Hey all,
I am currently halfway through my sophomore year at Oberlin. Because of covid, my second semester takes place during the summer, so i have a bit of time to think about this. Though i initially got accepted after applying ED1 and thought it would be a good fit, transferring has been in and out of my mind since i first got to campus freshman year. I found the social scene here to be tolerable for a couple months, before I realized that the student body is made up of mostly socially awkward depressed people and those coming to Oberlin for an extension of their nyc private high school experience. I feel like I’m going crazy among all the people with ridiculous idealistic leftist god complexes, and the only thing saving me from this is a small group of similarly critical friends. Being from close to a metropolitan area, the tiny, rural campus feels suffocating, which only amplifies my negative feelings towards the culture and student body. I am not excited to engage with pretty much any of the extracurriculars or activities here, which really ruins the college experience for me. I am definitely not happy here and do not see these feelings changing.
However, there are a few factors that might lead me to tough it out for 2.5 more years. Oberlin uniquely offers me some things I wouldn’t have access to otherwise; the art history faculty and resources are fantastic and I have internal opportunities I would hate to sacrifice by starting over somewhere new halfway through undergrad. I really value the small class size and accessibility of the professors. Also, Oberlin has thus far dealt with the pandemic pretty well and we were able to safely have some in person classes, and with the global uncertainty rn, I’m not sure if it makes sense to try to acclimate myself to an entirely new setting. I also would likely lose whatever potential ability I may have to study abroad if I have to make up credits at another college.
If i were to transfer, I’d most likely apply to nyu (or other nyc schools, still have lots of research to do), ucla, and a few other comparable LACs with reputable art history programs (different reputations/social scenes). I’m not even sure what the point of this post is and I still have a lot of searching and contemplating to do, but if anyone has insight/transferred from oberlin to elsewhere, i would really appreciate some thoughts on this situation. I’m just worried I’ll get to the point of absolutely resenting the school if I decide to stay.