RD Oberlin College Class of 2017

<p>i am an intl, but I have not received an e-mail, or a slow mail from Oberlin. My presto page just lists my COA as 62*** and my academic performance as satisfactory. Do I contact the admission office or can I wait till d end of d week. I submitted my certification of finances s/time in march, I dont know if dat may be responsible for d delay. Also, does d fact that my presto page shows the COA count for anything</p>

<p>plmdin, I really appreciate the guidance you have provided on the numbers. I had, however, no intention of suggesting that any portion of the class is “marginal”. I suspect that the “cusp of admissibility” means that ability to pay can become a criteria for admission. Well, so can a number of other qualities, from athletic ability to geography. My guess would be that 80% of Oberlin applicants could do just fine at any college in the country.</p>

<p>When the amount of students drops to 13%, however, I wonder if one should call it “full tuition” or a surtax. Certainly, one could argue that it overstates “real” tuition. As you correctly pointed out, that is another discussion. Again, thanks for the input. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find my offspring at Oberlin in the fall.</p>

<p>Ruppy, I am pleased I could help. I didn’t mean to imply that you were suggesting they were ‘marginal’ - that was my own warping/twisting of what one of the adcoms had said about need on the Oberlin Blogs. I am sure she didn’t mean her comment to be interpreted the way I presented it. I think you’re right that it just means that ability to pay is a factor - and so are many other things. In the end, Oberlin provides merit aid to some 60% of the students without regard to need. I think that’s impressive!</p>

<p>That discussion about ‘real’ tuition is one I’d like to have some day. :D</p>

<p>@Tolanga: you should have received an email last week. You should go ahead and contact the admissions office.</p>

<p>Uh . . . yeah, the E on the end is intended to be that way.</p>

<p>Hello, International Student here, I’ve been waiting for an answer from Oberlin College for a long while now, but nothing here yet. Yes, I did email them after a friend of mine got rejected from there via email. Nothing yet, x(. Anyone else experiencing this? I don’t know what to make of this.</p>

<p>Did anybody from So Cal get any mail from Oberlin? I still haven’t gotten mine and I’m starting to get worried.</p>

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<p>That’s an interesting point, but I’m skeptical about the “surtax” idea. That concept would make sense if Oberlin’s sole source of revenue were tuition, but that is not the case. The college also has an endowment of about $700 million, which at a standard 5% payout would produce $35 million in annual revenue. That far exceeds the $10.8 million the college invests annually in merit awards, presumably to get the students it wants.</p>

<p>The college also spends about $40 million a year on need-based aid. So I suppose you could say the college spends more on aid ($40.6 million need-based + $10.8 million merit = $51.4 million total) than it takes in from endowment payout ($35 million), so to that extent there’s a $16.4 million cross-subsidization going on. But remember, that $16.4 million is coming not just from full-pays, but from every student’s tuition; everyone is contributing to a common fund to enable strong students to attend who otherwise would not be able to do so. So if there’s a “surtax” it’s shared by the entire student body at roughly $5K per student, but it’s used to enable 83% of the students to attend who otherwise might not be able to attend, and without them (it’s fair to assume) the college would likely have a far weaker student body by virtue of missing both highly qualified but high-need students currently supported by the college’s need-based FA, and highly qualified but low-need students who are drawn to Oberlin by merit aid.</p>

<p>So maybe it’s not such a bad bargain if an extra$5K/year places you admist a strong student body.</p>

<p>Just to repeat: anyone who applied by the deadline and has not yet received a response should let the admissions office know. Emails (to internationals) and letters (to US residents) went out at the beginning of last week and should have arrived well before now.</p>

<p>Well, I got a reply today, says my Decision should come through soon, like within the next few days</p>

<p>Hi everyone. I’m Cassy. I think I will matriculate at oberlin this fall. Is there any future/current Obie as well? :)</p>

<p>Admission offices don’t send out letters during the weekend, am I right? Especially emails for prospective international students I guess.</p>

<p>bclintonk, as plmdin and I noted, this is perhaps not the best place for the “real tuition” or surtax discussions. Just for the record, I disagree with a number of your assumptions, including your numbers, your definition of “strong” students, and perhaps your idea of fairness. Your points are interesting, and I would enjoy discussing them at a later date. Meanwhile, just watching my child choose a school provides me with more than enough intellectual stimulation at present. ;-). Thanks for your thoughtful comments.</p>

<p>Bah, they still haven’t answered me, I’m getting rather worried.</p>