<p>He should visit if he hasn’t. Academically, as you can see from reading the many posts here and by exploring the website and especially the student blogs, Oberlin is a wonderful choice for someone interested in math/science and music – at least for music, it is unique among liberal arts colleges. It is far easier to get to than Grinnell and nearer to a big city. The schools seem to have a lot of similarities and probably attract many similar students, though Oberlin is “artsier”; but someone who likes Grinnell should be quite happy at Oberlin, and even happier if they like music.</p>
<p>mamenyu-thanks so much. He did visit Oberlin, but not Grinnell. I agree, I think he will have to have seen both to make a choice. I have heard that Grinnell is clique-y, and feels small. I don’t think he appreciates how remote it is either. He is a northeast kid from a major metropolitan area. </p>
<p>I was very reassured, from the visit to Oberlin, that he’ll be engaged, challenged and supported academically. He didn’t really share his social impressions with me, though.</p>
<p>I was accepted into both schools, and visited both. I was much more impressed by Oberlin, which is where I am attending. The schools are both progressive, liberal, academically challenging schools, and the students at both schools are open and friendly, but I feel like there is much more to do at Oberlin. I visited both schools on weeknights. At Oberlin, I went to an orchestra concert with one of my host’s friends. At Grinnell, I sat in the dorms.</p>
<p>Grinnell has a larger endowment and nicer facilities. For example, Grinnell has the school name and logo embossed on the paper napkins in the dining hall. Oberlin does not. Both schools are strong in science, and both have very nice science centers. Oberlin wins in music.</p>
<p>And even though both schools are in small towns, I feel like Grinnell, while a beautiful campus itself, is surrounded by a pretty podunk town in the middle of nowhere. The town of Oberlin is more charming, and only twenty or twenty-five minutes to the Cleveland Airport. Grinnell is at least an hour drive from the Des Moines Airport.</p>
<p>Grinnell is half the size of Oberlin, which could be good or bad depending on what you prefer. I did feel like Grinnell was more clique-ish than Oberlin.</p>
<p>You’re also going to find many, many more kids from the Northeast and the West at Oberlin, versus Grinnell which has a much larger population of students from the Midwest (particularly Minnesota and Illinois).</p>
<p>I’d be proud for my D to attend either Grinnell or Oberlin. Both colleges are academically elite liberal arts institutions, both are politically left (a good thing in our family), and they have similar histories (both locations were stops on the Underground Railroad). My D was born and grew up in Minnesota (except for high school) so she would feel right at home at Grinnell with all the Heartland liberals. She knows the culture. But Grinnell College is just too damn small, smaller than her high school. A small school combined with middle of nowhere location, even more so than Oberlin, Ohio, and without a world-famous music conservatory (my D is a cellist but not a music major) would feel too isolated for four years. She picked Oberlin.</p>
<p>thanks for your thoughts. He doesn’t really know what Grinnell is like since we never got a chance to visit there. Your thoughts help me orient myself so I can at least ask him good questions about what he values. I loved Oberlin when we visited, for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>Just wanted to check in here to defend the Whitman weather :)</p>
<p>Whitman is in south eastern Washington with a mountain range between it and Seattle. The weather is NOTHING like Seattle’s.</p>