Oberlin Con posted today on FB that decisions are going out tomorrow! Good luck out there and feel free to PM me with Oberlin questions. #SENIORPARENT
Son was accepted today. He received a very generous 80% scholarship.
Congrats!
Congrats! What instrument does he play?
violamama= son plays viola!
Yes, son plays viola. Oberlin has really offered the best FA offer upfront.
If he chooses Oberlin, there is a parente Facebook page. Lots of helpful information there. PM me if you want to be added to the group.
Congrats @violamama. My D is a freshman at the conservatory. Feel free to PM me with any questions.
@coloraturadad I would love to PM you, but I can’t. Could you please PM me because I have questions. One you may be able to answer here is just how liberal is Oberlin? I have a friend whose daughter attends, and she just went to a meet and greet with the new president of Oberlin yesterday in Chicago. The friend called me this morning and said the new president admitted that applications are down and part of the reason is the perception potential students and parents have about the very liberal atmosphere. She also said the new president is planning to take steps to make students who don’t share the very liberal views feel more accepted. When I asked her if the president said how she was going to accomplish this, my friend said she did not. My friend also said the president also said they had too much staff at Oberlin, and they were going to let people go.
Do you know about any of this?
Thanks @Scubachick I can’t PM, so could you please PM me?
violamom, I have a 2nd year violin major at Oberlin and I just sent you a private message.
I really hope Oberlin doesn’t actually sell out. In a time where music conservatories are moving towards class, racial, gender / sexual expression, and political consciousness, it’s really disheartening to see them moving back to deliberate fake-neutrality. Many of my friends chose Oberlin because of its reputation as a “liberal” school (and honestly, in exceedingly non-diverse Ohio, how liberal can it really be?) and because its need-blindness and reputation for great need-based financial aid allowed for a variety of underserved and marginalized voices to grow and develop.
Music at the collegiate level does typically require someone to come from wealth, so I understand why the conservatory is more conservative than the school itself, but for the actual president to be more concerned about selectivity and amount of applications than about the quality and composition of the student body is an enormous turn-off.
@averageviolist I don’t know who said the president was more concerned about selectivity and the amount of applications than the quality of the student body. For what it is worth, the new president is an African American female. No matter what the politics maybe, I think any college would be concerned if the the number of applications is decreasing and the endowment is being negatively impacted.
Also, good music students come from all political and belief systems, so I don’t quite understand what is meant by “selling out.”
@averageviolist my husband and I were lucky enough to hear Oberlin’s President Ambar speak at a recent alumni and family event, and thankfully that is not at all the tone of what she said. Her comment was that Oberlin cannot be the kind of place where only one sort of person with one sort of viewpoint can feel at home. And that a central part of the Oberlin education and historical reputation is an openness to ideas and the ability to respect differing viewpoints, and that that is a skill which must be cultivated and practiced. She mentioned regularly addressing students on this topic of basic tolerance and encouraging them to listen and engage in thoughtful and respectful dialogue when encountering other perspectives; and she did talk about this in regards to admissions, in terms of making sure to admit and attract students with many different viewpoints. This makes sense to me. Our family is enormously proud to have our D studying VP at the Conservatory, and Oberlin’s amazing history of tolerance and social justice is one major reason. I do not see that changing anytime soon; alumni and current students alike would riot!!!