SLAC with strong STEM
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Anonymous
Oberlin is pretty good with merit, and has a great track record with grad school and med school. My DS graduated with pol science last year and just finished first year at a top 10 law school. But he had a lot of STEM friends who all seem to be doing well. And he (and we) loved his time there. |
Anonymous
Grinnell is very stingy with merit aid. Oberlin is may too low in terms of rigor, quality and overall ranking. TBH with top 15 SLAC, merit aid is very elusive. |
Anonymous
What? Oberlin has very well-regarded rigorous STEM programs. |
Anonymous
It does. But that person just doesn’t have any clue. |
Anonymous
| Naval Academy |
Anonymous
Oh yes, agree, last year, Oberlin was ranked #39; this year, it dropped all the way down to #51. |
Anonymous
Wait until you see what happened to WM, NEU, Tulane, Wake… If you believe in the rankings that take out things Oberlin excels in and USNWR stopped considering— like undergrad teaching and small class size— and don’t feel like these are important, you probably shouldn’t be looking at Oberlin. Also, Oberlin always reports Arts & Sciences and the Conservatory together. But Con kids may come in with lower stats (they aren’t being chosen primarily for SATs and GPA) and leave altogether without a degree or take breaks/leaves of absence as professional opportunities present themselves. And the con’s starting salaries and employment outcomes stink. That’s being a professional musician for you. For that matter, Oberlin’s starting salaries are low because the student body isn’t going into engineering or to Wall Street. It’s a much more public service oriented student body. And yet, this years class had 20 Fulbrights— more than many R1s, another large Peace Corp contingent, and a ton of kids heading to grad school— including science PhDs. It depends on what you want. But Oberlin didn’t change in one year. USNWR rating system did. And a focus on outcomes that doesn’t control for the Con or understand no one attends Oberlin to get a job on Wall Street is misplaced. Oberlin excels at what it does. Especially in STEM. |
Anonymous
Is that considered a liberal arts college? |
Anonymous
I wouldn’t consider it to be a SLAC in the way that term applies to most colleges. But, USNWR ranks it as such. But it also ranks WM as National U, when it has more in common with a SLAC. One of the many issues with using USNWR as your Bible is that you either have to be ranked as either a national U or a SLAC. Midsized privates and public’s (like WM) with some grad presence (like WMs law school) or military academies get out in categories that aren’t a great fit. |