<p>What would you do? I can't decide which one to turn down. So hard. I know the education is great at either one, but I don't know if the better academics at Oberlin are worth being a bit less happy. Occidental has the nice weather and has tons hot girls in the area. I keep bouncing back and forth. Fin. aid is the same (read: too expensive, but my other option, NYU is uber expensive and I don't like it as much). Anyways... these past couple weeks have been one big "ARGH!" for me. I need to make a decision soon.</p>
<p>Did you visit both schools? They definitely have different cultures. If you definitely feel you'd be less happy at Oberlin I would go to Occidental because the academics are very soild there.</p>
<p>I visited Oberlin and found its atmosphere too elitist liberal for me...and I'm a liberal! Both schools have very different settings: small town vs. big city. Consider which you would be happier at.</p>
<p>See, I'm actually something of a radical leftist, but I'm not looking for that elitist liberal environment. I want a place where the kids are pretty diverse and there will be people that challenge my beliefs and have good discussions with. It seems like Oberlin is full of hippy white kids that smoke weed and rag on people that don't think like them. But I haven't visited either school. My friend just visited Oberlin and told me that the campus was beautiful, but the girls were terrible looking and people seemed very weird. But all of the students that he talked to were very cool and very nice. I'm using too many very's, but anyways... it seems like the experience at Oberlin is very intense with the hard classes and the liberal kids always taking shots at the normal folks. I know it's a great school, but so is Occidental. I'm really thinking that Oxy is such a happier place and that I'd probably be more likely to succeed there anyways (especially with the resources available like internships and the Oxy-at-the-UN thing)</p>
<p>Oberlin's campus is cool and the music there is great (classical and jazz, primarily); there are some wicked smart professors and students too. Occidental has some very interesting programs and is ramping up a program that funds summer research projects. . .and it does have that California vibe, even though it's in sort of a weird first-ring suburb.</p>