Should Oberlin Students and Parents Cry or Celebrate?

<p>Princeton Review put out a list of the Top 10 colleges with the most liberal students. Not the 10 most liberal colleges. The ten colleges with the most liberal STUDENTS. Oberlin did not make the list!</p>

<p>Should we cry or celebrate? Does anyone agree that Oberlin does NOT belong on the Top 10 list? </p>

<p>I know, I know. Rankings are complete B.S. But the Princeton Review is a somewhat credible organization. If nothing else, this puts to lie the meme that Oberlin students "let the freak flag fly" as some passersby have asserted in recent months. Perhaps today's Oberlin is a lot more mainstream than people think. </p>

<p>The</a> Top 10 Colleges With The Most Liberal Students</p>

<p>If I remember correctly, PRs “Best” lists are based on votes from students. If that is still true, I would read them with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>Shennie is correct: Princeton Review “surveys” represent random responses from students, totally unscientifically distributed. Most Oberlin students probably don’t bother to fill them out–they’re meaningless.</p>

<p>As a parent, I’m at a place where this stuff matters not. When it comes to Oberlin, I cry over the tuition bill but then I celebrate the extra room we now have for guests or maybe to just sit and read.</p>

<p>being less than most liberal does not mean more mainstream</p>

<p>my impression of Oberlin is that it is less doctrinaire/more libertarian than most schools . . . means that Oberlin students are less concerned with what students’ politics are . . . more open to other views than many other campuses.</p>

<p>I love the tag line on the article you linked to, Plainsman – “Interested in discussing the merits of John Kerry in the dining hall?” I’ve never discussed John Kerry in the dining hall at Oberlin, but I have discussed the pros and cons of violent vs. nonviolent direct action, in an egalitarian student-run co-operative, while eating a vegan meal made of local and organic ingredients. If Kerry in the dining hall is the benchmark they’re using for “liberal”, no wonder we’re not on the list – we probably broke their rating system ;)</p>

<p>In all seriousness, this says more about Oberlin students’ disinterest in the Princeton Review’s surveys, and the fallibility of the rankings, than anything else. I notice we’re not on the list of the most LGBT-friendly schools this year, either, and I think anyone would be hard-pressed to argue that Oberlin doesn’t belong there.</p>

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<p>Yup, quaere, I too thought that was weird. Even weirder were some of the schools that did make that particular list. I find these various lists more amusing than anything else. </p>

<p>But regarding the most liberal students list, it is hard for me to understand how the students at Macalester could be numero uno on the liberal students list and Oberlin nowhere in sight. It seems to me the student bodies at Macalester and Oberlin would be comparable. I also didn’t see either Wesleyan or Swarthmore on the list.</p>

<p>Plainsman, it seems to me the obvious answer is that Macalester students voted and Oberlin, Wesleyan, and Swarthmore students didn’t. Maybe there was some sort of concerted campaign at Macalester–there certainly wasn’t at Oberlin. Hence Macalester got more votes. Nothing more mysterious than that. It’s just not something Oberlin students think is important.</p>

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<p>That is a great change from what I experienced at Oberlin in the mid-late '90s. There was still some intolerance for those with centrist and conservative-learning political views when I was there and I heard it was more so in previous decades from older alums. One older alum from the '80s even posted in a publicly viewable FB thread that “conservatives were not welcomed” in her time there. </p>

<p>However, from what I’ve observed from more recent graduates of the last decade, they seem to have a much more “live and let live” attitude like you said. Ironically, that means many classmates from my time…including some friends would not have felt as home at Oberlin now as opposed to back in our day because they feel it is “less radical/activist” and some of them would even say “becoming too conservative”. In so doing, I found it interesting they’re repeating the same canards I’ve heard from older alums who felt the same way about the Oberlin of the mid-late '90s.</p>

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<p>At least there’s one thing that has remained constant among Obies over time. :)</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, do current Obies/recent graduates have a similar non-interest or even disdain for college rankings? Recalled a few letters to the alumni magazine a few years back criticizing the increasing concern/interest in Oberlin’s USNWR rankings as antithetical to Oberlin’s values as they interpreted it.</p>

<p>@cobrat - Keep an eye out for our next alumni magazine headed your way soon; there’s an excellent article about rankings.</p>