Visiting Oberlin late January

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree that Cleveland has a lot more going on than most DMV people would expect. I also think it’s a much more interesting city than DC. But I doubt that selling something based on its proximity to Cleveland will work.

Ah, dismissals of Cleveland are endlessly amusing (and totally unexpected). Haha.

Since they're going to be in Cleveland anyway, I think the point was to use that time to show that Cleveland has stuff going on (rather than just stay and dine in an airport hotel), and show that being a half hour from Cleveland isn't like being a half hour from Youngstown or a half hour from Green Bay or a half hour from Dubuque. Given the general stupidity in the DMV about what life is like west of the Appalachians, in my experience most east coasters find that Cleveland actually exceeds expectations significantly.

Not sure who you are yelling at. I lived there, and I think it’s a better city than DC in many ways. But is has a sad reputation that it just can’t shake. Plus, it’s more than a half hour away. Just as an fyi, Green Bay has a lot to offer. Don’t judge it.

It is not more than a half hour away. It’s just not.

It took me over 40 minutes, leaving from the east side of Cleveland. It did. It really did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin has a January session, so check to see whether they will be between sessions, have tours, etc.

If you want her to like Oberlin: stay at the Hotel Oberlin if you can. There’s a super cute bakery down the street and a nice coffee shop near the Apollo movie theater. There’s a cool vintage store called Ratsy’s. There’s also an art supply store where you can spend 20 minutes with kittens who are being fostered (the under of the store wants them to be socialized to get ready for adoption).

The Oberlin art museum might appeal.

Yes, OP. Please research this cute bakery (I'm assuming pp means Gibson's--but even if OP is referring to someone other one, please research Gibson's) and their recent history with Oberlin.

After what Oberlin did to that bakery, I can't imagine why any parent would think their child would fit in there. Surely your daughter has at least some redeeming qualities?

How many times are you RWNJs going to bring this up? And why would I judge the entire college by one incident (even if your version is correct)? It's an excellent academic institution regardless of what you think of it politically.

It's "one incident" that the entire college participated in, and that they were still refusing to pay as recently as several months ago (July.)
Blatantly lying and trying to destroy someone's livelihood is not "politics"--it's pure evil.

In 2016. Under a completely different admin. With different kids. Lawsuit settled. It’s been 7 years. Move on.

OP: my kid goes to Oberlin and loves it. It’s def. More liberal than the City of Oberlin, but the College does a lot of outreach— people in the town auditing classes, a pottery collective, free tuition to anyone in the HS who is admitted ED, Maker Adair’s, a Dog Fair, plus free entrance to all the cultural events. Still— it’s more conservative.

Visit the Blue Rooster, the Feve, Ben Franklin, the kittens. It’s going to be gray and snowy. But that’s Oberlin several months a year. I’d check the academic calendar to see if students are back before taking a kid. When my kid applied in 2019, he asked admissions if he could spend the night on campus and was able to. That sold it.

Be aware they are still cautious with COVID. He’s at study abroad this year, but I believe they are back to masking in classrooms with the latest wave. My kid made it 2.5 years without getting sick.

LOTS of DMV kids at Oberlin.

Yes, it happened in 2016 and as recently as July 2022 (so just 7 months ago) they were still fighting in court, denying any culpability. "Different admin and 'kids' (?)" but ones that obviously agreed with what Oberlin did, or else they wouldn't have stepped foot on the campus.
Of course there are many students that fit in with the disgusting behavior continued for (as you point out) SEVEN YEARS. As a parent, I wouldn't want to admit my kid was one of them.

They have paid. It’s over. You need to find a new hobby besides stalking Oberlin threads and ranting about this. It’s not like sex abuse was being covered up (THE Ohio State, MI State, a UC), or athletes were graduating with African Studies degrees that they literally did no work for (UNC), or Woke students shut down classes (Mt Holyoke and Haverford), or there was admission fraud (Yale). Or there have been 9 suicides in 3 years, including a soccer star who was told she would not graduate because she threw coffee a a guy who sexually assaulted a minor on her team. Plus Brock Turner (Stanford).

Name a college and I can find a mistake they made in the last 7 years.

DP. This was a really big, really bad mistake, though. Not sure if it had anything to do with becoming the 39th-ranked national liberal arts college in the key US News rankings which typically appear in September each year.

It ranks lower because the USNWR numbers dude the music conservatory students, who aren’t admitted on normal metrics like GPA and SATs. The Con is still an amazing part of the college. It’s well worth a lower ranking for students to have access to world class fine arts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin has a January session, so check to see whether they will be between sessions, have tours, etc.

If you want her to like Oberlin: stay at the Hotel Oberlin if you can. There’s a super cute bakery down the street and a nice coffee shop near the Apollo movie theater. There’s a cool vintage store called Ratsy’s. There’s also an art supply store where you can spend 20 minutes with kittens who are being fostered (the under of the store wants them to be socialized to get ready for adoption).

The Oberlin art museum might appeal.

Yes, OP. Please research this cute bakery (I'm assuming pp means Gibson's--but even if OP is referring to someone other one, please research Gibson's) and their recent history with Oberlin.

After what Oberlin did to that bakery, I can't imagine why any parent would think their child would fit in there. Surely your daughter has at least some redeeming qualities?

How many times are you RWNJs going to bring this up? And why would I judge the entire college by one incident (even if your version is correct)? It's an excellent academic institution regardless of what you think of it politically.

It's "one incident" that the entire college participated in, and that they were still refusing to pay as recently as several months ago (July.)
Blatantly lying and trying to destroy someone's livelihood is not "politics"--it's pure evil.

In 2016. Under a completely different admin. With different kids. Lawsuit settled. It’s been 7 years. Move on.

OP: my kid goes to Oberlin and loves it. It’s def. More liberal than the City of Oberlin, but the College does a lot of outreach— people in the town auditing classes, a pottery collective, free tuition to anyone in the HS who is admitted ED, Maker Adair’s, a Dog Fair, plus free entrance to all the cultural events. Still— it’s more conservative.

Visit the Blue Rooster, the Feve, Ben Franklin, the kittens. It’s going to be gray and snowy. But that’s Oberlin several months a year. I’d check the academic calendar to see if students are back before taking a kid. When my kid applied in 2019, he asked admissions if he could spend the night on campus and was able to. That sold it.

Be aware they are still cautious with COVID. He’s at study abroad this year, but I believe they are back to masking in classrooms with the latest wave. My kid made it 2.5 years without getting sick.

LOTS of DMV kids at Oberlin.

Yes, it happened in 2016 and as recently as July 2022 (so just 7 months ago) they were still fighting in court, denying any culpability. "Different admin and 'kids' (?)" but ones that obviously agreed with what Oberlin did, or else they wouldn't have stepped foot on the campus.
Of course there are many students that fit in with the disgusting behavior continued for (as you point out) SEVEN YEARS. As a parent, I wouldn't want to admit my kid was one of them.

They have paid. It’s over. You need to find a new hobby besides stalking Oberlin threads and ranting about this. It’s not like sex abuse was being covered up (THE Ohio State, MI State, a UC), or athletes were graduating with African Studies degrees that they literally did no work for (UNC), or Woke students shut down classes (Mt Holyoke and Haverford), or there was admission fraud (Yale). Or there have been 9 suicides in 3 years, including a soccer star who was told she would not graduate because she threw coffee a a guy who sexually assaulted a minor on her team. Plus Brock Turner (Stanford).

Name a college and I can find a mistake they made in the last 7 years.

DP. This was a really big, really bad mistake, though. Not sure if it had anything to do with becoming the 39th-ranked national liberal arts college in the key US News rankings which typically appear in September each year.

It ranks lower because the USNWR numbers dude the music conservatory students, who aren’t admitted on normal metrics like GPA and SATs. The Con is still an amazing part of the college. It’s well worth a lower ranking for students to have access to world class fine arts.

ok

[Anonymous]

Not sure who you are yelling at. I lived there, and I think it’s a better city than DC in many ways. But is has a sad reputation that it just can’t shake. Plus, it’s more than a half hour away. Just as an fyi, Green Bay has a lot to offer. Don’t judge it.

Well, various posters on this thread have noted that some Oberlin students they know make their way to Cleveland, so not sure why you keep insisting it’s not of interest to students. Maybe you have more demanding standards than college students looking for a short break from campus.

The point about Green Bay is that DMV types tend not to understand that Cleveland is the core of a metro area of 3.6 million people, compared to say metro Green Bay which is only one tenth that size.

‘Yelling’ ‘judging’ - are hyperbolic mischaracterizations of those who disagree with you how you usually try to prevail in discussions?

[Anonymous]

We visited Oberlin and Kenyon last summer. Kenyon was literally in the middle of nowhere- corn fields- and they made many mentions of this on the tour- that you have to want to be there. Oberlin was okay, but if you aren’t a music student (my kid is not) it was just kind of generic. Like it could be any SLAC. But in a depressed blue collar town. Bates had a similar vibe but much smaller and the city was bigger and grittier. All of these were crossed off the list after in-person visits.

[Anonymous]

Well guess what. Thank you for all of the advice but after talking with my daughter she said “you know what mom, I don’t want to go to Oberlin in January. In fact, I don’t want to be in OHIO, and I’ve heard the food and the dorms suck.” So I guess that’s that!

[Anonymous]

ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

Brown and Skidmore are the only ones she’s been positive about so far! Her college counselor is pushing Macalester but she doesn’t sound excited about that, either. Last year she was really excited about Fordham (we have lots of family in NYC and she loves it there), but something also soured her to it reading the bad reviews on Niche.

[Anonymous]

The day we visited my daughter's school for the first time was on an admitted students' day, and the weather was horrid. She left undecided. We visited a second time and the weather was gorgeous but there were no students on campus and she hated it. We visited a THIRD time when there were students on campus, and the weather was beautiful, and she started to warm up to it. Surprisingly, this is the school she picked, and she now loves it. I think it is most important to visit when there are students on campus, and nice weather is a bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

Brown and Skidmore are the only ones she’s been positive about so far! Her college counselor is pushing Macalester but she doesn’t sound excited about that, either. Last year she was really excited about Fordham (we have lots of family in NYC and she loves it there), but something also soured her to it reading the bad reviews on Niche.

Skidmore doesn’t give merit aid so will be almost as expensive as Brown.

I think you need to take her on more visits even if she resists. She is being narrow minded (and my kid didn’t like Macalester or Oberlin that much so I am not pushing these schools). But if you need merit aid and she wants a private school, she needs to see more of what is out there and affordable. The schools in the northeast are going to be expensive and hard to get into.

Also, Niche is going to have negative reviews of all schools. It’s like reading Amazon reviews where even the products with almost a 5 star rating have negative reviews. Read the Fiske Guide instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

Brown and Skidmore are the only ones she’s been positive about so far! Her college counselor is pushing Macalester but she doesn’t sound excited about that, either. Last year she was really excited about Fordham (we have lots of family in NYC and she loves it there), but something also soured her to it reading the bad reviews on Niche.

Skidmore doesn’t give merit aid so will be almost as expensive as Brown.

I think you need to take her on more visits even if she resists. She is being narrow minded (and my kid didn’t like Macalester or Oberlin that much so I am not pushing these schools). But if you need merit aid and she wants a private school, she needs to see more of what is out there and affordable. The schools in the northeast are going to be expensive and hard to get into.

Also, Niche is going to have negative reviews of all schools. It’s like reading Amazon reviews where even the products with almost a 5 star rating have negative reviews. Read the Fiske Guide instead.

Totally! Thing is, my kid is FIERCE. When she was 3, the pediatrician called her “relentless,” and her preschool teacher called me in and said “every year I have an ‘alpha kid’ and yours is it’” - she hasn’t changed. She’s whip smart, and a very good person and a leader-type personality, but she’s a serious challenge. And the pre-school years are analogous to the teen years in some ways! Getting her to do anything she doesn’t want to do is close to impossible and the typical parenting advice does not work with her. She does lean toward the negative. On Amazon she goes straight to the negative reviews, lol. Same for college. Good thing is she usually figures it out, and often in a better way than I would have. So hopefully the same will go for college, but it is going to be a challenge for sure.

[Anonymous]

I still think a trip could be worthwhile particularly if you find yourself in the area to begin with. Before she sees the campus, it's hard to truly rule out the college and the surrounding area. Most kids make assumptions about places they haven't been before that are not necessarily accurate. It's also important for her to have some safety and match schools that she would enjoy and Oberlin is a really easy application to send off and hopefully have as an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

Brown and Skidmore are the only ones she’s been positive about so far! Her college counselor is pushing Macalester but she doesn’t sound excited about that, either. Last year she was really excited about Fordham (we have lots of family in NYC and she loves it there), but something also soured her to it reading the bad reviews on Niche.

Skidmore doesn’t give merit aid so will be almost as expensive as Brown.

I think you need to take her on more visits even if she resists. She is being narrow minded (and my kid didn’t like Macalester or Oberlin that much so I am not pushing these schools). But if you need merit aid and she wants a private school, she needs to see more of what is out there and affordable. The schools in the northeast are going to be expensive and hard to get into.

Also, Niche is going to have negative reviews of all schools. It’s like reading Amazon reviews where even the products with almost a 5 star rating have negative reviews. Read the Fiske Guide instead.

+1

If you want merit money, look to the Midwest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

Brown and Skidmore are the only ones she’s been positive about so far! Her college counselor is pushing Macalester but she doesn’t sound excited about that, either. Last year she was really excited about Fordham (we have lots of family in NYC and she loves it there), but something also soured her to it reading the bad reviews on Niche.

Skidmore doesn’t give merit aid so will be almost as expensive as Brown.

I think you need to take her on more visits even if she resists. She is being narrow minded (and my kid didn’t like Macalester or Oberlin that much so I am not pushing these schools). But if you need merit aid and she wants a private school, she needs to see more of what is out there and affordable. The schools in the northeast are going to be expensive and hard to get into.

Also, Niche is going to have negative reviews of all schools. It’s like reading Amazon reviews where even the products with almost a 5 star rating have negative reviews. Read the Fiske Guide instead.

+1

If you want merit money, look to the Midwest.

100%
My kid and niece got generous merit from Oberlin, Grinnell, Macalester, Wooster, Kalamazoo, Denison, St. Olaf, Centre College, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ha! your daughter sounds like mine. so where will she consider?

Brown and Skidmore are the only ones she’s been positive about so far! Her college counselor is pushing Macalester but she doesn’t sound excited about that, either. Last year she was really excited about Fordham (we have lots of family in NYC and she loves it there), but something also soured her to it reading the bad reviews on Niche.

Skidmore doesn’t give merit aid so will be almost as expensive as Brown.

I think you need to take her on more visits even if she resists. She is being narrow minded (and my kid didn’t like Macalester or Oberlin that much so I am not pushing these schools). But if you need merit aid and she wants a private school, she needs to see more of what is out there and affordable. The schools in the northeast are going to be expensive and hard to get into.

Also, Niche is going to have negative reviews of all schools. It’s like reading Amazon reviews where even the products with almost a 5 star rating have negative reviews. Read the Fiske Guide instead.

+1

If you want merit money, look to the Midwest.

100%
My kid and niece got generous merit from Oberlin, Grinnell, Macalester, Wooster, Kalamazoo, Denison, St. Olaf, Centre College, etc.

That’s great! How much from Oberlin and Mac and with what stats?