Yeah, I am not knocking Oberlin at all. Our close friends’ brilliant son decided to go there over many other great choices, and he is from Arizona. But not only is it hard for you to get to Oberlin from your home, it is much harder to get from Oberlin to Cleveland than it is to get from somewhere like Bryan Mawr to Philadelphia.
Lots of kids rarely leave their college bubble. I didn’t much, and I was at a contained campus in a medium-sized city. But I am guessing it is more important for some kids to have the comfort of having access to a larger community with whom they identify. Cleveland isn’t just farther from Oberlin than Philadelphia is from BMC, there is also no public transportation to get there. Midwest travel is pretty much all car…there isn’t a train to hop on to get to the city from Oberlin.
Again, not Oberlin bashing at all, but it sounds like proximity to a city is important and your daughter really wouldn’t have that at Oberlin.
My daughter went to Scripps, which has been admitted trans women since 2014. While they don’t admit trans men who have changed the gender on their birth certificates, they are very supportive of continuing students who transition. We attended the combined “do-over” commencement for the classes of '20 and '21 last year, and one of the speakers was a trans guy who was clearly adored by his classmates. My daughter has trans and nonbinary friends from Scripps as well as other consortium campuses. The combined population of the consortium alleviates the “too small” problem that was mentioned about some LAC’s, and the Queer Resource Center is a shared resource with lots of critical mass Queer Resource Center of the Claremont Colleges There’s also a newly-revitalized Queer Affinity Group that is Scripps-specific; the Instagram account mentioned in this article could be a point of contact: The Return of Family: Scripps’ Queer Affinity Group is Up and Thriving - The Scripps Voice Their most recent Insta post was 4 days ago, so the odds of connecting that way seem good. It’s definitely harder to tell how many trans women there are, because it’s not immediately obvious who might be amab. Hopefully the affinity group can help give perspective on that.
I agree that Pitzer could be a good choice as well (although if you’re chasing merit, Scripps gives larger merit scholarships than Pitzer does), but I don’t see any reason to avoid Scripps if the school appeals.
Thank you! I have also heard really good things about Scripps. I admit that because it’s literally on the other side of the country, it feels kind of daunting. I don’t know that area of the country well…although I’ve driven down the coast a few times! I’m not sure I really want my kid that far away but I’m open to it if she wants it. Up until now, she’s made a lot of vague pronouncements about what she might want but it’s really been me doing the research. (We’ve gotten in a few fights about it.) I think that if SHE is proactive about it, I’d go along with it. But if she isn’t, I’d rather keep her a little closer to home.
I definitely get that. My Scripps kid was seriously considering Northeastern (completely different experience, I know!) and in retrospect, it was really good to be able to get in the car and be in Claremont in 5-6 hours when things came up, whether it was just the need for a little face-time and emotional support, or a choir performance, or "Oh, look a pandemic - we have to move out at the end of the week . Of course, she had friends at Scripps who were from DC, NH, New Orleans - you name it - and they all managed and figured it out. But access that doesn’t rely on air travel can be really nice. (My older kid went to school a 4-hr flight from home, and it was fine, but we were fortunate that no big surprises came up during those four years.) It’s an individual decision, how much of an issue the longer distance feels like.
LAC’s are by their nature fishbowls, and BMC is on the smaller end of the spectrum. There have been a few references here to students “being the only TG student on campus.” The attention one gets as the “only (insert group here) student” at a small school can be suffocating. If a student thrives on being a visible “ambassador” to whatever unique demographic they belong to, they will thrive in that role. Otherwise, it can make for a very uncomfortable experience. There will naive questions from the uninitiated, and others that will treat you as an adjunct source of “diversity” to their college experience, instead of fully recognizing your full right to your own experience. If this sounds uncomfortable, then a bigger community with a larger trans network will be a better fit.
Few can truly appreciate the journey that your daughter took to get to this point, and also put herself in the position to consider these schools, so I tip my hat to her.
. Of course, she had friends at Scripps who were from DC, NH, New Orleans - you name it - and they all managed and figured it out. But access that doesn’t rely on air travel can be really nice. (My older kid went to school a 4-hr flight from home, and it was fine, but we were fortunate that no big surprises came up during those four years.) It’s an individual decision, how much of an issue the longer distance feels like.