<p>Hi there!</p>
<p>I'm now facing a very difficult choice and since I cannot visit any of the three, the choice is becoming more and more difficult. I would be very grateful if any of you can post some suggestions for me(especially some inside information from current student or alumni or parents).</p>
<p>Here is what I am hoping to find in the school:
small classes, easy access to professors, and better advising for my future path; encouraging atmosphere and curriculum for double majors or taking various classes(not so intense core requirement, I dont have a clear interest right now, but currently interested in fine arts, econ, premed and pre-business); </p>
<p>great reputation among top graduate schools and recruiters(I will go to graduate school but it's also possible for me to find a job first after graduation); </p>
<p>easy access to big cities(I grow up in a big lively city but since I have never lived in a small village I am not really sure about the "rural" life);</p>
<p>I am also not sure how a "preppy" or "hippie" or "liberal" or "conservative" environment may influence a college experience.</p>
<p>For UVa, I'm not sure about the class size and access to professors, and also the too many students, I once attended a school with about 20,000 and got lost in the crowd. But the school has really a great reputation. </p>
<p>Any suggestion is welcomed! Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I actually applied to both Oberlin and Uva. I was admitted to both. In the long run, I chose to attend the University of Virginia. I was flown into Oberlin College on a weekend recruitment program for top minority applicants. This helped me decide that Oberlin was clearly not the place for me. I suppose I could share a little about the reasons why.
First and foremost, the Oberlin Campus was not stunning. It wasn’t even nice. It was basically a collaboration of buildings with little to no premier architectural design. For me, that was a huge let down. On the other hand, UVa was simply breath-taking.
Second, the students tried way too hard to be out of the box. I mean, I understand that people want to be different, but there is a fine line between idiocy and wanting to be different. This was the main reason why I chose not to attend Oberlin. Now on the other hand, Uva students are a good mix of classy, preppy, and outgoing. I am sure that those type of people are at Oberlin, but not in widespread amounts.
Third, Oberlin is expensive and not very generous with merit or need based aid. When I saw the horrible financial aid package they through at me, they were almost immediately scratched off of my list. Uva is not the most generous school when it comes to aid, but it’s a state school so you should be able to mange.
Feel free to ask me any more questions if you have them.</p>
<p>Oberlin has a reputation for not being especially diverse politically, in that it is obviously considered very liberal, with a range of viewpoints that is relatively narrow. If political opinion and thought are important to you, and they are not, then consider whether each one meets your requirements for openness to alternate viewpoints. For example, how was the run-up to the 2008 election?</p>
<p>Oberlin only wins because its student body is very liberal, haha. But seriously, UVA hands down.</p>
<p>Oops, I wish I could edit my post. I didn’t mean to say “and they are not” in my post above. I have no idea whether the original poster is politically active.</p>
<p>To tetrisfan,
Do you mean that you would go for Tufts among the three?</p>
<p>To fiftyplus,
I don’t really care about politics as long as the campus environment is welcoming to an international student.</p>
<p>Anyone have more comments on these three schools?</p>
<p>Oberlin factually wins on small classes, and subjectively on access to professors. Charlottesville is not a big city, but it’s bigger than Oberlin, OH; Tufts wins on city. All have great postgrad reputations. IIRC, Tufts’s curricular requirements are more stringent than the other two’s. Echoing other posters, Oberlin is politically diverse within the LIBERAL spectrum–keep that in mind.</p>
<p>In response to jlb2820, whose post doesn’t make much sense: look for photos of Oberlin’s campus, as I visited in-person and loved the eclectic architecture (I was forewarned, too). Womb chairs on the second floor of Mudd Library are awesome. UVA’s campus, however, is gorgeous. As a distinctive LAC, Oberlin’s student body has a certain vibe–you will either be comfortable or uncomfortable–and I did get the same vibe through online research before visiting confirmed it. UVA is more diverse in “type,” being a much larger public university, although definitely a preponderance of preppy.</p>
<p>Oberlin meets full need and can be generous with merit aid; UVA is really expensive OOS (40k/year) and does not offer much need-based aid to OOSers unless you win one of the merit full rides. Tufts is entirely need-based aid. I don’t know how any of this applies to international students, though.</p>