<p>I got accepted into both Oberlin and Reed and I love them both. Oberlin gave me substantially more money (11,000 annually) and if I get accepted into the conservatory that is definately where I will go. But If I do not I have a serious question on my hand Oberlin vs. Reed. How are they different. Does Reed have ANY music to speak of. I really love the senior thesis aspect of Reed. Is Reed or Oberlin better for graduate school?</p>
<p>11,000 more per year sounds like a lot of money to me. I certainly wouldn’t take on that as personal debt in order to go to Reed. I’d imagine Oberlin has an honors program that allows you to do a senior thesis; most colleges do. I wouldn’t worry about going on to graduate school; either school will do fine in that regard.</p>
<p>If you do reasonably well at Oberlin you will be invited to pursue departmental Honors, which will involve writing a thesis. I personally think it’s better to have this option at your election rather than mandatory, because down the road it’s possible you may no longer wish to do it.</p>
<p>Reed has a mandatory freshman “Western Humanities” course, Oberlin has conventional distribution requirements & various elective freshman seminars. I would think Portand vs. Cleveland exurbs is big difference. Oberlin is permeated with music.</p>
<p>I’m guessing Oberlin has a larger enrollment, which might mean larger course selection and more student activities.</p>
<p>Oberlin will always be much better for music. DD1 and I visited Reed and their music didn’t impress me at all (though there are offerings as I recall).</p>
<p>If music is important enough to you that you applied for the conservatory, you will be very disappointed by the music available at Reed.</p>