Liberal Arts Schools in Ohio

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Can anyone shed some light on Wooster? It looks like a great option for dd who is interested in science research as a career, but it’s so hard to tell the quality of the professors and the actual rigor of the curriculum from brochures and websites. Grad school admission will be important.

Have you been to Wooster? I am from Ohio and wouldn't live in Wooster. There is nothing there.

There is a good college there. It's called The College of Wooster. It has a great undergrad research program.

For $60,000 a year, you can do better.

Look at Case. It is a great school.

But it’s in the Cleveland suburbs.

Actually, it is in the city of Cleveland.

Actually it is in Cleveland, but most students who live in apartments live in Cleveland Heights at the “top of the hill”. University Circle was an awesome place to live in 1996-2001 and it has gotten a lot nicer since I graduated. CWRU is known for having generous merit aid as well.

[Anonymous]

Another Ohio native checking in. Kenyon/Oberlin/Denison/etc. aren't very large schools so that's part of the reason why it seems like no one who's actually from Ohio goes there. I graduated from a medium-size public high school in a middle to upper middle class area (by Ohio standards) near Akron. The majority of my classmates went to Kent State or Ohio State. Akron was seen as a safety school, or where you went if you were trying to transfer after your freshman year. Miami was for rich preppy conservative kids, but always got some interest, but it is a pretty long drive from where I grew up. Ohio University was for kids who didn't like the conservative vibe at Miami. Those 5 schools get the majority of Ohio students, plus University of Cincinnati and University of Toledo/Bowling Green in those areas.

I checked my high school's website and it looks like with Miami getting harder to get into, fewer kids are going there now - only 3 last year out of a graduating class of about 350. 2 at Baldwin-Wallace, 1 at Denison, 1 at Oberlin, 1 at Otterbein. The liberal arts colleges just aren't super popular among in-state Ohio students because most people would rather just pay the lower price of a public in-state. It's interesting to see them so highly-regarded by out of staters!

[Anonymous]

Wooster is in CTCL. We visited and were pleasantly surprised. Faculty seem dedicated, students were very down to earth (in good, mid-western style). There seemed to be a strong sense of community. If you are judging the school from afar, please refrain.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a former Ohioan who attended school there from kindergarten-law school, this thread is really interesting. Very different from how my friends and I view these schools.

NP. How do you view these schools?

Top tier OH schools - Ohio State, Miami, Case
Next tier - Baldwin Wallace, Dayton, Cincinnati, Wittenberg, OU, Denison

School for freaks - Oberlin
School for farm kids - Wooster
No one goes to Kenyon and Ohio Wesleyan

Seriously - either kids went to the first 2 tiers or they went out of state. I don't know one person who went to Oberlin, Wooster, Kenyon or Ohio Wesleyon

Not sure who this poster is but I wouldn’t give them much credit if they knew nobody who went to top schools like Oberlin and Kenyon. Mine is at Oberlin and loves it - definitely not a school for freaks. And Miami is no top school. Decent school for average students but those students aren’t usually the kids who are top academically.

The PP is giving the perspective of an Ohio native, not validating your sample of one. My Cinci colleagues make fun of Oberlin because they view it as a hippie school full of stoners and weirdos. We have a small office there and people make jokes about the drugs and overly PC culture. I agree it’s a good school, but the local perspective is different from the USNWR point of view.

PP was too eager to tout Oberlin and put down Miami to bother reading the post in context.

Although it’s not just people in Ohio who know Oberlin is for stoners and weirdos. Every kid I know from this area who went there fit that profile except for one musician who was merely eccentric.

It's funny. I went to a HS that had a similar reputation. We were all stoners and weirdos. I went on a tour of Oberlin with my son and couldn't help but sense a strong resemblance. The other similarity was as Oberlin was touting its alumni's success in being elected to the National Academy of Science, I was thinking how my HS has produced the most Nobel prize laureates of any secondary school in the world. And people were right - we definitely had a disportion share of stoners and weirdos. But that's not the reason they felt the same to me - both institutions were full of scary smart folks that perhaps didn't fit the mainstream mold. And we should be grateful to these institutions that let these folks flourish.

PP you are correct in your description of Oberlin students - scary smart people who don't always fit the mold. I'm not sure who these narrow minded people are that say things like "school for freaks". Anyone who is that mainstream and fixed in their mindset can't be too successful in life so take their opinion with a grain of salt.

Average test scores of freshman class:
ACT 30-33
SAT ERW 670-740
SAT Math 650-750

Scary smart they are not

Because standardized test scores are a complete and accurate measure of intelligence? Perhaps scary smart you are not.

They are a pretty accurate representation. All of the real "scary smart" people I know get close to perfect on the ACT and SAT without trying/prep. Not a 31, which is decent but nothing special at all.

Welcome to DCUM where being in the top 5% of test takers is "decent but nothing special". Wow. Breakdown of ACT scores for those interested:

Class of 2017:
Score # of Students Percentile
36 2,760 99.9%
35 12,386 99.4%
34 20,499 99%
33 26,920 98.7%
32 33,115 97
31 39,554 95
30 47,628 93
29 52,031 91

Thanks and I agree with your sentiment but sadly, a 31 isn't going to get you into a highly selective college.

My scary smart kid is there and she got a perfect ACT score. It was her top choice and she is having a great experience.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a former Ohioan who attended school there from kindergarten-law school, this thread is really interesting. Very different from how my friends and I view these schools.

NP. How do you view these schools?

Top tier OH schools - Ohio State, Miami, Case
Next tier - Baldwin Wallace, Dayton, Cincinnati, Wittenberg, OU, Denison

School for freaks - Oberlin
School for farm kids - Wooster
No one goes to Kenyon and Ohio Wesleyan

Seriously - either kids went to the first 2 tiers or they went out of state. I don't know one person who went to Oberlin, Wooster, Kenyon or Ohio Wesleyon

Not sure who this poster is but I wouldn’t give them much credit if they knew nobody who went to top schools like Oberlin and Kenyon. Mine is at Oberlin and loves it - definitely not a school for freaks. And Miami is no top school. Decent school for average students but those students aren’t usually the kids who are top academically.

The PP is giving the perspective of an Ohio native, not validating your sample of one. My Cinci colleagues make fun of Oberlin because they view it as a hippie school full of stoners and weirdos. We have a small office there and people make jokes about the drugs and overly PC culture. I agree it’s a good school, but the local perspective is different from the USNWR point of view.

PP was too eager to tout Oberlin and put down Miami to bother reading the post in context.

Although it’s not just people in Ohio who know Oberlin is for stoners and weirdos. Every kid I know from this area who went there fit that profile except for one musician who was merely eccentric.

It's funny. I went to a HS that had a similar reputation. We were all stoners and weirdos. I went on a tour of Oberlin with my son and couldn't help but sense a strong resemblance. The other similarity was as Oberlin was touting its alumni's success in being elected to the National Academy of Science, I was thinking how my HS has produced the most Nobel prize laureates of any secondary school in the world. And people were right - we definitely had a disportion share of stoners and weirdos. But that's not the reason they felt the same to me - both institutions were full of scary smart folks that perhaps didn't fit the mainstream mold. And we should be grateful to these institutions that let these folks flourish.

PP you are correct in your description of Oberlin students - scary smart people who don't always fit the mold. I'm not sure who these narrow minded people are that say things like "school for freaks". Anyone who is that mainstream and fixed in their mindset can't be too successful in life so take their opinion with a grain of salt.

Average test scores of freshman class:
ACT 30-33
SAT ERW 670-740
SAT Math 650-750

Scary smart they are not

Because standardized test scores are a complete and accurate measure of intelligence? Perhaps scary smart you are not.

They are a pretty accurate representation. All of the real "scary smart" people I know get close to perfect on the ACT and SAT without trying/prep. Not a 31, which is decent but nothing special at all.

Welcome to DCUM where being in the top 5% of test takers is "decent but nothing special". Wow. Breakdown of ACT scores for those interested:

Class of 2017:
Score # of Students Percentile
36 2,760 99.9%
35 12,386 99.4%
34 20,499 99%
33 26,920 98.7%
32 33,115 97
31 39,554 95
30 47,628 93
29 52,031 91

Thanks and I agree with your sentiment but sadly, a 31 isn't going to get you into a highly selective college.

My scary smart kid is there and she got a perfect ACT score. It was her top choice and she is having a great experience.

Good for you. Would you like a cookie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t oberlin the hardest to get into in Ohio?

No clue. I am serious when I say that I know no one who went there. I was in the top 10% of my class, and everyone went to Ohio State in the honors program or got out of dodge.

I'd say this is true, that no one in OH goes there. I'm an OH native as well. I think, in part, it's overpriced. It is also, unfortunately, located in Lorain County. That place is a shit hole (one side of my family is from there and so I have lots of insight into that).

Honestly, I am just not a fan of Ohio (as a state). The cities, even the big ones, tend to be very provincial and inward looking. Very little sense of life outside the buckeye state. Others may disagree but that is my view. This is esp. true for Cincy and Cleveland.

There are some decent schools there but, honestly, you have to consider location.

Flame away but that's my (very informed) view having grown up there and all my family is there scattered through the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t oberlin the hardest to get into in Ohio?

No clue. I am serious when I say that I know no one who went there. I was in the top 10% of my class, and everyone went to Ohio State in the honors program or got out of dodge.

I'd say this is true, that no one in OH goes there. I'm an OH native as well. I think, in part, it's overpriced. It is also, unfortunately, located in Lorain County. That place is a shit hole (one side of my family is from there and so I have lots of insight into that).

Honestly, I am just not a fan of Ohio (as a state). The cities, even the big ones, tend to be very provincial and inward looking. Very little sense of life outside the buckeye state. Others may disagree but that is my view. This is esp. true for Cincy and Cleveland.

There are some decent schools there but, honestly, you have to consider location.

Flame away but that's my (very informed) view having grown up there and all my family is there scattered through the state.

I am a PP who grew up in Ohio and I think this is somewhat true overall. People aren’t moving to Cincinnati and Cleveland from far out of the area. It’s not like here, or NYC, Chicago, or the growing cities in the south like Atlanta or Charlotte ... the people who live in Cincinnati and Cleveland (I would include Lorain County in Cleveland) grew up there to parents who grew up there, and their grandparents grew up there and their great-grandparents settled there when they came over from Europe. There are limited job opportunities and a really powerful old-boy network. And due to the limited opportunities, people really strongly guard the relatively small number of “good jobs.” The population is also aging ... it’s just not a very vibrant place.

Columbus isn’t like that as much because of Ohio State, the state government, and having a larger population and a bit more in the way of private industry. I don’t know if there’s a large demand for Ohio State for OOS students like there is for the top regarded public flagships ... the UVA, Michigan, Texas levels. If you were going to send a kid to a liberal arts college in Ohio, I’d definitely choose one near Columbus.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that inside info. How much do you think that a city one hour away would impact the kids, if they were on a pretty self contained campus? Like would crime spill over or what? (Again, we care considering Wooster)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for that inside info. How much do you think that a city one hour away would impact the kids, if they were on a pretty self contained campus? Like would crime spill over or what? (Again, we care considering Wooster)

Well Wooster is actually in Wayne County, not Lorain. I think Wayne is one county south of Lorain but both are still considered in the Cleveland area. I honestly wouldn’t worry too much about crime - it’s not really like that. Wooster is a small town and Wayne is not a densely-populated county. It would just be a really big adjustment for a kid coming from this area to a place that has a lot more poverty and a lot fewer opportunities overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for that inside info. How much do you think that a city one hour away would impact the kids, if they were on a pretty self contained campus? Like would crime spill over or what? (Again, we care considering Wooster)

No. Wooster is in cow country.

[Anonymous]

Denison is super-hot with east coast kids right now. I think Oberlin and Kenyon probably are still considered more academic, but I think Denison is definitely part of that “Big 3.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t oberlin the hardest to get into in Ohio?

No clue. I am serious when I say that I know no one who went there. I was in the top 10% of my class, and everyone went to Ohio State in the honors program or got out of dodge.

I'd say this is true, that no one in OH goes there. I'm an OH native as well. I think, in part, it's overpriced. It is also, unfortunately, located in Lorain County. That place is a shit hole (one side of my family is from there and so I have lots of insight into that).

Honestly, I am just not a fan of Ohio (as a state). The cities, even the big ones, tend to be very provincial and inward looking. Very little sense of life outside the buckeye state. Others may disagree but that is my view. This is esp. true for Cincy and Cleveland.

There are some decent schools there but, honestly, you have to consider location.

Flame away but that's my (very informed) view having grown up there and all my family is there scattered through the state.

I'm an Ohio resident, having lived here for the last 20 years. You are right that ohio is full of inward thinking, provincial people. Also very conservative and non progressive. Don't write off Oberlin until you've had a chance to visit it. My child got in and had an opportunity to stay on campus for a few days. absolutely loved the professors and students alike. These are not your run of the mill cocky kids, but genuinely compassionate & helpful kids. Sad that we can't afford the tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t oberlin the hardest to get into in Ohio?

No clue. I am serious when I say that I know no one who went there. I was in the top 10% of my class, and everyone went to Ohio State in the honors program or got out of dodge.

I'd say this is true, that no one in OH goes there. I'm an OH native as well. I think, in part, it's overpriced. It is also, unfortunately, located in Lorain County. That place is a shit hole (one side of my family is from there and so I have lots of insight into that).

Honestly, I am just not a fan of Ohio (as a state). The cities, even the big ones, tend to be very provincial and inward looking. Very little sense of life outside the buckeye state. Others may disagree but that is my view. This is esp. true for Cincy and Cleveland.

There are some decent schools there but, honestly, you have to consider location.

Flame away but that's my (very informed) view having grown up there and all my family is there scattered through the state.

I'm an Ohio resident, having lived here for the last 20 years. You are right that ohio is full of inward thinking, provincial people. Also very conservative and non progressive. Don't write off Oberlin until you've had a chance to visit it. My child got in and had an opportunity to stay on campus for a few days. absolutely loved the professors and students alike. These are not your run of the mill cocky kids, but genuinely compassionate & helpful kids. Sad that we can't afford the tuition.

Thanks for sharing a real perspective on Oberlin. So much better than one based on repeated rumors and thoughts from those who grew up in Ohio and never knew anyone who went there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t oberlin the hardest to get into in Ohio?

No clue. I am serious when I say that I know no one who went there. I was in the top 10% of my class, and everyone went to Ohio State in the honors program or got out of dodge.

I'd say this is true, that no one in OH goes there. I'm an OH native as well. I think, in part, it's overpriced. It is also, unfortunately, located in Lorain County. That place is a shit hole (one side of my family is from there and so I have lots of insight into that).

Honestly, I am just not a fan of Ohio (as a state). The cities, even the big ones, tend to be very provincial and inward looking. Very little sense of life outside the buckeye state. Others may disagree but that is my view. This is esp. true for Cincy and Cleveland.

There are some decent schools there but, honestly, you have to consider location.

Flame away but that's my (very informed) view having grown up there and all my family is there scattered through the state.

I'm an Ohio resident, having lived here for the last 20 years. You are right that ohio is full of inward thinking, provincial people. Also very conservative and non progressive. Don't write off Oberlin until you've had a chance to visit it. My child got in and had an opportunity to stay on campus for a few days. absolutely loved the professors and students alike. These are not your run of the mill cocky kids, but genuinely compassionate & helpful kids. Sad that we can't afford the tuition.

Thanks for sharing a real perspective on Oberlin. So much better than one based on repeated rumors and thoughts from those who grew up in Ohio and never knew anyone who went there.

Oberlin surprisingly accepts only 5-6% from Ohio. It is 95% out of state and international.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t oberlin the hardest to get into in Ohio?

No clue. I am serious when I say that I know no one who went there. I was in the top 10% of my class, and everyone went to Ohio State in the honors program or got out of dodge.

I'd say this is true, that no one in OH goes there. I'm an OH native as well. I think, in part, it's overpriced. It is also, unfortunately, located in Lorain County. That place is a shit hole (one side of my family is from there and so I have lots of insight into that).

Honestly, I am just not a fan of Ohio (as a state). The cities, even the big ones, tend to be very provincial and inward looking. Very little sense of life outside the buckeye state. Others may disagree but that is my view. This is esp. true for Cincy and Cleveland.

There are some decent schools there but, honestly, you have to consider location.

Flame away but that's my (very informed) view having grown up there and all my family is there scattered through the state.

I'm an Ohio resident, having lived here for the last 20 years. You are right that ohio is full of inward thinking, provincial people. Also very conservative and non progressive. Don't write off Oberlin until you've had a chance to visit it. My child got in and had an opportunity to stay on campus for a few days. absolutely loved the professors and students alike. These are not your run of the mill cocky kids, but genuinely compassionate & helpful kids. Sad that we can't afford the tuition.

Thanks for sharing a real perspective on Oberlin. So much better than one based on repeated rumors and thoughts from those who grew up in Ohio and never knew anyone who went there.

Oberlin surprisingly accepts only 5-6% from Ohio. It is 95% out of state and international.

That sounds low to me but you may be correct. I do know they have full tuition scholarships for top graduates of Oberlin High School (or whatever the local high school is named).