<p>Does anyone have any feedback about employment after graduation from Oberlin? I would appreciate hearing something, anything, about some jobs people were able to secure post graduation. </p>
<p>I must admit this school is not one I'm very excited for my kid to attend and I do have some qualms that once my kid graduates he might be unemployable. The school is going to cost us a lot of money and afterwards we will not be able to help shoulder any graduate school debt so I feel particularly concerned. </p>
<p>I don't mean to sound insensitive but I am worried about the future for my kid. Please advise! thank you! :)</p>
<p>Oberlin graduates can expect to fare as well in the job market as any other BA/BS from a top-ranking undergraduate college - with the possible exception of students interested in I-banking who would find the recruiting opportunities better at Princeton or Harvard, or engineering students; i.e., Oberlin graduates who took their studies and extracurricular activities seriously will have learned the kinds of skills needed for any number of future careers. As to graduate school costs, students admitted to academic graduate programs generally can expect to get fellowships…if not, they should probably not go. If you have doubts about sending your child to Oberlin, it should not be on account of its comparative quality in terms of preparing its students for future employment. Ultimately your child’s prospects will be more a function of his/her personal ambition, talent, persistence, and drive, rather than choice of first-tier colleges; Oberlin is a good place to test and hone those qualities.</p>
<p>This is such a broad question that it’s hard to know how to begin to answer it. Oberlin alumni enter every possible career path, from teaching to social work, medicine to business, law to the arts. They are no more “unemployable” than graduates of any other college or university in the US. Why would you think otherwise?</p>
<p>Alumni friends of mine work for Microsoft, Time magazine, New York law firms, public school systems in Portland and Los Angeles, and teach at Swarthmore, Vassar, Williams, the University of Chicago, Emory, Lewis and Clark, and Tulane. Other Oberlin alums are the mayor of Washington, DC, the director of “The Lion King,” the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, the editor of New York magazine, and the lieutenant governor of Ohio.</p>
<p>This is my first offspring-off-to-college experience and perhaps I am overly worried about the post-college life impact his choice today will bring. As I said in my first post I do not mean to offend with my questions. </p>
<p>Dave you seem to be an alum, might I ask- how was your experience w/job searching coming out of Oberlin? Is there any active recruiting of Oberlin grads? What is job searching like for an Oberlin grad? </p>
<p>Things that honestly concern me are: will my child have to get a grad degree to be able to get a job? there would be no money for this & my child would be forced to take on major student loan debt. Oberlin grads “go on to earn more PHD’s than grads from any other LAC” as I am told: but is that because they, in effect, have to become career students to parlay their education into something that creates more viable options? 4 yrs of pricey college will be a struggle but 6, 8, + years sounds like a diminished quality of life I do not want for my child and I worry. </p>
<p>mamenyu, I am also curious about your experience with Oberlin. Are you also alumi? staff/faculty? a parent? Do you have any feedback on the post Oberlin outlook for jobs/employment? </p>
<p>Obviously I understand the current economy is in shambles. which only adds to my worries.</p>
<p>IMO the scholarship my kid was offered by another (very well ranked) school is such a better deal it leaves me struggling to understand why we are even considering Oberlin but if my kid loves this school I want to be supportive. just not sure I can afford to be. </p>
<p>"IMO, the preponderance of liberal arts colleges are not vocational training programs, and do not pretend to be.</p>
<p>Many of the smaller colleges have relatively few private sector, out-of-region recruiters coming to campus.</p>
<p>Even at some heavily recruited universities, only 20% or so of their liberal arts graduates interested in employment may get their jobs via on-campus interviews.
At least though, in that case, there will be interviews to be had, and 20% is a lot more than zero. And possibly a larger school with great name recognition among employers may be of some benefit in off-campus intitiatives.</p>
<p>Many choosing to attend a liberal arts college do so with recognition from the outset that some sort of postgraduate studies or training program may be necessary before their “launching” into their eventual career will be completed.</p>
<p>Most graduates will be left to their own devices, in the end, for the therereafter. How they are helped or hindered by their college attended, once they’ve graduated, can be speculated upon. In this day and age, internships may be helpful if used wisely. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, it is certainly worth investigating what each college will do for its graduates interested in immediate employment, there may well be some differences that may appropriately be given some measure of consideration. "</p>
<p>I’m not an Oberlin grad; my spouse is, followed by grad school, with a fellowship (i.e, no parental help needed), and eventually finished and got a job. Not a problem. Very positive about the Oberlin preparation for grad school and life.
Liberal arts degrees generally don’t lead to specific jobs, but they prepare students with writing, critical thinking, and social skills essential for job success in a range of occupations. Oberlin has alumni connections around the country and has beefed up recruiting at the campus; the new president seems actively interested in increasing opportunities for students with “entrepreneurial” interests and also in increasing the early advising for students who would qualify for scholarships of various sorts, and other post-grad opportunities. There is some funding for students who do internships. Winter Term is a time for that, among other possibilities. As is summer, of course. Whether the students are jumping at these opportunities is another question…some are, some are not. For some, the coop experience is also valuable for future entrepreneurial endeavors. (For others, it may be simply social, or for the opportunity to cook and eat mostly vegan and vegetarian food.) I don’t think Oberlin is a school where the typical students talk about getting an education for the aim of making money – I-banking doesn’t seem high on the list of preferred occupations for typical graduates, compared, say, to Princeton or Harvard…but those times have changed…There seem to be lots of idealists at Oberlin.<br>
Students certainly can get fine preparation for professional careers, e.g., in law (or whatever law school brings – Krislov is a lawyer who is now president of a college…) and medicine at Oberlin. Unlike other liberal arts colleges, there are also a lot of students at Oberlin interested in careers in the arts - a conservatory full of hopeful musicians, who are also in need of learning entrepreneurial skills, which the conservatory makes some efforts at addressing. More could be done. But I think that is probably equally true at other comparable colleges.</p>