<p>It looks like I might be staying in LA for college because I recently got a really awesome internship opportunity there. :) I'm not 100% sure, but I thought I should definitely look into other schools in LA. Since I still am not interested in staying at UCLA, I've turned my attention to Occidental. It sounds like it might fit me very well; a small LAC, quirky and liberal, offers the major I want, near artsy communities, et cetera. It also seems pretty prestigious, according to most rankings. </p>
<p>I'm just wondering why most people on this board never mention it when suggesting great LACs to people. Is there anything I should know about its reputation or anything else? Will a degree from Oxy be regarded well by employers? Thanks!</p>
<p>Oxy is well-regarded. It had a Los Angeles college football rivalry going with Pomona long before USC/UCLA did. Its graduates who do well get into top grad and professional programs. And Barack Obama went there.</p>
<p>We took a look. Our college counselor at school (private) wasn’t super familiar with it but made some calls and came back with a big thumbs up. Beautiful campus, funky neighborhood but near Pasadena as you know. I think the kids are very bright there. A bit too quirky for our kid but that’s just him. Good luck!</p>
<p>Occidental is great if you want to live in LA and go to a LAC. I decided to go there instead of UCLA because of size and the intellectual climate – but that was a while ago. It has some great programs and professors who are friendly and have students over for dinner, etc. Occidental has a solid reputation among people who know academia – graduate schools, etc. – but it has never been among the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the rankings. My suspicion is that it has never cared that much about rankings. Occidental is not the kind of place that will give you name recognition, but it can provide a great education, interesting and smart students, and a cool location. BTW, one of the things I liked about it is that the campus feels like it’s outside of LA. I could “go away” to college and still be in the City of Angels.</p>
<p>I think most people don’t mention it when recommending great LACs because Oxy isn’t ranked in the top 10 of LACs. This is after all collegeconfidential where students are aiming for the very best of the best(based on rankings-I assume). Also, I think Oxy is generally overshadowed by the Claremont Colleges/USC/UCLA/Cal Tech. I’m sure if Oxy had an acceptance rate below 30 percent more people would start paying attention to it. Another thing that I think works against Oxy is that it’s primarily a residential campus. When you’re in a small school, in an LA neighborhood with not much going on, as an out of towner or as a person without a car, your social life will be limited to whatever is happening on campus. I imagine most local students tend to go home during the weekend which doesn’t help Oxy in selling itself. At least with USC and UCLA, there are thousands of students, and regardless of their neighborhood there is probably something going on every night. The same with the Claremont Colleges. The claremont colleges benefit from their location and having each other to rely on for social life, assuming you don’t like the one on your campus.</p>
<p>A side effect of this was a drop in US News ranking based upon the stats of the admitted classes. There has also been some recent turmoil between succeeding Presidents, Alumni, and the Board of Trustees that didn’t help.</p>
<p>Oxy is a GREAT school, however, and most people in So. Calif. consider it on par with the Claremont Colleges. It has a beautiful campus, lots of tradition, very successful alumni, and a good location.</p>
<p>Oxy is in a part of the country which doesn’t have renowned LACs that don’t have Claremont addresses. Since it’s not a Claremont College, its probably finds itself in a similar position to Tufts, which is among but not in the Ivy League. I think that if it was in the northeast, it’d get a lot more CC attention.</p>
<p>BTW, I like the Oxy idea better than Hollins. :)</p>