<p>So I looked at the fall 2009 catalog online and it doesn't seem like there are a lot of classes. Are there different classes for spring or do they offer similar ones? Most departments only seem to offer 2 or 3 100-level classes... Does it seem like everyone is taking the same classes? If you're a current student, do you feel limited?</p>
<p>Oberlin has a HUGE curriculum, much bigger than most liberal arts colleges. There is a fantastic array of courses from which to choose, and most students I know have a terrible problem making up their minds about what to take. You only take 4 (or sometimes 5) classes at a time, from several hundred possibilities. How could you possibly feel limited?</p>
<p>Limited? No, not at all. Every semester, there are dozens of classes that I wish I could take, and I wish there was time to fit in more. I have no idea what departments interest you, but there’s of course a great deal of variation across different disciplines. For instance, Anthropology is a much smaller department than History, and so has fewer course offerings at all levels. The sciences tend to only have one particular introductory survey sequence. You’re also not limited to taking exclusively 100 level classes–and of course, the classes that are offered each semester differ dramatically.</p>
<p>Well, I’m interested in cognitive science and there really isn’t any in that category, but it says it’s a concentration? Compared to NU, there seems to be less classes related to that area… This is the only thing deterring me from being an Obie!! lol</p>
<p>There are fundamental differences between liberal arts colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Generally liberal arts colleges offer a more intimate environment and smaller classes.
Generally universities offer a larger, potentially more diverse student body (for better or worse, as you individually perceive it), and a wider course selection.</p>
<p>I think your safest guess is to assume that each of these schools will be relatively representative of their respective type.</p>
<p>Oberlin is large for a liberal arts college, but it is still a liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Whatever you see on the Registrar’s list of courses for the last few semesters is what
they actually offered. There is no secret other list that they give to actually matriculated students that has double this number of courses. These were the courses offered.</p>
<p>And you can look at Northwestern’s list of courses, on their website.</p>
<p>If it looks like there are fewer classes to choose from, one should most appropriately assume that this is not an optical illusion. That is part of the generic tradeoff, for these institution types.</p>
<p>At a liberal arts college you will more frequently run into the situation where a course you want is only given every other semester, or every other year. Or there is only one section of it offered, which could potentially conflict with something else you want to take. Or that some subspecialty of your area that you get interested in is not highly represented on staff. The tradeoff is, when you do take these classes, they will more likely be small classes taught by a Professor with no TAs, and no grad students competing (and generally winning) for Prof’s attention. </p>
<p>And of course, there will still be more you want to take each semester than what you can fit in. But maybe your schedule would look a bit different if certain courses were available when you needed them to be available. and maybe you’d have fewer of such compromises at a large university. Though in a very different environment.</p>
<p>That should be part of the LAC vs. university analysis, always.</p>
<p>Specifically regarding cognitive sciences, though, maybe you should try to talk with someone in the department, or the head of the “concentration” thingy, about courses.</p>
<p>But I suggest don’t rely just on the course catalogs. Often they include courses that aren’t always offered. Look at the Registrar’s websites for the courses offered in the past couple semesters. They are on-line, I believe.</p>
<p>[Oberlin</a> College Class Schedules](<a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/regist/schedule.html]Oberlin”>http://www.oberlin.edu/regist/schedule.html)</p>
<p>look at the offerings over a couple of years to get an idea of how it would work for you.
In a small major, with few faculty, you may indeed have to be careful to note all the requirements and prerequisites, because some courses are taught only every other year or only in a sequence that begins in Fall (this is true, for example, for languages and Classics). It is a good idea to list all the requirements, plan out a possible 4 year sequence, and check the requirements off as you go. That is especially important for double degree students. Although there are helpful advisors at Oberlin, they won’t necessarily do this for you. You don’t want to find out the hard way that you needed a prerequisite that isn’t taught that year, especially if you plan to do a senior thesis.
Monydad is right about larger colleges having more offerings, but the same thing can happen there too. If you plan carefully, you will probably find that there are always more courses each semester that you’d like to take than that you have room for.</p>
<p>Cognitive Sciences is a concentration at Oberlin; it is not a major, and there are no courses offered in a concentration in the same way that there are in a department. Nonetheless, I count 19 courses offered next year at Oberlin that count toward the CS concentration (and there may be more, added since the catalog was published). Here they are:
[Program:</a> Cognitive Sciences Concentration - Oberlin College - acalog ACMS™](<a href=“Program: Cognitive Sciences Concentration - Oberlin College - Modern Campus Catalog™”>Program: Cognitive Sciences Concentration - Oberlin College - Modern Campus Catalog™)</p>
<p>In all fairness, my reaction upon seeing Oberlin’s online curriculum offerings was the same as livemylife. The curriculum seemed rather sparse. Admittedly, that was after my D gave serious consideration to enrolling at Penn State’s main campus with it’s 160 majors and more courses than you can count. But Mamenyu and Dave72 are correct. It’s a tradeoff and you have to put it in proper perspective. One is a massive university, the other a small liberal arts college. You have a fraction of the courses at Oberlin but you also have a fraction of the students competing for those courses: 2,800 vs. 40,000. I’ve heard horror stories about kids at big U’s not getting into the most desirable courses because the Honors College kids and the soon-to-be-pro athletes always get first dibs.</p>
<p>Little to add here, but although I’m majoring in a relatively small program (classics/archaeology), there’s nowhere near enough room in my schedule for all the courses I want to take. The offerings may seem limited when you’re browsing the catalog online, but when you try to narrow it down to four per semester, it looks a lot different…</p>