<p>Nice try, FLVADAD, it is what it is. Just visit C<em>O</em>L<em>L</em>E<em>G</em>E<em>P</em>R<em>O</em>W<em>L</em>E*R and see what W&L students have to say about the place. I’ve simply repeated what some current students say about the school. Do you know more than they do? Deal with it.</p>
<p>I thing Macmill’s response to each of the OP’s original list is spot on. But you have a very narrow definition of the word “fit.” Just because Oberlin has a predominately liberal culture, or liberal politics are dominant within the student body, doesn’t mean people think alike. Fit also has to do with feeling included. How do people in society select their fraternal organizations, clubs or political parties? How do most people even select the neighborhoods they want to live in, to raise their children in, if money is not a limiting factor? They join or move where they believe they will fit in, where there are things and people they think they will like and get along with. Sure, I’ve known some kids who deliberately or unknowingly enrolled in a college or university where the campus culture was opposite of their personal views and values. They heard different perspectives and had some great debates, but they were also miserable, and grew detached from their alma mater from the day they graduated. They couldn’t care less about their alma mater, remember all the miserable times, donate nothing to the college, and feel embarrassed for having gone there in the first place. Michelle Malkin appears to be one of those people. </p>
<p>And I’m another one. </p>
<p>My alma mater is a well-known, conservative, private Catholic university. Back in the 70s it was even more conservative, and racial diversity was non-existent unless you were a basketball player or on some other NCAA team. I was a non-athlete, non-white, liberal-leaning kid who had no idea the school I enrolled in was so conservative it was on the FBI’s top ten list for recruiting. I was the “only” in almost all of my classes. Classmates wouldn’t speak to me even BEFORE they knew any of my political views. I dressed differently, drove a different kind of car, came from a different family background, was myself a different “color”, and had different political views. Fortunately, I eventually met a couple of other people with whom I “fit in,” but only a couple. My parents couldn’t advise me before I applied to college because they didn’t attend and knew nothing about college, and this was, of course, pre-Internet age. </p>
<p>I vowed to make sure my kids would make their own college decisions but not without me weighing in and making sure they made their decisions based on their own definition of “fit in.” But “fit” is important, be it academics, social life, or career aspirations. </p>
<p>People say college is the best four years of a young person’s life. It can be, but only if he or she makes the right decision. Where is their heart? And what and how much do they know about a school unrelated to its academic reputation? </p>
<p>My Obie daughter has thanked me for helping her avoid making what she now believes would’ve been a massive mistake had she enrolled in the conservative, Greek-dominated school, with a predominately center-right culture, that pursued her and that she initially found tempting in a “I’ll change THEM with my views” way. She loves being amongst so many other young people with whom she “fits in” even though they don’t think alike.</p>
<p>I think if Litethe Couch wants to go to OBerlin, he should, and he will be welcomed there, but be honest and thoughtul about what will make him happy. That’s all.</p>