<p>mmm, no. Bard is not strait-laced, East coast establishment…Very artist’s colony in its feel.</p>
<p>Where do you think its student body falls politically, vs Wesleyan and vassar? That was the “this regard” I meant. Are these artists out manning the ramparts with the wesleyan folks, or more likely just sympathising while they put on another play? The couple kids I know fall clearly in the latter category, but that’s not a representative sample.</p>
<p>If you have a question about Bard, pm N8Ma since she represents the school.</p>
<p>@Kei-o-lei</p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to discredit your children’s experiences. When I said they were lucky I was simply expressing my congratulations that they’ve avoided uncomfortable situations. </p>
<p>And I’ve actually had quite a good time at Oberlin. I love arguing with people and found many opportunities to do so at Oberlin. But it’s definitely not for everybody, and I don’t just mean bigots either.</p>
<p>I’m an OC alum. ('01). It troubles me somewhat that we’re discussing “freaks” and “whacky” people. I’m not sure what those terms refer to. Am I a freak if I’m a Trekkie? I have a friend ('04) who lived and breathed Tori Amos and taught an ExCo (Experimental Course) class on Tori Amos–is she a freak? We’re all talking about how Oberlin does NOT have freaks, but no one seems to take issue with the fact that we’re already being judgmental of unique people. Many Obies will happily inform you that they’re weird and they like it that way. My point is this: You’ll be fine, or you’ll even end up loving Oberlin, if you are passionate, interested, nonjudgmental.</p>
<p>As for the political discourse and activism on campus: I’m pretty out there in left field, as were many of my close friends. However, most of my friends and I more than happily signed a petition in my senior year supporting the establishment of a Young Republicans’ group. We felt that establishing a forum for addressing diverse political opinions was more important than our own INDIVIDUAL political beliefs. Such tends to be the vibe at Oberlin. I knew a couple of people who had a tough time and left. Here are the reasons: (1) football players there on athletic scholarships who found the academics too challenging and thus left at the end of their first semester; (2) conservatory student who just couldn’t find his niche (he was a connie violist); (3) a linguistics student who was in search of a more established linguistics department. The hardest thing is to find yourself and a niche that’ll keep you happy. In that respect, Obies are more than happy to help. You’ll meet Socialists passing out fliers along with a variety of religious groups and green groups and improv troupes, etc. I dabbled. I attended Seder dinners, went to Episcopalian mass every Sunday my first year (I’m a non-practicing Buddhist), took secondary piano lessons, sang in Musical union, attended rallies. If your son or daughter is passionate, curious, interested in the world around him or her, Oberlin will be amazing. At an orientation session my first week there, someone quoted the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Oberlin is a four-year geek fantasy camp.” Most Obies would chuckle and nod at that. If you’re going to judge that, or if you’re going to “freak out” about being amongst “freaks, geeks, nerds, what have you,” best you stay away. Because the one thing Obies do not do is run away from narrow-minded, judgmental, bigoted ignorance.</p>
<p>“However, most of my friends and I more than happily signed a petition in my senior year supporting the establishment of a Young Republicans’ group. We felt that establishing a forum for addressing diverse political opinions was more important than our own INDIVIDUAL political beliefs. Such tends to be the vibe at Oberlin.”</p>
<p>This is a marked improvement compared to the perceived atmosphere of intolerance of any ideas which weren’t remotely conforming to the radical progressive-left many Obie classmates and I experienced during our time there. </p>
<p>This ranged from religious/agnostic students complaining of being called/mocked as “less intelligent” by vocal atheist classmates or my witnessing one international student group harassing and screaming at members of another group because they took issue with a poster announcing an invited speaker to speak about human rights violations in a Southeast Asian region because the wording was “too trivializing”. </p>
<p>I also remembered hearing about a student’s Dole '96 campaign poster getting ripped off of his/her door, ripped to shreds, and tossed into a nearby dumpster in a nearby dorm. Was wondering what happened as I saw that poster up on that door the previous night only to see it ripped off and in the bin the following day.</p>
<p>hmmm . . . I think visitors here are much more interested in what Oberlin is now than in people’s perceptions of what it was (e.g., cobrat’s experiences with intolerance and teacher79’s experience with acceptance)</p>
<p>While people are influenced by anecdotes the question I keep coming back to is whether the cultural climate at Oberlin is more accepting of different students than it is on other similar campuses . . . and what keeps popping up here is that more so than at other campuses Oberlin has a more libertarian, less doctrinaire feel: that it’s easier to be the person you are at Oberlin than many other places.</p>
<p>The only fly in that ointment is that - as teacher 79 discussed - the libertarian vibe flows both ways: if someone is not comfortable with active and out folks who are (fill in the _______________ here) it could be difficult. If you really do not want to be around people who wear suits or a visible trans community or active Christians then other schools with a narrower range of students might not be the place for you.</p>
<p>Oberlin’s (relative) libertarian culture (as distinct from students’ political orientation) seems to be one of its considerable strengths.</p>
<p>Cobrat: You have a point. There were definitely people there who were quite vocal and confrontational, but I saw it more as being part of the reason we were there. As college students, some of us could be quite arrogant, and testing the waters, pushing boundaries, and being provocative was perhaps something we needed to do to figure things out. Maybe I was lucky and the status quo had shifted by my time so that the population was more diverse.</p>
<p>I like Kei-o-lei’s statement: “…other schools with a narrower range of students…” Very well put. </p>
<p>Anyway, my D2 loves it at Oberlin and she is extremely difficult to please.</p>