I am a prospective applicant for this fall and I have some questions regarding Oberlin.
What’s Oberlin like? (vibe/people)
Greatest thing about Oberlin:
Worst thing about Oberlin:
Specifically: What’s the English department like?
What is the classical music scene like for non-majors? I play the cello.
Thanks!
Also interested in what the music scene is like for non-majors. Does it foster opportunities, or is it inhibiting for the kids who aren’t conservatory-level?
Many many many perspectives on student life at Oberlin can be read at blogs.oberlin.edu
Emily W. in particular has written about several of your questions as well:
Worst thing about Oberlin: http://blogs.oberlin.edu/about/ethos/the_culture_of.shtml
What is the classical music scene like for non-majors? http://blogs.oberlin.edu/about/ethos/three_college_s.shtml (McKinley also wrote about this and she’s a cellist too! http://blogs.oberlin.edu/community/music_theater_arts/so_i_heard_you.shtml) In general, here’s all the posts about music, theater, and the arts: http://blogs.oberlin.edu/community/music_theater_arts/index.shtml
Alice (http://blogs.oberlin.edu/Alice.shtml) was an English major and Professor David Walker (http://blogs.oberlin.edu/David.shtml) is an English professor.
I am a former student, and I can tell you that are a tremendous number of things to do outside of class at Oberlin, as Emily W. points out. This creates the angst she points out because you want to go to these concerts, or attend these lectures, or do community work, or participate in Exco, but you also have a large amount of classwork to do. And, if you are an athlete (as I was),you have to fit that in with everything else as well. There are parties and social life too. You read student reviews of many other liberal arts colleges, where the students complain that there is nothing to do after class or on weekends, except drink or do drugs. That is not the case at Oberlin. The conservatory alone has 400-500 concerts a year. I found that being able to balance my activities in college was a great preparation for life after college.
What’s Oberlin like? (vibe/people)/Worst thing about Oberlin: The vibe is friendly but also hostile? Most people on campus are well-intentioned, liberal, smart, care about social justice, and want to change the world. However, there are lots of different ideas on how to do that and sometimes when those ideas clash (usually between privileged and oppressed groups) instead of discussing the issues everyone just gets mad at each other and nothing gets done. For example, the Christina Hoff Sommers talk this past spring (google it if you don’t know anything about it, there are tons of articles).
Greatest thing about Oberlin: Resources and opportunities. Just surrounded by smart people doing cool thing all the time can be exhausting like Emily/Ma’ayan said, but it’s also exhilarating and you’ll grow a ton as a person. Also Oberlin always seems to be giving out money to students to do stuff (internships, winter term, clubs, etc)
Specifically: What’s the English department like? No clue sorry.
What is the classical music scene like for non-majors? I stopped attempting to do anything related to music after the forced piano lessons in elementary school, but I’ve heard good things. I believe the con practice rooms are open to college students and you can always join the college orchestra. The con is a huge selling point for the college and a lot of students come here with musical backgrounds so you definitely won’t be alone.