<p>I don't want to be rude or offensive to anyone, but I just wanted to pass on advice that I recieved. As with most colleges, it is immensely important that you visit them before making an ultimate decision. I went through about a year and a half thinking that oxy was the ultimate school for me and that it satisfied many of the qualities I was looking for in a college. I knew a few people who knew people who went there and lvoed it... so I was pretty convinced. Before applying, though, someone told me to visit the school while I was already going to be in CA because my opinion might change. I did and my feelings toward the school completely changed. Oxy is a school for a very particular type of person; just make sure to visit and really know the school before accepting.</p>
<p>Visiting is really important. It's also important to put other peoples' input into perspective. Have a sense of what you are looking for in a college, do your research, ask for input from friends/parents/etc., visit -- but draw your own conclusions. Caligirl what's really important for you is that Oxy is not the right school for you, rather than "Oxy is a school for a very particular type of person." I don't think most colleges are strictly for one type of person.</p>
<p>My D loves Oxy, and it is her first choice. She's a smart, open-minded, constructive person who is interested in many different things, both inside and outside the classroom. She's visited twice and thinks that Oxy offers everything she's knows she's looking for now, as well as what she could be looking for later on in college. She definitely didn't feel there was a typical Oxy student -- quite the opposite, and that was something she felt made Oxy stand out.</p>
<p>Different strokes for different folks, as they (used to) say.</p>
<p>rix...nice post! Is your daughter on pins and needles waiting for her acceptances?</p>
<p>Caligirl....please share why you didn't think OXY was a good fit for you.</p>
<p>My son visited the campus last year and liked what he saw.</p>
<p>Pins and needles doesn't begin to describe it! Not too much longer to wait though.</p>
<p>please post what you found didn't suit you at oxy or 'what type of student' you felt chose to go there. we are on the east coast and cannot get to visit the school prior to 'decision time'. frankly, nobody i have asked on the east coast has ever heard of Oxy! (except the guidance counselors). so we have no sense of the 'style' of the student population. the school sounds great on paper but it worries me that it is so obscure to those who don't live nearby!
Please enlighten!</p>
<p>What kind of neighborhood is Oxy in? I Googled the area and got a hit about a gang related murder at a local youth center.
I'm a long way from Cali so can some locals tell me what surrounds this Oxy oasis?</p>
<p>The neighborhood is not spectacular, but it doesn't seem like safety is a problem on campus. Overall, it seems like Eagle Rock is a working/middle class neighborhood. The houses right near campus are nice. It's a few blocks from a busy street with a small number of restaurants and businesses. It's a quick (5-10 min) drive to Pasadena, which is full of stores, restaurants, etc. It's all relative -- we live in another urban area in California (Oakland), so we didn't see anything in and around Oxy that we couldn't "decode". </p>
<p>See this article from last week's LA Times about Eagle Rock: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-fo-journal22mar22,1,418775.story?coll=la-editions-valley%5B/url%5D">http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-fo-journal22mar22,1,418775.story?coll=la-editions-valley</a></p>
<p>It is on the outskirts of LA, 15-20 minutes to downtown LA in good traffic. It's 15-20 minutes from the Burbank airport (closer than to LAX). Southwest flies into Burbank, so that can make travel less expensive. In Pasadena, I believe you can access the LA commuter trolley/subway system.</p>
<p>The first time we visited Oxy, my daughter felt that it was "in the middle of nowhere" in a boring neighborhood, not the L.A. she was expecting, and she said she didn't think she could go to school there. We made the quick drive to Pasadena, where we were staying, and as we were driving down Colorado Blvd. (the main drag in Pasadena), passing by the restaurants and all the stores she loves to shop in (and the many she has yet to conquer), she turned to me and said "Oh, never mind." She ended up falling in love with Oxy (although unfortunately and somewhat unexpectedly she was rejected).</p>
<p>Friends of my daughter's who do not feel the same about Oxy cite the size as the main reason -- too small for them. For kids who have options like Pomona, Stanford, Tufts, it is a backup because it is not as well-known or prestigious. </p>
<p>I've never heard anyone characterize it as a school for a certain type of student, so I don't know what caligirl meant. The school is exceptionally ethnically diverse for a LAC. For my daughter, this was a huge plus. However, if a student is not comfortable with that, it could be a problem. The students seem smart and passionate, serious about academics, but plenty of opportunites for other interests and fun. It is a friendly place. On our tour, our tour guide was greeted by name by 4 or 5 professors. In the coffee shop, they only take cash or Oxy ID cards, no credit cards. We didn't have enough cash, and as I was about to go to an ATM, the girl in line behind us said "Oh don't do that. Let me put it on my card" and she had swiped her Oxy card before I had a chance to decline.</p>
<p>There's no substitute for a visit -- that intangible how a campus "feels". You could walk on the campus of the school that sounds the best and just hate it, and vice versa.</p>
<p>an alum of the school told me
"if you are on the east coast and looking for a small, intimate school in a college town, DON"T GO TO OXY. THere are plenty on the east coast to go to.
Oxy NOT in a 'college town' and there isn't much around the school. Since there isn't much around the school, kids tend to stay within the school for their activity and social life. This makes for a close knit community cuz you are a captive audience. The neighborhood is NOT good around the school... it isn't awful but it isn't terribly safe either. LA is not that accessible, nor are the mountains or ocean. Oxy kids hang out at the college cuz there really isn't any place else to go, and they become close as a result."</p>
<p>by the way, this alum also said he got a great education there and made life-long friends. He liked it a lot but said "it isn't worth coming from the east coast when the east coast has small boutique colleges in better towns."</p>
<p>driveme wrote, "Since there isn't much around the school, kids tend to stay within the school for their activity and social life. This makes for a close knit community cuz you are a captive audience. "</p>
<p>Close communities in small colleges tend to make the experience more impressive to may people. And, unlike most LAC's, Oxy has a 10,000,000 populated city at its threshhold. With such masses come a great array of cultural activities, sports, and other "stuff." If culture is not your liking, a day at the beach is minutes away. Great weather year round -- which is not included in the east coast towns. </p>
<p>A small school in that environment is not anything less than attractive.</p>
<p>lol. Why do Californians think the Northeast doesn't have great weather? They have fabulous weather! It is just different from California. Does 'warm' equal 'great"? Maybe for some people...but then again, some people like 4 seasons... fall foliage, sledding, the coming of spring flowers, summer. The east coast has great year round weather - it is just a different kind of 'great' ! Plus east also sports the ocean and mountains and cities.... lol. Careful of judgements.
Father, please take the entire post in context. The recommendaton from the alum was that there was no reason to travel to the west coast from the east for a small boutique college like Oxy. That was it. No judgement on Oxy...just on the rationale for travelling across the continent for soemthing that is in abundance in the east. Also, someone asked about the neighborhood as a 'college town'... eagle rock is not a 'college town' and unless kids are taking a trek into LA, there is nothing right outside the doors of their school. Eagle Rock isn't a great town geared to its students nor is it terribly safe. No judgement. Just an observation. To each his own.<br>
Oxy may be the perfect school for lots of people. But someone asked about the area... that is what we were told. No need to promote the school or dissuade people. Just information.</p>
<p>driveme said: east coast weather is great, just a different kind of great.</p>
<p>After having lived 18 years in the northeast, I can state without hesitation that California's weather is far greater that anything offered north of the carolinas on the east coast. </p>
<p>Blue skies are a rare commodity in the northeast's winter. Even the locals detest the weather when February comes around. Public schools give not one, but two, spring breaks to get away from the drudgery. If the weather in the northeast was considered great by its inhabitants, Miami and the Bahamas would be empty during the winter months -- which they are not. The greatest ally to Florida's winter tourism is the weather of the northeast -- including the wet spring weather.</p>
<p>Maybe, I am wrong and all spring breakers will go for a week in Maine's gray clouds and cool night temperatures next year.
Amazing how the population growth of California grows much more quickly than the other states with "great weather."</p>
<p>I can second that Eagle Rock isn't a fantastic "college town." Los Angeles is also totally inaccessible without a car.</p>