My daughter would definitely have her $100,000. I just don’t anticipate paying above that for a kid who isn’t very into school, and has the Promise available to her. I’m not at all suggesting that we’d use her money for something else.
Also, I’m not exactly saying I couldn’t afford the extra money for Oberlin. We have a good amount saved for retirement, but obviously could have more if we didn’t spend the extra $100,000 over 4 years. It’s just a matter deciding if that expense can be justified.
Thanks for the recommendation of the hometown post.
Thank you. I did look that up after your original post.
I might ask oberlin if it’s possible to increase their aid a bit to narrow the difference. You won’t get it to the same level obviously, but they might up it a bit so it’s not such a big difference. I’m a big Oberlin fan and it does sound like a perfect fit for your son.
I’m an Oberlin alum from the nineties - (transferred after 2 years at Syracuse) and my youngest kid also was just admitted - although we too are trying to figure out the money piece…
I’m curious about the “aren’t overly satisfied” comment since most alumni I know are always preaching the gospel of Oberlin.
Hard to know if Oberlin is worth the extra for your particular kid, but for me it was about the culture of the school as much as the academics. I worked intimately with professors on research, took private lessons from the head of the string department, and had life changing experiences just being in the social environment. It was VASTLY different from my experience at Syracuse (which was basically fine, by the way). But feel free to ask any specific questions and I’ll see if I can help.
So, there’s a book called The Alumni factor that polls alumni about their colleges, including asking about intellectual development, lifelong friendships, household income, preparation for success, job opportunities, etc, and Kalamazoo ranks 29th overall (and in the top 20 on many individual factors), and Oberlin ranks 93rd overall. This book was recommended in another book I listened to, either The Price You a Pay for College or Who Gets in and Why, as more useful tool than something like US News and World Report. Amazon has the book and ebook if you have an interest.
How often is The Alumni Factor updated? How many years of alumni are surveyed (i.e. last 10 years, last 50 years, etc)? This sounds like a really interesting premise and I’d be interested in hearing more about it.
Is it related to the Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Survey from which Forbes extracted some data a couple years ago? The Top 25 Universities According To Alumni Ratings (forbes.com)
I think it’s a great idea but I also suspect, if you add or subtract a few of the survey questions from one year to the next, you could sell a few books.
ETA: “The Alumni Factor” doesn’t have a huge internet footprint. Almost everything about it relates back to its initial launch in 2012:
the alumni factor News & Press Releases | PR Newswire
Not saying that’s a reason not to take alumni surveys seriously. But, 10 years does seem like a long time ago.
How many colleges are ranked ? #20 or #93 are both very high.
You want film and a English. Can you get there from Kalamazoo ? Gonna be harder than Oberlin but the price tag to me would cause pause on the price difference from two low paying and hard to break into fields.
One thing about books and rankings and all that. They are great inputs but every year we read about how miserable kids are and want to transfer.
Their issue was…they don’t know what the right school for them was. They never bothered to find out. Rather they simply applied for top X ranking and grabbed the one that was on the top of the heap with little regard for anything else.
My belief is fit matters most. Fit includes finances. Sounds like you can afford Oberlin but then the question is do you want to ?
Right or wrong, many kids out there choose the lesser ranked schools of their admits. Both mine did. Will it turn out right or wrong ? I don’t know. Will know in 10 or 20 or 30 years.
But I do think deciding based on a list is flawed…it’s fine as a validation mechanism but not the basis for a decision (in my humble opinion).
You probably know this already, but if he gets in to U of M, University of Michigan’s music programs are world class. The quality, quantity, and variety of concerts available to him there would not be a step down from Oberlin’s, at ALL.
I am not an alum, but lived there for a few years when my husband was in grad school Ann Arbor is probably my favorite place I’ve ever lived.
Definitely ask for more money.
The edition I have is the 2013-2014 and they are currently updating, so it seems like every 10 years. The book it was mentioned in is a current book (one of the two mention above, can’t remember which) but the author says that even though the data is dated, he sees it as a very valid study, more than popular rankings that include data like yield rates. If you buy the book, I strongly recommend the paper copy versus digital.
Over 225. The books break down the rankings by size of institution, but the rankings I’ve named are overall. I definitely am not basing our choice on the ranking, it’s just that when thinking about paying more than twice as much, it’s worth considering. Also the freshman class stats are higher at K College than Oberlin. Just interesting information, not make or break.
Is there a way to edit posts? I keep finding typos because I’m writing on my iPad.
Found it.
Thanks for this. Definitely worth considering.
There should be a little chalk-stick-inside-a-square icon right underneath your post.
From what I can see in their Methodology section, they gathered the data themselves.
This is always the question everyone has. And that’s a personal decision. For me, especially given an English and film interest, no. But others - they get into schools that are $320K over four years and can go to other find schools for free to say $100K - and they choose the $320K each and every day of the week.
Only you can make that call. But honestly, every time you compare the two schools head to head, Kalamazoo seems to come out on top (in your messages).
Good luck.
Neither Kalamazoo nor Oberlin is really open curriculum, though Kalamazoo appears to have fewer requirements than Oberlin (though it does require third college semester level of foreign language):
For comparison, here are Michigan LSA’s requirements: