<p>Got it from the Carleton website. It's a pdf and can be opened easily. I'm very impressed by an LAC that would produce something like this about its incoming class:</p>
<p>Not only is it informative for incoming students, I think it's great advertising to prospects and their families.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if Oberlin has anything similar?</p>
<p>AFAIK we don’t do anything that polished, but there’s something similar here: [Oberlin</a> Blogs | Blog Entry: “The tide has turned”](<a href=“http://blogs.oberlin.edu/applying/selection_process/the_tide_has_tu.shtml]Oberlin”>http://blogs.oberlin.edu/applying/selection_process/the_tide_has_tu.shtml)</p>
<p>Thank you, quaere. The Oberlin blog was good information. It could be much better. The big difference is the Carleton information breaks down the actual INCOMING class, i.e. students who have accepted the offer of admission and are on the way. The Oberlin blog is about the ADMITTED class. A good chunk of those students will wind up enrolling in other colleges (by now, they’ve already done so). Also, it would be nice to see stats broken down by race/ethnicity, geography (love that U.S. map in the Carleton brochure), and the 10 individual profiles with student photos was a very nice touch. </p>
<p>Hopefully, the Oberlin administration is open to learning from other schools and adopting some “best practices” from the competition.</p>
<p>Here’s another one (for Vassar), where they describe the actual incoming class not the admitted class:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vassar-college/986547-class-2014-statistics.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vassar-college/986547-class-2014-statistics.html</a></p>
<p>In the past, Oberlin Institutional Research pages broke down historical freshman entrance stats, which I presumed to be for who actually showed up. Someone should correct me if that is not what this data shows. You might check there, for past years anyway.</p>
<p>The Common Data Set pages I’ve seen state that they are for enrolling students, so you might check those submittals as well. I’ve never looked at Oberlin’s though.</p>
<p>It seems to me most of the colleges my kids have looked at are providing similar information, maybe without pie charts, so to me the lack of information seems more remarkable than having it. Here’s Cornell’s, the only thing not available yet is stats breakdown by college:<a href=“http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000001.pdf[/url]”>http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000001.pdf</a></p>
<p>Personally I don’t find individual profiles very interesting or useful.</p>
<p>In the words of Syms clothing," An educated consumer is our best customer".
The best possible data helps form part of the basis for the best possible education, in this regard.</p>
<p>Sadly, looking at that data reinforces what we already knew, Oberlin is in most repects a perfect match for my son. But the first college decision he made, after visiting D1 there a few years ago, was that he doesn’t want to go that far away for college. Plus, though we will not qualify need-based aid by the various formulas, $$ is nevertheless a consideration now as well.
“knock, knock knocking on geneseo’s door…”</p>
<p>Oberlin does not make its Institutional Research page particularly easy to find. I tracked it down at [Institutional</a> Research](<a href=“http://oberlin.edu/instres/irhome/]Institutional”>http://oberlin.edu/instres/irhome/)</p>
<p>It still has 2009 results marked as under construction, and it will probably be a while before the 2010 numbers are published. Still, you can get some statistics there about the class that actually enrolled.</p>
<p>BassDad, thanks for the info. I’ve never seen that data. I wonder why Oberlin can’t seem to get their current numbers together as quickly as say Vassar or Carleton, which does an amazing job. I guess the “data gatherers” at Oberlin, whoever they are, take a laid back approach to their jobs. I wish I could do that in my job, with a Fortune 30 corporation. If Carleton can do it, why can’t Oberlin?</p>
<p>Some other observations from the data: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Oberlin SAT scores have increased significantly since 1980. Is the SAT easier now? Are more students taking prep courses? Are more high-scoring students applying to Oberlin?</p></li>
<li><p>Arts and Sciences students score higher than Conservatory students. That’s not surprising, but the difference has become significant in the last two years (2008-9), jumping up to 60 - 70 points each on both verbal and math categories. What accounts for this jump?</p></li>
<li><p>Oberlin does not have a biracial/multiracial category. “Other” seems to be where they put the handful of people who do not identify a race. Why don’t colleges have a “biracial/multiracial” category? Without such a category, they will simply take a student who checks off two (or more) racial boxes and slot them in one of the minority boxes. A student with a white biological parent and a black biological parent will never be counted as white. They’ll be counted as black only and I feel that’s wrong. Here’s what Penn State University does with this situation (2009 and earlier): On their online app (they didn’t use the Common App in 2009 and earlier) they ask the student for his/her “primary” racial identification; then they ask if the student has a “secondary” racial identification. I don’t know how/if they actually weigh primary vs. secondary in the admissions process, if at all, but it at least it permits the student to decide which race they identify with more (primary) but not totally exclude their “other half.” A biracial student who is half-white and half-Chinese might identify primarily as white; the same for a student who is half-Chinese and half-black. Maybe their primary identification is Chinese. Or maybe their primary identification is white even though one of their biological parents is black. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Anyway, I hope Oberlin studies what other schools are doing and considers adopting some things that might work for them. If you don’t study the competition, you risk getting stale and maybe falling behind. That’s certainly the way the business world works.</p>
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<p>The data show that SAT scores in the College have been pretty stable over the last seven or eight years, while they have declined somewhat in the Conservatory over the past four years. Note that the conservatory made a definite decision several years back to gradually reduce the number of students by 5% to 10%. Now that they have completed a large new addition to the conservatory building, they may reconsider that decision. At the same time, the number of applications has trended upward with 2010 bringing a record number (about 1400). While that might lead you to think that test scores should increase, consider that a short audition constitutes 80% or more of the admissions decision in the Conservatory. It could be that the musical standards for acceptance have risen to the point that there is less time for Conservatory applicants to worry about things like standardized tests because they have to put more time into practice and audition preparation.</p>
<p>“Oberlin does not make its Institutional Research page particularly easy to find.”</p>
<p>IIRC the detailed Institutional Research pages were no easier or harder to find than their counterparts at most other colleges where I looked. And the information seemed quite adequate for my purposes, at the time I was looking, and by comparison with other colleges’ Institutional Research pages at that time. I thought it was better than some others I was looking up. actually.</p>
<p>What you guys are saying is missing is the single “Classs of 2014 profile” page that most other colleges Ive looked at have a link to on their “Admissions” page. That’s a somewhat different matter. They should certainly have that, if they don’t.</p>
<p>One difficulty though is that there may be enrollment changes through the summer that would not be captured if you post prematurely. Even on that Cornell link, if you notice, there are some wiggle room comments acknowledging this:
" Freshmen depositing to enroll based on July data; this figure may differ from official 6th week enrollment figures".</p>
<p>So Oberlin might be waiting to post the profile till they have the “real” final numbers, taking account any summer “bleed” and waitlist usage. I don’t have a problem with that.
It’s not a race.</p>
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<p>Fair enough…for the class of 2014. So where is the profile of the actual Class of 2013? I never saw one on the website.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t know, I haven’t been looking; no likely candidates from this household. When we were looking though, a few years earlier, I managed to find whatever i was looking for, without it being any notable problem. But I don’t recall where, or when.</p>
<p>Oberlin has completely revamped their website since then. Some things are easier to find than they used to be, some are harder. In my opinion, the Common Data Set falls in the latter category, particularly for those who do not think to look under “Institutional Research” in the A-Z index. </p>
<p>I have never come across what Plainsman seems to be looking for either before or after the redesign.</p>
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<p>Sometimes I get the feeling that deep down, somewhere in the water system at Oberlin is a drug or potion that makes the administration think like the laid back hippies the college is always accused of being by a lot of posters on CC. I’ve often argued with those people that it just ain’t so. That Oberlin is forward thinking, mainstream, and understands competition. Now, I’m not so sure they were wrong. :)</p>
<p>I think the president of Oberlin should hire me to give the administration a corporate makeover. Get to a point where the school at least demonstrates an awareness that competition for top students is fierce. Maybe halt the college’s annual slide down the Top LAC list. Pretty soon our beloved Oberlin will be tied with Ursinus. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but I love the college. I don’t think a more perfect match could’ve been found for my daughter, all things considered including distance from home. I just get this feeling that some things are slipping at Oberlin.</p>
<p>“college’s annual slide …” ??? do you have historical data, 2000- 2010? I know I don’t.
when D2 was considering transferring it was #22, and now it’s 23. Big whoop. They could change some little factor next time and it could easily change three places. And all the while, nothing at the colleges changed at all.</p>
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<p>Oberlin was #20 in 2009. That’s called a trend…in the wrong direction. I know its just USNWR, but so many people follow their rankings, I just wonder.</p>
<p>Those are not enough data points to consitute a trend.
Show 15 years, that would be a trend.</p>
<p>But recognize that at some point along the way they decided the service academies and harvey mudd were “liberal arts colleges”, there’s several places right there.</p>
<p>Historical rankings starting 1997 (accuracy not guaranteed):
24, ?,25,?,22,?,24,23 or 25,22,22,20,20,22,23 .
No “annual slide”, no 'trend". Just little waves up and down, while they change their little formulas.</p>
<p>Oberlin produces a class profile similar to those mentioned above, and has had one for years. It’s designed for high school guidance counselors and is printed and distributed to guidance counselors each year. We just don’t have it on our website. Somehow, despite this omission, we have still managed to increase our application numbers, enrollment percentages, and the quality of the incoming class.</p>
<p>Also, Plainsman, the ethnicity information you were looking at was on the Common Data Set, which is a standardized statistical form provided to all colleges–Oberlin does not have control over which categories are listed on that form. FYI, Oberlin has internally moved to using the new federal standards for reporting race/ethnicity, which include a way to record students identifying with more than one category.</p>
<p>Distributing to guidance counselors may have seemed adequate in 1980.</p>
<p>Suggest that, in the modern era, prospective students and their helpers/parents are internet-savvy and are routinely finding, and processing, that information themselves, at most schools of interest,with or without guidance counselor assistance. I imagine most, maybe even all, peer institutions have a profile available as a readily-identifiable link on their admissions page. Plainsman pointed this out, and I agree with him, I certainly usually can find a page like that at the schools I’m looking at. This can be readily verified, of course.</p>