<p>what are they? anyone?</p>
<p>I believe English and the various music majors within the Conservatory are supposed to be superb.</p>
<p>The Conservatory is internationally renowned. In the College, majors that most often get mentioned as standouts are neuroscience, environmental studies, creative writing, English, chemistry, politics... As you can probably tell from the breadth of that list, though, Oberlin's programs are pretty strong across the board. It's hard to find a weak major here.</p>
<p>I would add to that list history, East Asian Studies, classics, religion...</p>
<p>What is Oberlin's computer science program like? Does anyone know?</p>
<p>What about its theatre and biology programs?</p>
<p>Sciences are strong at Oberlin.
From what I see as a parent, it seems that there is a lot of theater and even circus performance. I attended a phenomenal performance, with student, faculty, and alumni performers, of Death of a Salesman last term, and was bowled away by it.</p>
<p>One thing to know about the theater program is that its mostly dramatic theater - no musical theater.</p>
<p>The Religious Studies department is second only to St. Olaf in PhD production.</p>
<p>Didn't they do Cabaret and Little Shop of Horrors in recent times, and Gilbert and Sullivan's Gondoliers (this Dec.)? I would imagine there is as much musical theater going on at Oberlin, if not more, than at other LACs. Much of it has to do with the mix of students in a particular year, since such things are usually student initiated. (Opera productions, on the other hand, are through the Conservatory.) There are certainly a lot of singers around...
If you look at the calendar of events, there are several theater events coming up, including student-written plays.</p>
<p>There's a good deal of interest in musical theater, but no classes on musical theater in the Theater Department. The department does sponsor musicals, though: e.g., "Assassins" a couple of years ago, "Reefer Madness" this spring.</p>
<p>Actually, there is a musical theater course this semester: "THEA 328 - Musical Theater." Besides department sponsored theater, there's also a huge amount of student lead works. This weekend, there's a playwright's festival premiering student work, a jazz opera involving Harvey Pekar (ie. of American Splendor), a "shorts" series as well as the department show of SubUrbia. Next weekend is a student-composed (as well as directed and acted) musical.</p>
<p>How's economics and math at oberlin ???? What is the international student community like ??</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about the theatre department! It really wouldn't bother me if musical theatre is not a main focus within the theatre department. While I enjoy watching muscials, I much prefer performing in plays. Is it difficult to get a student-driven production going? What about getting a part in a play or a musical? How large is the theatre department--as in number of students? Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>Anyone know how the Psychology department is? Or languages, specially German and Russian. I already know the Neuroscience department is amazing.</p>
<p>both Russian and German are small departments, but have strong faculty and enthusiastic majors; they both have "theme houses" for those who want to live with other language majors/speakers, with native speaker residents; the German department has a guest professor each year from Germany, a writer, etc., which adds to the diversity of the department's offerings. Some courses in each are taught in English. The German department also offers courses in German film (in English). The winter term offers an intensive German and an intensive Russian course. One of the "Oberlin stories" is about taking a winter term Russian course.</p>
<p>Ambitious - I can only speak from the experience of a parent. My son is a junior majoring in bio and math. He did theater all through high school and enjoyed it quite a bit. In Feb. he will have a major role in a student run play. It is his second play at Oberlin. Somebody posted an ad looking for auditioners, he tried out and got the lead part. This will also be the second student run production he has been involved in. I think that it is pretty easy for students to do this from a logistical point of view. I also know that my son has not had difficulty getting involved when he has the time to do so.</p>
<p>Just stressing some things about German already mentioned... since it is small, sometimes there's not a wide range of choices for upper level classes; however, the professors are all wonderful people and very supportive!</p>
<p>For language majors, the optimal choice would be to spend a semester or year abroad in a program in Germany or Russia; the small size of language departments is an issue at LAC's, but even at large universities, language programs are small, at least in terms of undergraduate majors, especially for languages not widely taught in high school, i.e., not Spanish or French on the coasts and German in the midwest, or Latin in some schools). I was surprised to learn that Harvard (with a Classics faculty of 22+ and graduate students teaching the entry level courses) had 1 Latin major and 2 Greek majors graduate in 2007 (far fewer than Oberlin, with a faculty of 4, who teach the entry level courses themselves except in winter term); USC has essentially shut down its German department.</p>
<p>Does anybody have an inside scoop on the neuroscience program? I know very little about it, one of the things I've heard is that it's not for you if you can't experiment on animals-THAT caught my attention, I think it would be SO interesting to work with animals in the lab, and I'm pretty excited for it. I've heard the facilities are amazing, too.</p>