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Oberlin for non-super woke
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Anonymous
Forbes gives it an A+ rating at the link you shared. |
Anonymous
Why don't you say, "very liberal politically"? |
Anonymous
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It's super woke. They all are. Don't send your right-thinking children there. Send them to Hillsdale or Liberty for true intellectual freedom. They will thank you.
they = everyone trying to get into these schools |
Anonymous
Does Liberty welcome left-leaning thinkers? |
Anonymous
DC entered Oberlin moderately conservative and left moderately liberal. No problems at all. You hear about the really out-there stuff on the news, but it's usually greatly exaggerated. You may recall that people were clutching their pearls because a student said a non-authentic banh mi sandwich in the dining hall represented cultural appropriation, but that was a storm in a teacup involving a tiny group of students, and the "real story" was not at all offensive. While I think Oberlin could have handled the Gibson Bakery fiasco a lot better, the story was more nuanced than Fox News would have it, and there are details that didn't make it into the press or the lawsuit. Not all students at Oberlin are radically liberal, Oberlin has plenty of moderates and a few conservatives, and most of the students are kind, open-minded, and accepting. |
Anonymous
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OP: I don't have a dog in this fight. But my DC and I looked into Oberlin. In doing so, I noticed a stark contrast between the comments of (a) people who actually went to Oberlin or had a DC there and (b) people with no affiliation and simply echoing shibboleths about wokeness. The former group mostly speaks positively of Oberlin and especially the quality of the academics. They don't deny Oberlin's liberal politics, but they usually opine that Oberlin's activist reputation is overstated by its critics. Basically, Oberlin students seem tolerant of everything except intolerance--e.g., it's fine to be a Republican, but if one, say, professes the immorality and shamefulness of homosexuality from a soapbox, they can expect a hard time. As for the latter group of commenters, they view Oberlin as less of an actual brick-and-mortar college with students, classes, and degrees and more of an effigy of "wokeness run amuck." This group tends to have little practical knowledge of Oberlin or other schools with similar reputations (Smith, Wesleyan, Brown, etc.) but instead bases their VERY STRONG opinions on the reputational echo chamber surrounding Oberlin.
Anyhow, in my own internet-forum epistemology, I tend to believe the former group more than the latter. My anonymous internet conclusion (which you should take with a huge grain of salt) is that Oberlin has strong academics and most students enjoy their experience there. It's definitely liberal, but you don't need pink hair and a "Meat is Murder" placard in hand to necessarily fit in. |
Anonymous
Good to know, this works for us! |
Anonymous
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I giggle when people say “woke.”
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Anonymous
USNWR ranks Hillsdale 12 spots higher than Oberlin, wokie. |
Anonymous
Lol. Stop trying to make Hillsdale happen. It’s a fine option if you want to keep your kid in some ideological bubble for both college and a career or if they are a nepo baby like Maggie Sajak. Otherwise, unless you want in on the right-wing grift complex, a real college is the way to go. |
Anonymous
Lol. I'm not trying to make it happen. It's already happening. Top 40 LAC and climbing. Meanwhile, Wokerlin is falling like a rock. Deal with it, Wokie McWokerson. |
Anonymous
I suspect the student body of Hillsdale is overwhelmingly Republican but people should actually read up on what the school stands for, which is a traditional liberal arts education (as opposed to doctrinaire postmodernism and critical theory). It's like what college used to be like. |
Anonymous
I doubt that. Like I said, it’s great if you want to work in the right-wing grift industry. That is about it. |
Anonymous
Oberlin has very poor social mobility scores. In this sense it is not a good value. Not supportive of diversity either - if social mobility is limited - diversity is frustrated. To be fair the conservatory likely contributes to this situation. It is the nature of music careers. In the late 70's, I knew their athletic director (a former Olympic gold medal winner) and he commented that it was a unique place in that it was generally considered a top 5 liberal arts college. It is a far cry from that today. Rankings should not be taken all that seriously but I find it astounding that Ohio State often is preferred over Oberlin. Full pay at Oberlin is really difficult to justify from a value perspective. I was talking to an alum and she agrees with this point - although make no mistake - a good education could be had at the school. Seeing any school through a political lens is often misleading. Oberlin is rigorous and so is frankly Hillsdale. The objective is to get the most out of either place at a price which doesn't burden the student. One odd thing - and I am skeptical of this stat - is that Oberlin reports a 71 percent gay and trans rate. Nothing wrong with this at all - but I just find it hard to believe. Long term Oberlin must address this value issue, and I am not sure their politics help in putting sufficient focus on the problem. |
Anonymous
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Speaking of rankings.
https://www.oberlin.edu/president/us-news-rankings-fail-to-recognize-excellence |