<p>Conflicted!
Even though these schools are VERY different, I love both. NYU is closer to home and has the advantage of being in new york city but Oberlin offered some really good financial aid and the school seemed really cool. Any suggestions?
i am going to study Latin American Studies</p>
<p>Practically opposite environments, you have to choose.</p>
<p>On the one hand , you have : Smaller classes & no TAs, strong campus -based life.
but less course selection, need car for city access, and the city is not NYC</p>
<p>vs:
Big classes, yes TAs, no campus whatsoever. But more courses, and in NYC.</p>
<p>Here’s what a current NYU student recently posted elsewhere on CC:</p>
<p>"NYU has no campus, is a bunch of buildings scattered around Greenwich Village, no real sense of community; people often say they don’t feel like they’re in college but living in NYC and occasionally going to class. It’s great for very independent people who love NYC and would be bored by a traditional experience " [… snipped]</p>
<p>I’ve known a substantial number of students who’ve transferred from NYU to Oberlin precisely because of the reason that monydad cites: no sense of a campus community. It’s a big, impersonal university. Oberlin, on the other hand, has a very strong sense of personality and campus culture. Personally, I would never choose to go to college in a large city (especially one like NYU without a campus), because I very much value the intimacy and intensity of a college community. But it all depends on what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>on the other hand, there was someone on cc recently who transferred from oberlin to NYU.</p>
<p>Again, opposite environments, will be variously appealing, or not appealing, to different individuals.</p>
<p>I went to college in NYC. I wouldn’t do it again, that’s for sure. It’s a jungle. I hate having to use local mass transportation. Subways and city buses? Yuck! I had a car and parking was a major pain in the keyster. If you’re a spoiled rich brat it’s not so bad. It’s probably a lot of fun if you have boatloads of money. But it can’t match the free and cheap stuff on Oberlin’s campus or the sense of community.</p>
<p>I realize some people crave the Manhattan vibe. I was bored to tears halfway through my first semester. The only reason I stayed is because my schedule enable me to work my way through on a night shift. But I made up for it by going to graduate school in the midwest, on a campus the total opposite: big, sprawling, grassy, land grant, flagship public U with big time Division I football, basketball, parking everywhere, and tons of rosy cheeked, corn fed, midwestern, small town farm girls. It was awesome! Friggin’ paradise! No “Sex in the City” types for me.</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback. it will be a tough decision to make.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Tough decision? Are you kidding? You have an easy decision. NYU is no contest for Oberlin. Columbia might be a different story, but you said NYU. For me, two years in the midwest beat the hell out of my four boring years in NYC. Sure, there were a lot of people around --it was Manhattan–but they weren’t all that friendly. You must have a wealthy family and think about all the Broadway shows you can afford to go to and fancy restaurants you can afford to eat in. Manhattan without money totally sucks, unless you just can’t get enough of all that concrete. I’m from New Jersey, and the biggest mistake of my life was staying close to home and going to school in nearby NYC. If I could rewind and do it all over again, I’d go to the University of Nebraska undergrad before I’d go to any college in NYC except Columbia. Okay, maybe not Nebraska, but U of Colorado or U of Kansas for sure.</p>
<p>Oh well. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Your choice.</p>
<p>This is the person to talk to
[Steven</a> Volk - Home](<a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/svolk/]Steven”>http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/svolk/)</p>
<p>NYU and Oberlin couldn’t be more different, except that both have a lot of students from NY. Visit both while school is on; stay overnight.</p>
<p>
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<p>I’m not sure if you just picked some random colleges in the middle of nowhere or if you actually looked into them, but the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has some pretty great food.</p>
<p>PS: I’d say go to Oberlin, for the reasons Plainsman mentioned.</p>
<p>For me the no campus thing is a big turn-off (and NYU always seems a little messy to me), but so is Oberlin’s location. The wealth of resources and opportunities in NYC is unbeatable, especially if you are the artsy type. The best museums, the best orchestras, the best theaters, the best galleries, the best ballet companies, the best bookstores, the best concert halls, the best studios, the best publishing houses, headquarters of the best magazines and newpapers,… Plus the UN itself and its many institutes, NGOs, headquarters of numerous international organizations, TV networks,radio stations…NYC really attracts the best intellectuals and artists from all over the world, whereas Ohio… Just think about the amount of cultural immersion you can get in NYC and countless job/intern opportunities from which you can benefit.</p>
<p>I would choose Oberlin over NYU if we are talking about the academic institutions alone, but when you consider the locations of both, it really is a tough decision.</p>
<p>I see NYC as a great place to visit… but an icky place to live. The cultural institutions of NY are top-notch: there are great internships available. A lot of Obies go to NYC to do interships over WT, or summer. Still, when you’re in college, an internship isn’t the thing I’d be focusing on: it’d be my classes and my community. </p>
<p>NYU and Oberlin do academics very differently. NYU has a core curriculum that’s very inflexible. Oberlin has no core, and very flexible distribution requirements. 2,800 students versus 40,000 students… </p>
<p>NYC is expensive. Unless you score an amazing job, affording things beyond necessities is hard. Nights out are pricey. At Oberlin… not so much. Rent, entertainment and food is cheap.
ex. On Monday, World Inferno Friendship Society played in Oberlin – 4$ Students; 10$ Non-students. In NYC, at Music Hall of Williamsberg, WIFS = 20$
Average meal cost Oberlin-- 5-7$
Average off-campus housing cost (1 room; shared kitchen, bathroom) – $200-300/mo</p>
<p>The environment is the issue. I know kids who just love NYC. Others feel it’s really important to have an enclosed, traditional campus. You have two great choices. If you can visit for a day at each school to experience “a day in the life of…” , it would be helpful.</p>
<p>As someone who has taught at NYU and who has a kid at Oberlin, I have to agree that the two places couldn’t be more different. Both great institutions in their own ways. However, for my money, Oberlin is a much stronger place for an undergraduate education. Learning not onlytakes place not only in the classroom, but in every aspect of the small, tight-knit community you’ll be part of. You will be more likely to interact personally with your professors and less likely to take big lecture classes where if you’re lucky you get to work with a good TA. Finally, the cost is significantly lower. New York City is incredibly expensive and you will feel that day in and day out. NY is a great city and if you want to live here, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. But fwiw, my opinion is that you’d get a lot more out of an Oberlin education.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Amen mchs. Think Oberlin for undergrad, NYU for grad.</p>
<p>I’m so sick of NYC. I have to go there on business trips several times a year. I hate the place. I hate the fact I went to college there. I should’ve gone to the U of Colorado or U of Kansas. I’d say Oberlin, but I never would’ve gotten in to Oberlin. LOL.</p>
<p>I feel safe in asserting that as a whole, Oberlin students have a lot more in common, temperamentally, with NYU students than they do with students at University of Kansas.
I actually know someone who turned down a full ride at KU to attend Oberlin.
Kansas is the state of Creationism in the schools, and KU is site of the Bob Dole center.
The State of Kansas is not highly represented at Oberlin.</p>
<p>Even where people may be brought up to appear more polite to strangers,on a superficial basis, that does not guarantee that you will likely share their cultural values in full measure. Or that they are any warmer on a non-superficial basis.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Good and valid points, monydad. But I’m thinking back to when I was ready for college (way back, LOL). I wasn’t as liberal as my kids. I’m a registered Independent. I could’ve gotten along with classmates who were right of center and classmates who were left of center. And Lawrence, Kansas, from what I"ve heard, is not exactly a hotbed of hate. Not back then, and certainly not today. University of Kansas is a lot more liberal than Kansas State University. I would never go to Kansas State.</p>
<p>I grew up in the northeast and went to college in NYC. I’m African American. The white people I’ve met imy lifetime who have seemed least “concerned” about the color of my skin were white people from the midwest. The people who have been most “tribal” in reaction to me have been white ethnics from the northeast. </p>
<p>Quick example. Until I got to the point where I could afford snazzy new cars like Acuras and Mercedes Benzes, I used to drive older cars of questionable reliability. Experiencing breakdowns and ditching onto a road shoulder and raising my hood in those pre-cell phone days happened to me several times in NY-NJ and in the midwest. In the northeast, no white person ever pulled over to help me out or just to ask if they could do anything. Not once, even on busy roads. It wasn’t until I moved to the midwest that I experienced white people pulling over to see if a young, muscular black guy needed help. Twice white WOMEN who were alone pulled over, got out of their cars and marched right up to me to ask if they could help. It happened once on a busy road and the second time on a deserted road. They showed no fear of me, and “no” they weren’t lady cops. It did surprise me, I’ll admit. But it gave me, an African American, a very different feeling about the midwest versus the northeast. </p>
<p>I realilze I’m generalizing. Everyone in the northeast isn’t race conscious, and everyone in the midwest isn’t color blind. I think it’s a matter of proportion. It wasn’t that I never felt prejudice in the midwest but I didn’t experience a constant daily reminder of being “different” like I did growing up in the northeast.</p>
<p>The midwest is not a monolith.
I’m guessing you might not like Kansas so much as some of those other places.</p>
<p>The town of Lawrence Kansas is liberal, reflecting both its history and the values of the faculty who live there. But the student body at the university reflects the values of the families, generally not from Lawrence, that sent them there.</p>