<p>Would love to hear parents/students impressions of Obie students.
My son (HS senior) is very interested in Oberlin as a possible ED choice. He is a jazz percussionist and of course the music offerings at Oberlin are in a league of their own.
Socially (not politically), he is a little more conservative and worried about being with a lot of "way out" kids. He's looking for a school with a real mix of kids and a creative campus, but not too freaky. Thoughts? Other schools of interest are Wesleyan, Kenyon, Vassar and Tufts.</p>
<p>My D is a freshman at the Con this year. I would describe her as conservative, mature, focused on her studies. While she has a lot of social interaction with Movies on Mudd, contra dancing, musical events, and EATING with friends - she doesn’t get involved with anything that doesn’t fit in with her personal agenda. She has been at small schools most of her education and knew that vocal performance was her goal and worked towards that. So she was “abnormal” for her high school years. Now at Oberlin she feels “normal” and has found lots of friends. I think before she arrived at Oberlin she had the same concern you expressed.</p>
<p>My impression of Oberlin was that the students at the Conservatory are not as “way out” (using the OP’s phrase) as the students at the College, so that may help your (or your son’s) comfort level somewhat.</p>
<p>Oberlin students are very much the same socially and politically as students at Wesleyan and Vassar. For a candid sense of what they’re like, see the blogs at [Oberlin</a> Blogs](<a href=“http://blogs.oberlin.edu/]Oberlin”>http://blogs.oberlin.edu/) .</p>
<p>There is no “one way” that students are at Oberlin . . there are many different communities among the ~2800 students there, and - as one would expect - one finds one’s own crowd there, whether it’s active Christian or gay liberation or quiet econ student or whatever.</p>
<p>The impression from my frosh kid there is that there is virtually no pressure or expectation that one needs to be one kind of student or another. She describes a strongly socially libertarian culture that says that it’s OK to be who you are, that the expectation is that you can expect a wide range of types of people, and that there are many places for many different kinds of kids.</p>
<p>My impression is that some other schools which may seem more “normal” in terms of having a narrower range of student “types” also tend to have cultures that are less libertarian, with more pressure to conform to campus norms.</p>
<p>Another kid I know at Oberlin is quiet and socially conservative and LOVES it there; he’s free to be himself in that wonderful Oberlin swirl of music music music.</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>P.S. I was surprised at how the Con culture permeates the school; you’d never guess that only 1 in 7 students is in the Con because its music ethos is everywhere.</p>
<p>The blogs are a great way to get a feel for Oberlin, they are not glossy marketing pieces edited by some corporate public relations arm, they are honest and real. I haven’t found anything as honest from any other college.</p>
<p>My D is at the college. She is a very mature, quiet, intellectual-type who is liberal minded by not “whacky”. She to me “The kids here at Oberlin remind me of my best friends…there are only more of them”. She is a Frosh. Already is engaging in lots of differnent groups and has told me she feels comfortable in all of them. What you may also want to be aware of is that Karl Rove spoke on campus the other week. So, whatever the bent, the campus does allow all forms of representation.</p>
<p>^
Yeah, and the right-winger, Michelle Malkin, is an Oberlin grad. So, no one can say Oberlin isn’t accepting of differences. :)</p>
<p>Also, I totally agree with Dave72. The social political climate at Oberlin is practically indistinguishable from Wesleyan and probably Vassar, too. So if you think Oberlin is “way out there” so are Wesleyan and Vassar.</p>
<p>My daughter is a soph. The kids at Oberlin look and act extremely normal to me and I’m a fairly conservative guy. I suspect the college’s way out hippie rep is from an earlier generation.</p>
<p>Almost forgot. Your son isn’t going to find a world class conservatory at those other LACs. :)</p>
<p>I was worried about this at first too, but discovered that there are really a lot of “normal” kids at Oberlin. There might be more “hippy” and “hipster” types than some schools, but there are really all sorts of people at Oberlin, and the far out, while they exist, are more the exception than the norm. Therefore it’s possible to find similarly minded peers, though the nice thing about Oberlin is that since so much goes and it’s so friendly, that you can also interact with a diverse range of students.</p>
<p>The con kids are mostly apolitical, because the vast majority came to Oberlin solely for the Con, and not the “Oberlin culture” or anything like that. But it sounds like your son is not applying to Con, but is hoping to take some classes or study with a professor.</p>
<p>The college students are pretty fiercely political, and not as tolerant as the school likes to portray them. That being said, they are mostly normal and aren’t too “freaky” if that’s what you are worried about. Nerdy, but not freaky.</p>
<p>Mr. J said: “students are pretty fiercely political, and not as tolerant as the school likes to portray them”</p>
<p>My frosh kid is having a different experience: more toleration of a wider range of students than his friends are reporting from other schools</p>
<p>also: substitute “more invoved” for “more political and that’d be about right”</p>
<p>My D2 is a soph and would agree with Kei-o-lei’s kid. It’s indisputable that the student body is overwhelmingly liberal. Overwhelmingly. But at least other viewpoints are not met with open hostility. I don’t know that I can say the same thing about schools that are very conservative.</p>
<p>@Plainsman and Keo-o-lei</p>
<p>I’m glad your kids have had good luck. And you’re right in the sense that if a student said, “I voted for John McCain” they would probably be okay. But if they were unfortunately sucked into an abortion discussion (which many Obies like to start, despite the fact that it isn’t really polite dinner conversation) they do well to keep their opinions to themselves and nod in agreement. Otherwise ugly things will follow.</p>
<p>not luck, Mr. J . . . it’s what their experience is; sorry that yours has been so difficult</p>
<p>trying to disprove a general thesis by finding what appears to be an exception is a common rhetorical device . . . comes under “exception that proves the existence of a rule”, eh?</p>
<p>I believe that a college campus, no matter where you go, should be one where the student learns how to have respectful and civil discussions on very touchy subjects. They should all learn about people’s backgrounds and experiences that shape thier beliefs. My D has different ideas about depending on the subject; she is learning how to speak up, even if she is in a room where many others hold the opposite opinion–this is inside the classroom and outside it. Really, what else is college about? If a student can grow and learn to defend his or her opinion, and/or learn and expand thier ideas, because of such conversations and disagreements, what more can we ask?</p>
<p>"…what more can we ask? "</p>
<p>Well I can ask that alum D1 would become actually self-supporting already.
That’s more a wish than a question though.</p>
<p>My impressions of Oberlin is that the Conservatory students tend to be much more strait-laced and “conventional” than the college students. If someone is wearing a suit or anything even approaching formal dress, most students would first assume s(he)'s a Conservatory student(“Connie”) unless proven otherwise. </p>
<p>Oberlin students tend to be very active politically…sometimes to the point of over committing themselves at the expense of their grades. Other than that, Oberlin students also tend to take their academic studies very seriously and engage in discussion of course concepts, ideas, and positions inside and outside of class. It is not uncommon for students to continue class discussions well after the class is over…sometimes to the early morning hours and unlike many universities…the libraries tend to be crowded on friday and saturday nights. Most Oberlin students IME are very passionate about their studies alongside their extracurricular activities and political activism. </p>
<p>Though that may seem bad to some, especially since the vast majority of their political activism tends to be on the radical progressive-left end of the political spectrum, IMHO it is far more constructive use of their time that than the equivalent on more mainstream university campuses where time outside of class is taken up partying wildly and drinking themselves to wild excess…especially from thursday night till sunday/monday. </p>
<p>As for whether Oberlin students are “way out there”, there is a larger proportion of such students at Oberlin than on more mainstream campuses. </p>
<p>For the most part, they’d be cool with you not joining them in their non-mainstream activities or styles of dress unless you are judgmental about it…or you make it a point as a college student to wear a suit/formal corporate dress on a regular basis which will be taken as a sign you’re an overly pretentious preppy conservative jerk trying to provoke a response from the non-mainstream students who want to enjoy their last 4+ years of freedom from what they consider highly restrictive professional dress codes. </p>
<p>I’d also second earlier commenters who said that if you are against homosexuality/find it disgusting, it is best to keep it to yourself and take a live and let live/MYOB approach. If you don’t, it will be interpreted as bigotry which must be denounced by most students. Especially when you consider that we have a sizable GBLT population and the campus and student body have made much effort to make the campus welcoming and even a safe haven from anti-GBLT bigotry common in our society at large…including most other college campuses as the Tyler Clementi case at Rutgers has illustrated. </p>
<p>As for comparison to other schools, Wesleyan has a similar vibe though most Vassar graduates I’ve talked to would disagree that their campus has a similar political demographics. If anything, the Vassar graduates said while their school is liberal, it has a much more strait-laced “East Coast Establishment” vibe than Oberlin.</p>
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<p>Bard, maybe, instead of Vassar?</p>
<p>re con students in suits: that’s the standard (required) attire for many orchestra concerts…</p>
<p>“Bard, maybe, instead of Vassar?”</p>
<p>Could be wrong, but I think Bard is pretty much just like Vassar, in this regard anyway.</p>