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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We participated at the All Roads Lead to Oberlin event last week.  Really liked the campus and our student guides.  Loved the easy access to the Conservatory.  What I don't understand is the ranking Oberlin, which is #51 among National LAC per US News.  That seems low.  How is the academic rigor of Oberlin compared to the same tier National Universities, such as Case Western for biology/premed track?  How about comparing Oberlin to big public such as UIUC?[/quote]

My kid did a top STEM magnet to Oberlin. It’s very rigorous in STEM. The ranking reflects a couple things— but a big one is that about 1/3 of the students are from the conservatory. They don’t come in needing off the charts GPAs and SATs— they need incredible musical talent. USNWR doesn’t measure that.  Con kids are also less likely to graduate or graduate on time if the right performance opportunity comes along (hey— you can get a chair now in an amazing orchestra, tour with a band, etc). And they are likely to go into very low paying initial jobs. Starving artist and all that). But, the Con contributes so much to campus life— and brings in diversity of viewpoint kids, so IMO it’s worth the rankings hit.

Also, in general, the kids are more geared towards public service and less geared towards business, finance, big tech, etc. So, there lower starting salaries.  Probably lower lifetime salaries.  All that factors into Oberlin’s rankings.

That said, thinks like PhD production, Fulbright, Peace Corp andMacArthur Genius Grant production is unusually high. [/quote]

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