<p>I had recently received an email and letter from Oberlin, about a multicultural visit program. In the application, it asks for standardized test scores and a high school transcript, and the registration deadline is September 4th(one week before my next ACT test). So my question is: Should i wait until i retake this ACT test and just sign up for the next MVP program(which will take place about a month later) or should i just apply with my 26 ACT and 3.1 GPA(those are my only negative attributes.. stellar extracurrics, URM-african american, bilingual..etc.)
Thanks!</p>
<p>In short, how would you rate the selectivity of this program</p>
<p>bumpitty bump</p>
<p>Since no students are responding…I don’t think being in MVP ultimately determines anything. But if you think your chances are a bit shaky then go for it. I know someone who was not accepted to MVP. She never received an invitation to apply, but found out about it and applied. She was turned down. Guess what? She was admitted to Oberlin regular decision and got a John F. Oberlin Scholarship. Similar ACT, but a significantly higher GPA. I don’t know how admissions works. Maybe they thought with her GPA she didn’t need MVP. But that’s what happened. </p>
<p>So, if you’ve been recruited by the MVP, you should probably go for it. What harm can it do?</p>
<p>thanks for the feedback bud. It really helped</p>
<p>Just remember, if you get accepted to MVP, you better show up. I cannot believe it would not hurt your chances to be offered MVP and turn it down, unless you have one hell of a good excuse like a death in the family. I know you haven’t submitted the application. But if you do, and if you’re accepted, go. It can only help your chances (because your GPA is shaky). I just don’t know how much MVP would help.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is Oberlin College needs to do something in addition to MVP, to increase the racial diversity of homegrown Americans at Oberlin. Six to seven percent African American for the first school to admit blacks thirty years before the Emancipation Proclamation is pitiful. I’m willing to bet there was a far higher percentage of black students at Oberlin in the 19th century than today. That’s not good. I would think being so close to Cleveland, a city with a huge black population, would enable the college to do better. Why aren’t they pursuing the best black students in Cleveland area high schools? If they do pursue them, why aren’t they getting them? Carleton College, in bone-chilling, much less diverse Minnesota, attracts an equal percentage of black students as Oberlin. If Oberlin can’t outdo Carlton for black students something is not effective. However, the graduation rate of black students at Oberlin is higher than the graduation rate for blacks at Carleton. Is it the weather in Minnesota? Are the black students recruited to Oberllin more qualified? I don’t know. There is only a 2% difference between blacks and whites graduating from Oberlin. There is a 21% difference at Carleton. I just think Oberlin could do much better attracting URMs, especially African Americans. MVP is not enough.</p>
<p>Hi guys. This is Jesse Hernandez, an admissions counselor for Oberlin and member of our Multicultural Recruitment Team. I thought I would offer some insight into your application questions. First, I would recommend applying for whatever visit weekend you like, using whatever test information you currently have. You can always update us with your new scores when you get them. Your current test score and gpa sounds competitive and I encourage you to apply. If accepted, of course we would love to have you join us, but don’t fret if for some reason you are unable to accept our offer. We understand that situations arise, and we honestly don’t hold it against anyone if they decline our invitation. Clearly there are benefits of having come on the program and being able to meet us in person, but that’s the extent of any bias. </p>
<p>Plainsman I, and the school, agree that Oberlin should work on increasing it’s diversity on campus. Though approximately 20% of our students are students of color, and sadly that’s on the higher end of the scale for LACs, we still work to increase that number. The MVP program is just one of many initiatives run through the admissions office. Each admissions counselor works with multiple agencies in their territories that work with URMs, often participating in college planning or mentorship workshops for those students. We also have had special visit days arranged with various schools; recently we had such a program for Cleveland Public Schools as well as for students from Lorain County (the county Oberlin is in), and a group from Washington D.C. In a week we look forward to hosting a group from Chicago. All of these groups are made up of primarily URMs. We’ve sponsored events for area guidance counselors, have more planned for the fall, and have flown counselors and agency staff members who work with URMs to campus for special visits. I personally traveled to Dallas last fall for one day solely to present to a group of inner-city high school students, and am planning a day in the fall where we will hire a bus to bring Cleveland area students to Oberlin for tours and info sessions, as well as a similar event for Lorain area students. </p>
<p>The college also works hard to create organizations and resources on campus that promote diversity and allow for support systems for URMs. We have a number of program houses that help serve this purpose: Afrikan Heritage House, Asia House, Hebrew Heritage House, Third World House, Women’s Collective. Our Multicultural Resource Center exists to address the concerns of low-income, international and first gen students, and includes “community coordinators” for various diversity groups. And we also have a number of student run multicultural clubs and organizations.</p>
<p>As you stated, the numbers are not at the highest of levels, but diversity is still something we are committed to and therefore we are committed to actively creating a diverse campus. There’s definitely room for improvement on our end, and I have been in many meetings this summer evaluating what we can do better. Hopefully we will be successful on our improvements, because in the end I think we all simply want a diverse educational environment for Oberlin.</p>
<p>Jesse- I’m glad to see that Oberlin is working hard to diversify its’ campus. I hope the search for diversity includes questions of income, not just URMs. I believe that there is a lot of differences in life experience based on income/class that are valuable. In fact, in my experience these can be the largest differences of all. (Of course, there is considerable overlap).</p>
<p>Jesse, thanks for the explanation. I believe Oberlin works hard. But I’m still surprised at the number of African American students specifically, given the school’s unique history with the Underground Railroad and admitting the first black students. Maybe something in the messaging is not resonating with that demographic group. How does Swarthmore beat Oberlin in the percentage of black students? That’s a head scratcher.</p>
<p>Jesse, thanks for the insight. Can I ask another question of you?</p>
<p>My son is likely to apply to MVP. He will be applying to some schools via Questbridge, and he is hesitant to put a college that’s binding down as a choice sight-unseen (assuming he is a finalist). For this reason, he’d really like the Oct 1-3 date, which is the only one before college rankings are due. So, my question are: How difficult is it to be selected for MVP, and how difficult is it to get a specific date? Thanks.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses. Let me first answer Youdon’tSay. Oberlin is a questbridge school, so I understand your concern. The October date is probably one of the best dates in terms of acceptance rate, although it’s pretty equal overall. We usually see around 200 or 250 applicants for the program each year, and accept around 40-45% of those. We generally don’t see quite as many people applying for the October date. I hope this answers your question. </p>
<p>For Inquisitive Mom, yes, we do consider economic status as a form of diversity, and have policies in place to try and make Oberlin affordable for everyone. We meet 100% of the demonstrated need of every admitted student, and recently enacted a program where if you are Pell Grant eligible you will not have loans as part of your financial aid package. Over two-thirds of our students receive financial aid from Oberlin, and we gave out over $42 million dollars in aid last year. </p>
<p>Plainsman, I agree that somewhere along the road Oberlin’s message/history/reputation or something else has not been connecting with the African American community as much as we’d like. My personal experience as a recruiter leads me to believe that currently Oberlin does not have the same name recognition among the African American community as some of our peers do (and definitely not the same as their local state schools), and likewise they are unaware of our history and other multicultural offerings. Therefore, it’s sometimes hard to convince students to seriously consider Oberlin, or often hard to convince the student’s parent(s) that Oberlin is a great choice. Of course that’s not always the case and we are fortunate to still have many great African American applicants apply and enroll each year, but overall it’s still a bit of an uphill battle. But we do recognize that there’s an issue, and are actively trying to fix it.</p>
<p>Thanks. It did indeed.</p>
<p>Jesse, don’t give up on the “Fearless” campaign. It’s awesome. Apparently, you guys retained some sort of marketing firm to help the college develop something that would differentiate Oberlin in a nutshell from it’s peer schools, something besides “change the world” which, frankly, is not a differentiator. </p>
<p>Now, I realize some current students hated it. A few even gave their reason as “reminds me of some athletic team.” My kid connected “Fearless” with being the first to admit blacks and the first non-all women’s college to admit women. If not for “Fearless” my kid would not have asked to even visit.</p>
<p>This year accepted students were surveyed and the impact of Fearless was among the questions. And today my kid received a postcard from Oberlin regarding bringing ID if she plans to do work-study at Oberlin. “Fearless” was all over the postcard. This is a shot in the dark, but maybe “Fearless” could be test marketed with African American high school students. Just because some white kids don’t like it doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with other groups. And if you’re trying to improve your success with other groups, what is there to lose by seeing if it is an effective campaign theme with diverse targeted groups? It worked with my kid.</p>
<p>“Just because some white kids don’t like it”? I don’t think you have any concept of just how much antipathy there is on campus towards the Fearless campaign. It caused serious bad blood between the student body and the administration. The administration hired a firm to come up with a concept. They brought Fearless to the student body for feedback, which turned out to be nearly universally negative–they then went ahead and used it anyway, angering many students (and those who weren’t angry about it were apathetic, I don’t know a single student who actually likes it or thinks it is effective in encapsulating the essence of what Oberlin means). I know that there is a continual sense among Oberlin students–historically, too–that the sky is falling, and that each incoming class is different, not attuned with the elements that make Oberlin special, and will in some way corrupt or shift the atmosphere of the college. I don’t quite subscribe to that, but I think you need to be aware of that, and the sensitivity that many students have towards the idea of marketing the school.</p>
<p>Fanatic, this is interesting to me. I was talking to a friend about a school we visited that was in the process of instituting some changes that the student body didn’t support. Are you saying students don’t think the school should be marketed at all, or that they just don’t like this particular campaign? I would think it’s up to the adcoms to pick the best students for Oberlin, the ones that would best fit with the mission of the school, ones that would be attuned to what makes Oberlin special.</p>
<p>^<br>
Yes, I’ve heard some of the antipathy. But not one person was able to explain how the new campaign would “corrupt or shift the atmosphere of the college.” They seemed to be opposed to anything new even if other people found it exciting. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’m just reporting that the Fearless campaign does not seem to be over. It’s all over the postcard they sent earlier this week (or was it Friday?). The college even defined it, which I had not seen before. Somebody at the college must like it. Don’t blame me. Maybe it was perceived positively in the incoming students’ survey? Fearless was on the survey too.</p>
<p>lol The reason why i want to go to Oberlin has nothing to do with some tagline. When you say Oberlin ,as an african-american prospective student, i think of a school with rich academic traditions, a majority liberal-minded student body(love the hippies), small classrooms, and Ben and Jerrys Ice-cream.
i mean i dont mean to offend you if this is a serious issue to you, but if a school is hoping to attract more african americans like me, taglines and catchphrases arent going to make any difference. </p>
<p>Communication is definitely the way to go.<br>
(sorry for the lack of punctuation, grammar, etc. i was in a hurry)</p>
<p>No doubt, merseysider, but you were familiar with the college’s reputation. A lot of people draw a blank when you say ‘Oberlin.’</p>
<p>Plainsman, we are transitioning away from using “fearless” as an independent slogan, although we are not making any other major changes to our recruitment materials (ie, we’re still using the same viewbook, etc, just without the slogan). “Fearless” was mentioned on the incoming student survey so that we could have additional information on the impact it had on incoming students, and those results were taken into account when the final decisions were made. Your daughter recently received a postcard with “fearless” on it because we still have a number of printed materials in stock that include “fearless”. We will continue to use our stock of existing materials until we run out, because it would be costly and environmentally un-friendly to do otherwise.</p>
<p>Based on Mr. Hernandez’s thoughtful posts, it seems as if Oberlin is doing a great deal to attract African-American students, in addition to all other underrepresented minorities. However, as Plainsman makes clear, the numbers aren’t yet where they ought to be.</p>
<p>So Plaisman, do you have any ideas that aren’t already in place about how to improve these numbers? I am not implying that you need to have innovative ideas for change if you are to comment, as I assume you are not in the admissions or college field of work, but since you do seem to put a lot of thought and time into the area based on this post alone, I am interested to know.</p>
<p>Merseysider, sorry to continue to go off topic on your thread. Good luck with the mvp and admissions process.</p>