<p>Dascomb Hall, which was a freshman experience dorm this year, is close to the Con. Is it always a frosh dorm?</p>
<p>Thoughts on FYE housing vs. traditional dorms?</p>
<p>Fiddlecanoe - Dascomb is always freshmen but they might be closing it
Raelah - FYE - will be louder and lots of things going on, more social because everyone knows each other, very easy to meet people since everyone’s new. (I did this)
Traditional - often the halls are quieter, you might have to search out friends more, but it’s probably not difficult
It’s sort of the difference between knowing all of your neighbors and having to interact with them all the time and then knowing some people on you floor and being able to choose more when you see them. I think you can have a good experience with both choices and really personality doesn’t matter too much because the make-up of dorms changes every year and there are usually enough different types of people that you can find similarly-minded people either way. I might encourage first-year experience just for the experience though and you can have the next few years to do traditional. I just would urge you to break out of the FYE bubble at times if that is your choice.</p>
<p>One thing to remember is that the traditional dorms freshmen are assigned to often have lots of other freshmen in them - you’ll meet people either way. The culture of first-year dorms really depends on the people. One side of the third floor of Dascomb has a totally different “vibe” than the other side. Sometimes people in first-year dorms form a friend group within their dorm/hall and stick with that group for the rest of the year; sometimes not.</p>
<p>do you need your transcripts to get into the conservatory?
?</p>
<p>@hopefulobie: yes you do need your high school transcipt(s) for the conservatory. however, you don’t need a counselor’s recommendation.</p>
<p>Can you give us (daughter and mom) some suggestions as to how to pick the freshman seminar and another class? D just got the Big Book of Forms which is both exciting and a bit overwhelming.</p>
<p>thanks,</p>
<p>Pick the seminars that seem the most interesting - there are many wonderful choices each year; you probably can’t go wrong. As to the other course, select one (e.g., in the prospective major) where the enrollment is likely to be more difficult later on for a first-year student with low priority for enrollment (you have an advantage in this first round).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How are you supposed to know that.</p>
<p>You can check out the maximum class sizes here:</p>
<p>[Fall</a> 2010 Schedule of Classes](<a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/dotAsset/1867547.html]Fall”>http://new.oberlin.edu/dotAsset/1867547.html)</p>
<p>Look at the rightmost column, that says “LIM”. That gives you the class size limit for each section of every class.</p>
<p>As a general rule, the bigger classes, i.e. large intro science classes, are less likely to fill up.</p>
<p>Does the conservatory follow the same final examination schedule as the college? My D is starting a double degree next year. It will take her at least a whole day of plane flights/layovers to get home and I noticed that the last day of finals is Dec 22 (the schedule says that day is for make up exams). Would it be safe to make her reservations back home on that day? or should I play it safe and make it for the 23rd? I would like her home for Christmas.</p>
<p>@karioki, it’s very unlikely that your daughter will have an exam on the 22nd, but no one can say for sure until she knows what classes she will be taking. It’s possible that she will be able to leave several days earlier: some students only have one or two final exams in a given semester. But until she knows her classes for sure, it’s impossible to know her exam schedule.</p>
<p>Return dates are really hard to predict. I had to change my Ds flights home on both Thanksgiving and the end of first semester. One of the drawbacks of going to college so far away I guess…</p>
<p>yes, the conservatory follows the same exam schedule (except for juries).</p>
<p>Thank you all for your help. D’s connecting flights seemed to be filling up so I decided to not wait and made the reservations for the 22nd. I’ll cross my fingers that I won’t have to change it later.</p>
<p>When is parents and families weekend this fall? Tx</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>just wondering if anyone can give me some answers to basic financial/payment options. we recieved a letter from Oberlin about a payment plan but no information about the actual cost to our family in the letter—meaning, no inclusion of merit aid/financial aid (which did come in the initial acceptanc package)–and yet a form to fill out to consider spreading the payments over 10 months. we have not recieved any information as to how to tell Oberlin that D will want to take out a loan—how does all this get organized?</p>
<p>thanks for any clarification!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We received the same thing exactly one year ago and ignored it. Monthly payments was not an attractive plan at the time. It’s starting to look better to me this year. </p>
<p>In a few weeks, you will receive an actual bill. If memory serves you will have until some late date in July to pay it (assuming you do not go the monthly payment route). The amount billed will be (or should be) minus your financial aid (merit and need-based). For your bill to be correct, before they send it to you, someone has to go online and actually accept the financial aid award, which should include the option to accept or reject any subsidized and/or unsubsidized loans. </p>
<p>I don’t know if you’re the parent or the student, but if you’ve already received a financial aid package, you should be able to access student financial aid information online at the Oberlin College website. I think you have to sign in to Presto, which you should be ble to do by now. Check the Big Book of Forms for information and links. </p>
<p>Once you reach the Financial Aid page for your child’s award, there should be multiple tabs. ONe of them says “Accept Award.” You will need to go to that page and make some decisions.</p>
<p>Elizabeth/quaere/Dave72, did I leave anything out? I’m going on 12 month memory here and I’m old. My D has to do the same thing soon. Her Award is now online but she hasn’t accepted it yet. She’ll be a sophomore, but I don’t recall that the online setup was any different.</p>
<p>In short, what you received was a multi-payment plan option nothing more. I also thought it was weird to receive such an option with the first payment due before the college sends the bill. But don’t be reluctant to call the Financial Aid Office with your questions. I called a lot last year. The staff in the various offices at Oberlin are incredibly friendly and helpful. It’s one of thing we all loved about Oberlin—the nice small town Midwestern people. A sharp contrast to the impatient and blunt folks we spoke with at Amherst. But that’s another story. :)</p>
<p>Thank you Plainsman. I will have to check if my D did anything online about accepting a package/aid/merit…I did try to call earlier today but could not find a number that connected me directly with the Financial Aid office; but I will try again tomorrow. I will also ask D to check in the Big Book to see if there is anything specified there. I certainly don’t want her to inadvertently NOT accept aid :)</p>
<p>My son just graduated from Oberlin. We used the payment plan all 4 years he was there. Payments started on June 1 and continued for the next 10 months each year. That meant that we had to make a payment before the costs had been announced and we had the final financial aid package for the year. </p>
<p>Here is what we did. We would take the cost of everything from last year and increase it by 5%. From that, we subtracted his scholarship, his grant and what we anticipated we would take out in loans. Take the remainder and divide it by 10 and pay the figure. Later in the summer we would have all the hard numbers and then you have the opportunity to adjust your monthly payments with Tuition Management Systems, either increasing or decreasing as needed. You will get a monthly statement that will tell you how much you owe for the semester. The statement will NOT reflect the fact that you are paying through TMS, but don’t panic. By November, you should be all square. If you are a little short at the end of the semester you can write them a check. If you have overpaid, you can carry over the surplus to the next semester and adjust your TMS payments accordingly. </p>
<p>There is no way son could have attended Oberlin without TMS.</p>