RE: “I can assure you that students at Oberlin will be galvanized in their opposition”
Surely the nation quakes at a galvanized Oberlin. . . . The horror! The horror! That’ll show 'em by God!!
Oberlin’ s galvanized small voice will join a sea of others in opposition to the possible ruin of this country, just as it did in opposition to slavery. Other student bodies will be galvanized to get drunk for the football weekend. It’s a matter of values.
RE #40. Sounds like the comment of somebody who’s quaking at Oberlin’s significance.
Can we agree that minimizing the college is just as misguided as exaggerating it? The nation doesn’t quake but the nation does notice. Oberlin has visibility, gets New Yorker articles written about it, wins MacArthur Fellowships, etc. Sneer away, but don’t expect Oberlin to quake.
“The common data set for 2017 states that 728 freshmen enrolled this fall. 246, or just under 34%, of those were from the ED rounds. I’m not sure where the 63% number cited by Forbes came from, but the CDS doesn’t back it up.”
One possibility is that a lot of the original 63% of ED admittees turned down Oberlin based on the financial aid offered. That would be consistent with a school facing challenges in its operating budget. As to where the 63% number cited by Forbes came from, perhaps a press release issued by Oberlin when its ED results were announced? If the PR stated the number of ED admittees, Forbes could have just assumed 100% yield on this number and then viewed it as a percentage of the entire class.
The admissions data for the class of 2021 is here: https://www.oberlin.edu/admissions-and-aid/class-profile
Nothing suggests that “63% of its acceptance offers” were from Early Decision.
To me it seems more likely that they accepted 63% of ED applicants.
^ LadyMM is exactly right. The number cited by Forbes was incorrect.
Oberlin offers little merit aid. They are need-sensitive in admissions. They claim to meet 100% of need, but every school calculates need differently. In our experience, with twin girls going to college who were equally qualified, the one going to Oberlin received far less aid than the one going to Harvard. It was the right school for her and she was very happy there. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if part of the problem the admissions office faces is students who end up going elsewhere because the aid package was better.
@amcquilk, we had the opposite experience with merit aid at Oberlin as it was the best offered of the schools our DD’s applied to - both above $20k. Unfortunately they weren’t eligible for financial aid.
@gratefulalum I’m not convinced the decline in application numbers and enrollment at Oberlin can be attributed to the protests and signs. There were just as many signs and protests at Barnard College, and the protests at Columbia University have been long running. Barnard’s administration has also openly opposed Trump on many of his policies. Yet Barnard’s ED application broke records again, its admission rate fell to the lowest in history, and its yield increased. The same goes for many East Coast schools.
exibris97 The non-Fox media would regard anti-Trump signs and protests on college campuses in a favorable light, especially in New York City, and this might encourage high school seniors to apply there, so they can be part of the anti-Trump activism. The New Yorker article and other media outlets have portrayed Oberlin in a negative light, regarding some students as spoiled and nonsensical left-wingers. The vast majority of Oberlin students are not in that category. Other commentators in this and other threads agree that this has had a negative effect on Oberlin in general and in admissions. Kenyon is located in a very Republican area of Ohio, and some of their commentators assert that the numerous Trump campaign signs dissuaded applicants.
@gratefulalum Perhaps but when we visited colleges, we expected protests etc., since colleges are famous for such things. That said, I was surprised how non-political universities were in general. Sure, there were protestors but nothing exceptional. Columbia was by far the most “political” campus we visited, and even then it wasn’t a big deal.