UC Berkeley, Oberlin, Macalester, or Sarah Lawrence?

Help me choose!
I go by she/her and these are my top choices at the moment - I’m fairly sure I want a small school but I am considering UC Berkeley because of how highly it’s regarded. I live in California so it would be just as affordable as my other schools which are all in the range of 30-40k per year. How much more weight (if any) does a degree from a school like Berkley have on job apps than schools like Mac and Oberlin?
I’m looking for a place to get a high quality education (studying something in the humanities/social sciences and arts) and find a solid group of friends which is why think a LAC is better for me because of personal attention from teachers and smaller class sizes. I am slightly more concerned at the social scene at my smaller school choices - will I be able to find ‘my people’ out of a smaller group?
I’m not heavily liberal or super involved in social activism although I don’t mind dipping my toe in that sort of thing - how dominating is the social justice/liberal scene at Oberlin/Sarah Lawrence?
Any advice on any of my choices would be greatly appreciated!

My opinion. The UCB name is more known. But that’s not a reason to choose a school. You need to be there day after day after day for four years.

The class sizes, likely access to profs, the pace of life…,all these things will be different.

And each of those schools have grads that have wonderful opportunities.

If you make the effort, you will easily find your crowd at the others and have life altering experiences vs having to hustle to find housing and getting classes at UCB.

UCB is a wonderful school. But pick it for the right reason, not for the name.

Mac is wonderful and in city and Oberlin in the humanities. Kids in these majors will have to work harder to find opportunity….another reason to go to the LAC…they’ve cemented relations geared toward these kids. Sarah Lawrence gives you NYC access. It’s clearly a notch below the others but does well in humanities.

Good luck.

You might match perfectly with what Sarah Lawrence offers. This isn’t a complete recommendation at this stage, since, well, I just read your post a few minutes ago. Nonetheless, I think I comfortably can suggest that SLC appear in your final two choices.

If your interests are in visual and performing arts, or humanities other than foreign languages and literatures, or psychology, according to the course offerings in various subjects listed in the catalog: https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/undergraduate/2021-2022-catalogue.pdf . Sarah Lawrence is rather lopsided in its academics, with extensive offerings (particularly for a small LAC) in some subjects, but limited offerings in others.

The others are more generalized in academics, with the usual tradeoff (greater breadth and depth of upper level courses at a large university versus smaller class sizes at a LAC).

This article, which discusses SLU and Oberlin in the context of their literature programs, may be of interest to you:

My dtr is at Oberlin Conservatory. An interesting distinction at Oberlin is the difference between the Con kids vs. the College kids. Con kids are generally more socially and politically moderate than the College kids. Yet they all live mixed together in the dorms. She is a very progressively minded kid and has most of her classes at the Con, but most of her friends are from the college because she vibes with them more.

If you’d like, DM me and I can get you in contact with her if you want!

Speaking as an alum, Macalester is a unique and awesome place. Mac is in Minnesota - a very friendly place, and this spirit and vibe extends to the student body. It’s intimate but not isolated. This makes a difference in your later years. Your first two years, it’s nice to be in a bit of a bubble. By the time you’re 21, you’ll like having access to city amenities, internships. Mac students tend to be an active bunch. It’s a little bit larger than some liberal arts colleges and it’s easy to expand your social circle - you can take classes at 5 other nearby schools and the University of Minnesota, a mega-university flagship.

Last point - California is super-well-represented on campus - second most popular state among students. Also there is a huge Mac alumni network in CA, esp. in the Bay Area. A lot of highly placed alumni in Silicon Valley and such.

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Seconding Kunjani as a current Mac student. I will also say that the arts here are extremely easy to get involved in compared to what I’ve heard about the Oberlin con limiting options. The only super competitive arts thing I know of are auditions for theater productions, but if you audition and don’t get a role in the main semester production, there are usually multiple student-led productions that you will find a place in!