<p>I cannot seem to pull up Oberlin on the CC site. Does anyone know anything about Oberlin other than its music program?</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72</a> </p>
<p>This should be what you're looking for. The Oberlin site is located under "CC Top Liberal Arts Colleges" in the Colleges & Universities sub-heading.</p>
<p>My husband and lots of our friends went there. It's a great school, one of the small LACs that is good in sciences, among other things. Beautiful campus, friendly, smart, somewhat quirky students. Wonderful art gallery that lets the students borrow art works for their rooms. I really like the town. Everyone I know who has gone there has loved it.</p>
<p>Me too. Numerous friends who went to Oberlin and loved it, numerous children of friends who loved it, several friends of my daughter's who are there loving it now. It's vibe is somewhat similar to Wesleyan -- arty, lefty, intellectual-but-not-nerdy -- except it's a lot easier to get from Oberlin to Cleveland than it is to get from Wesleyan to anywhere. Oberlin has a large, good music conservatory program, too, somewhat but not entirely separate from the college, which means that there is a lot of music going on. (If it matters to your kid, in recent years Oberlin has produced 2/3 of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 1/3 of Deerhoof, various other indie rock luminaries, and several good singer-songwriters. This mattered to my D's friends.) It's probably the most northeastern of the midwestern LACs, but not as snooty (or quite as selective) as the equivalent northeastern LACs. I think it's also, like Wesleyan, pretty large for a LAC, so not quite as incestuous as some, and more variety among the students.</p>
<p>We have friends who are law school professors and terrible educational snobs. They were upset when their second child didn't get into Harvard and went to Oberlin; four years later they thought he had had a better education and college experience there than their first son got in Cambridge.</p>
<p>I think it would make "everyone's" list of top-20 LACs, but not necessarily everyone's list of top-10 LACs (it would mine). There aren't too many schools west of Swarthmore and east of Pasadena that can claim to be better, and maybe none that actually is.</p>
<p>By the way, if you can't see all the threads on the Oberlin forum, then go to the bottom and change the settings to read from the "beginning."</p>
<p>We visited Oberlin, but my son didn't like it and didn't apply.</p>
<p>We, too, know many who have attended Oberlin and loved it. One of my Ds visited but, like weenie's S, did not like it. It is definitely not for everyone, and certainly a school that should be visited prior to deciding to spend four years there.</p>
<p>JHS said:</p>
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<p>similar to Wesleyan -- arty, lefty, intellectual-but-not-nerdy -- except it's a lot easier to get from Oberlin to Cleveland than it is to get from Wesleyan to anywhere.<</p>
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<p>That's not quite correct. First of all, Middletown itself is a small city, about six times the size of Oberlin, OH. It may not be Cleveland but, there are shops, restaurants, and a cineplex:</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberlin%2C_Ohio%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberlin%2C_Ohio</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middletown%2C_Connecticut%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middletown%2C_Connecticut</a></p>
<p>and Middletown is surrounded by metropolitan areas just as interesting as Cleveland and every bit as accessible by bus, train and car:</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland,_Ohio%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland,_Ohio</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven%2C_Connecticut%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven%2C_Connecticut</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence%2C_Rhode_Island%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence%2C_Rhode_Island</a></p>
<p>From a couple of visits there this Fall, I would add: it is NOT preppy, no frats, no popped collars. But not especially eccentric either -- not Gothy like Bard, for example. Friendly students. It is bucolic -- large open campus, some very good architecture (especially the art museum, Finney Chapel). Lots of bicycles. The town is cute but tiny -- a handful of restaurants (some quite good) a couple of bookstores, some odd shops. It is an easy drive to Cleveland because there is no traffic, but it is not all that close, and Cleveland has suffered some in the past decades, and is due for a renaissance; still, there seemed to be a lot of things going on all the time on campus, especially musically. Indeed, it seems like an especially great place for someone who is intellectually oriented and likes music, and especially for musicians who want to get a liberal arts education and have access to the best set of practice rooms, by far, that I've seen.</p>
<p>johnw: Did I forget to make clear that comparing Oberlin to Wesleyan was supposed to be high praise?</p>
<p>How's this?: (a) Oberlin isn't Middletown, (b) Middletown isn't Cleveland, (c) New Haven and Hartford combined aren't Cleveland, either, and the busses don't run all that often (d) maybe Providence is Cleveland, but it's even harder to get to on a bus, (e) Cleveland isn't New York or Boston, which are both a lot closer to Wesleyan than to Oberlin, and (f) if I were a student at either school, I would really want to have access to a car sometimes. In my limited vicarious experience, Oberlin students without cars are more likely to go to Cleveland for a few hours on a weekend than Wesleyan students without cars are likely to go anywhere for a few hours on a weekend, but Wesleyan students with cars have lots more interesting places to go within a 2-hour drive than Oberlin students with cars.</p>
<p>I haven't spent a lot of time at Oberlin, but I have at Wesleyan. The shops and restaurants in Middletown are not impressive. I haven't seen the cineplex. To be fair, my daughter (who has made several visits there) describes Oberlin as "the coolest cow pasture in the country," which I take to mean that the shops and restaurants aren't impressive (or even existent) there, either.</p>
<p>JHS said:</p>
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<p>In my limited vicarious experience, Oberlin students without cars are more likely to go to Cleveland for a few hours on a weekend than Wesleyan students without cars are likely to go anywhere for a few hours on a weekend<</p>
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<p>I would agree with that. To me, it's the distance between the nearest world-class symphony orchestra (Cleveland vs. New York City), and the nearest 12 screen multiplex (Elyria vs. Middletown?)</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Oberlin and is quite happy there. He is planning on majoring in biology and will likely either double major or minor in math. He also loves languages and music. (We have always referred to him as our Renaissance guy.) He finds his classes challenging and intersting for the most part. The new science building is fabulous. He loves all the different music that is part of the campus and has attended concerts ranging from the Emerson String Quartet to blue grass to Indian music to midnight organ recitals in the chapel. </p>
<p>If you have specific questions, I can try and answer them here or you can send me a PM.</p>
<p>When my D transfered to Wes, she was also accepted to Oberlin, and the only way she could pick was proximity to home, which is just convenience. Both struck her when she visited as fabulous schools.</p>
<p>My daughter's a senior there now and chose it after an extensive search, because my H and I are both alumni. Also my brother went there. My D saw it last but loved it most (despite herself!). We try not to bother her much about the alumni thing.</p>
<p>So please post any questions and I'll be happy to answer.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, let me list the things that I feel make Oberlin wonderful:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Sense of history/progressive values: first coeducational college in America; first to admit Black students.</p></li>
<li><p>Students have a sense of humor, actually read a lot, are relaxed and friendly until you ask them about their current project, at which point they become passionate to describe it to you.</p></li>
<li><p>No fraternities or sororities; instead, social life is built around activities ranging from ExCo (experimental college extra courses that students teach each other, in addition to the regular college courses of course!), cooperative housing (where kids cook and clean for themselves and save families some money), theme and language dorms, or regular dorms.</p></li>
<li><p>The most authentically inclusive environment of diversity. By authentic, I mean that friends are made by personality. Whether someone is an athlete, activist, ethnically identified, or ethnically oblivious, gay or straight...these are not reasons to either be a friend or reject someone as a friend. Your choices define who you are as an individual, but groups of friends are generally very mixed and diverse. It's just a very humane social environment. When people characterize it as "non-conformist" I think that throws you off. In fact, people embrace each others' viewpoints, debate, share, and make lifelong friendships. </p></li>
<li><p>Top-shelf academics, emphasis on critical thinking and excellent writing. </p></li>
<li><p>Students from across the nation; resource offerings that resemble a university or LAC on either coast. It's just a quirk of history that it's located in Ohio. In fact, Ohio sends no more students there than any other state.</p></li>
<li><p>College and conservatory students live and eat together, so it is mind-expanding at an LAC to meet people who will populate the symphony orchestras in the next generation. College students can hear concerts every day, wheter it's a student recital by a friend (exciting) or visiting artists that knock your socks off (I heard Yo-Yo Ma perform when we were both age l9).</p></li>
<li><p>A sweet small town entirely integrated with the center of campus ("Tappan Square") but for more diverse species of trees the College Arboretum, out-of-town.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>9, Voted among the most "pedestrian friendly" (bicycles) and "vegetarian friendly" colleges.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A tradition of TEACHING. Professors teach all courses (no grad schools) and the top profs also teach freshman courses. Small classes.</p></li>
<li><p>Allen Memorial Art Museum.</p></li>
<li><p>They do not care what you wear. </p></li>
<li><p>In 1972, Pete Seeger was my graduation speaker. Last year, it was NYTimes columnist Tom Friedman. If you watch The Daily Show (Jon Stuart) and saw correspondant Ed Helms, he's a graduate. Also, Julie Taymore (Lion King). Graduates political conservatives as well as the more-often-noticed liberals; for example: Jan Ting (UPenn law expert); Richard Haas (defense policy; Brookings Inst.). It's a diverse, thinking environment.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>p.s. in addition to all the classical music that everyone can hear (my daughter called Oberlin "the best ambient sound of any LAC)...the Oberlin Conservatory just got a major grant to initiate the first JAZZ STUDIES program at a top-level music conservatory. You heard it first on CC!</p>
<p>Clarification:</p>
<p>Jazz studies has been part of the Oberlin curriculum since 1972, and the conservatory began offering the major in Jazz in 1989. </p>
<p>What is new is that there was a $5M grant from an alum recently (maybe a year ago?) to build a new jazz facility at Oberlin.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. I was able to access the cc discussion site from the one above. My D who is a junior may consider the school. She is looking at biology. We have family in the Oberlin/Wellington area, but I was looking at an objective insight. Thanks again.</p>
<p>In addition to more traditional pursuits within biology, Oberlin has a well-developed course of study on envirnomental sciences and technologies.
With your D's interest in biology, definitely check out Oberlin's new Natural Science building which is a model of new technology in the use of environmental sciences. Walls made of cork, settling ponds doing all kinds of bubbly things...</p>
<p>Thanks for the improved info, Allmusic. I remember that the Dave Brubeck Quartet expressed its appreciation for Oberlin as the first music conservatory to give them a concert venue, back in the l950's. So they do an annual concert there, even now, to keep saying "thanks."</p>
<p>Does anyone know how to export this thread so it becomes part of CC's more regular Oberlin website?</p>
<p>If so, can you please either do it for me or tell me how?</p>
<p>on the previous, I meant "CC's more regular discussion thread", not website!</p>