<p>Here's 5 fun facts about Oberlin:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Oberlin students can rent original works of art from the renowned Oberlin Art Museum for $5 per semester. Students have works by Picasso, Warhol and other well known artists hanging in their dorm rooms. </p></li>
<li><p>More Oberlin graduates (by percentage) go on to earn Ph.Ds than any other liberal arts college.</p></li>
<li><p>Oberlin was the first U.S. college to admit students without regard to race, the first to award a B.A. to women, and the first to graduate an African American woman. </p></li>
<li><p>Oberlin is the oldest continuously operating coed college.</p></li>
<li><p>John Heisman (for whom the Heisman trophy is named), started his coaching career as Oberlin's first football coach. He was undefeated in his first season.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Actually… more Oberlin graduates go on to earn PhDs than any other liberal arts college by absolute numbers (we are slightly larger than most of our peer schools). If you go by percentages, we’re still in the top 5 or so, but we’re not number one. </p>
<p>Also, we were the first coeducational school, but have the oldest continuously operating conservatory of music.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification, Elizabeth. The data on the number of Ph.Ds can be parsed many ways, and will vary from year to year. When my daughter was deciding what college to attend two years ago, we heard the statistic, and it was based on the 10 most recent years of data. Out of curiousity, I decided to test it myself and went to the government website where the data is compiled
[nsf.gov</a> - NCSES Survey of Earned Doctorates - US National Science Foundation (NSF)](<a href=“http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctorates/]nsf.gov”>Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) 2021 | NSF - National Science Foundation)
Oberlin did have more Ph.Ds (by percentage) than any other liberal arts college. It also had more than any Ivy except Harvard (where the difference was just a few tenths of a percent). My recollection was that Cal Tech had everyone beat, by a long shot. </p>
<p>Overall, I don’t think this ranks at the top of the list of reasons to select a college, and year to year differences are not very meaningful. On the other hand, it is an indication of the caliber of Oberlin students and the seriousness with which they take their studies.</p>
<p>The rankings you’ll see will also depend on what data you’re looking at-- I think the NSF only gathers info on PhDs in science and engineering, which comes out a bit differently than the data for all PhDs.</p>
<p>The website does compile information on science and engineering degrees but also compiles information on all research doctorates, including those in the arts, humanities, social sciences etc. (but excluding degrees like M.D., D.D.S. and J.D.). A direct link to the database is
<a href=“https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/[/url]”>https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/</a>
I found the site a bit difficult to navigate (but then again, I don’t have a doctorate!)</p>