess you'd rather see a Dollar store move in or no, we'd rather see the property stand empty b/c change is out of the question.
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Read down to the part about Brizzi. Someone needs to subpoena his "purchases" of Red RockPictures and Cellstar and his corresponding bank records, I mean c'mon, I'd like to see his alcohol usage records, too. http://diana-vice.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
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Wonder if my neighborhood can advertise our "retention" pond and act like it is a beach too?
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a new record at the '11 salebration until they realized that it was a futile effort to get their crapwagon moter and crapwagon car up speed. And then they just quietly slunk off into the night and never spoke of it again. Nothing to see here folks.
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millions for putting a company's bumper sticker on one of its Lolas. But you gotta take what you can get.
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The question should rightly be, which is the best school for a particular student given that students needs, wants, personality and financial circumstances.
As for using how well known a schools graduates are as a way to determine which is the best school think about using well known as an indicator of quality this way, John Dillinger was the best known Hoosier of his day, and one of the better known Hoosiers of today, Dillinger dropped out of school in the 7th grade. In a more positive light, the best known and the most successful basketball coach ever, John Wooden, when ask by the New York Times, â??How does it feel to be the best basketball coach to ever coach the game,â?? responded â??I donâ??t know, Toney Hinkle is the best coach to ever coach the game.â?? Wooden is much better known than Hinkle, however both men are to be admired and respected for their contributions.
Each of these four schools should be admired and respected for their contributions.
Anyone with a whit of history knows that DePauw is the Alma Mater of a former Vice President of the United States. They might also remember that the august Faculty of that institution first denied an honorary doctorate to that individiual when he was coming to deliver the commencement address. I asked a faculty member how they could deny an HONORARY to that fella. The response? I remember him. To paraphrase someone who had it correct, judge a man by the content of his character.
But to say that Indiana has only four "premier liberal arts institutions" without Hanover College being among them is surely an oversight.
According to the US News & World report I just looked up, Notre Dame, Valparaiso, and Saint Mary's were all higher rated Indiana liberal arts universities than at least one of the four schools you mention. What makes only these four central Indiana universities eligible to be in your self anointed "league of their own"? Was it your intention to insult every other Indiana liberal arts university by calling them second rate, or could you just not remember the names of any other colleges in Indiana that are more than 75 miles from Indianapolis?
Wow......
A cursory look at our database shows nearly 300 Earlham College alums who self-report living and working in the Indianapolis area. A determination of â??prominenceâ?? is a very subjective thing. Earlham graduates are on the payroll at Family Services of Central Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art, WISH-TV and WTHR-TV, Marion County Public Defenderâ??s Office, Methodist Hospital and Wishard Health Services, the Childrenâ??s Museum, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, City National Bank, Indiana Tax Court, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and Eli Lilly, just to name a few organizations in your area.
Earlham graduates are doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, labor leaders, social workers, bankers, judges, nurses, mothers, fathers, librarians, historians, journalistsâ?¦. Iâ??m not sure how one can rank that list. They are all contributing to our world. And they are contributing all over the world.
For the record, Earlham students arrive in Richmond from around the globe. Our current student body is made up of nearly 1,200 students from 46 states and more than 70 foreign countries. While we are proud of the 20% of our student body that comes from Indiana, the assumption that a significant numbers of those students will stay in the state after graduation â?? let alone migrate to Indy â?? seems, at best, unrealistic.
Earlham strives to live up to its mission of providing the highest quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts, including the sciences, shaped by the distinctive perspectives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) as it has since 1847. We are proud to be one of the 31 schools that make up the Independent Colleges of Indiana and one of 40 American Colleges That Change Lives.
Gail Clark
Senior Director of Alumni Relations
Earlham College
Go Quakers!
One in ten Earlham grads go on to get a PhD. Not an inconsequential number and much higher than the other schools mentioned. Earlham is a very good school and one we as Hoosiers can and should be proud of.
Calling the school whacky because you disagree with the perceived political climate of intuition is childish and immature. Earlhamâ??s success in producing well educated students who go on to archive success in graduate school is proof of its educational worth.
As I said above the best school is the school that best meets the needs of the individual student.
Earlham, like their Quaker benefactors, have forgotten the difference between right and wrong. Anything is ok as long as you give peace a chance. And don't tell me otherwise, I used to be a Quaker. Until Christ led me to the truth.
Blech......
Ultimately, the writer seems to bring his own bias into this article in a strong way that doesn't lead to much objectivity. While there may not be a way to truly say which school is "best" something like the US News rankings, etc. would be a much more objective way of doing it.
Don't know for sure about Taylor....
You flatter yourself while failing to address the issue at hand. Your sophistry would not be acceptable in a first year seminar at any of the four colleges under discussion.
Ugh......
You are still not discussing the quality of the four schools, which is the issue the article raised.
All four of these schools are private intuitions of higher education, if you want to complain about President Bush the Younger and the public education system, you should do so at an appropriate web site and not this one.
You are off subject.
The ability to keep oneself, and the others involved in the discussion on subject, is one of the most important skills a student develops in a seminar based education system. It is this seminar based education, as opposed to the large lecture hall system derived from the 18th & 19th century German model, which is the hallmark and strength of the small liberal arts college education.
Stay on subject.
Get it?
Now I am off subject, so Iâ??ll stop my participation in this discussion. I am ending my participation because it is clearly foolish of me to try to carry on a discussion with a fool.
Truly sad........