Is Oberlin is the college that lost the famous lawsuit to the bakery? If so, they are too woke, period.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

Some other schools to check out: Wesleyan, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Haverford.

All of these are too woke for me.

Can you please define woke? I’ve always wondered what that means, exactly.

Anonymous wrote:Trying to decide if we should visit Oberlin or any of the Ohio schools. If DS liked SLACS liked Colby, Wes, Pomona, Vassar, and Hamilton but felt weirdly out of place at Bard and Reed, would he find Oberlin too quirky or alternative?

I sent a kid to Oberlin. Probably not for your kid. My other kid almost Ed’d Vassar, but found the other schools on your list to be too country club, wealthy, stuck up— something. She like Carleton, Macalaster, W&M, St. Olaf better. Did IR, so American, GW, etc also made the list. She didn’t like the Oberlin vibe (“it feels like it’s full of pretentious drama kids” was the reason— she had an overload of pretentious drama kids in HS, and that’s what she was drawing from I think, because drama great there, but the music is obviously the reason most fine arts kids are there. Whatever. Not the school for her. Moving on.). So if your kid likes the vibe at those schools, Oberlin probably isn’t it. But, it was absolutely perfect for her sibling. No regret on that choice.

That said our first college visit for both kids was Oberlin, Kenyon, Wooster and Denison. And if you have a kid who would go Midwestern LAC, I recommend doing this and doing it early. Most will let you interview while you are there. Do it. You can also throw Miami of Ohio in there. These are all very different schools. Denison is most country club,, Kenyon is isolated, but beautiful and homogenous and has an amazing writing program, Oberlin is vibrant, obviously full of fine arts, is incredibly strong in STEM and a 1/2 hour outside Cleveland and Wooster can be a great safety, gives amazing merit, and has a really great and unique program where you work four years, step by step towards a senior capstone. Also good in the arts. Very different vibes, locations, sizes, strengths. Oberlin’s relatively large for an LAC, because the Con is there. One of them (forgot which) is on the small side. And with both kids, their various reactions to different schools helped guide us towards which colleges to look at next. We got a ton of useful information— even for our second kid who came out convinced she would never, ever attend college in Ohio. We still had a sense she wanted a larger school, but LAC like feel, a less isolated school, a school where music performance was available to non-majors, that zero sports on campus was fine and kids running around with LAX sticks was a turn off, etc. The Minnesota LACs were more her speed.

The Ohio LACs are just a great cluster of very different LACs to get a feel for what your kid wants. And if your kid hates everything about all of them. Drop by Ohio State and see if they want a large U with football and maybe LAC isn’t right. Timing? We went summer before junior year, which was about right. Junior year was asking the list and visits on breaks.

And BTDT advice. Especially early on, the question after visiting a college is less “is this one” and more what did you like about this school? What did you dislike? And write it down in the car ride after. They start to blend together.

But, I’d do those 4 early, even if one or more doesn’t seem right on paper. They might dislike Oberlin’s vibe, but discover they do want an active campus music scene and like/hate sports being emphasized, for example. That’s valuable info.

The other loop to do, BTW, is Macalaster, Carleton, St. Olaf. It’s worth the plane ride. All fantastic. And St. Olaf can be a great safety that also gives great merit, especially for STEM and fine arts. It was my son’s safety. He got into Macalaster, St. Olaf, W&M, Grinnell, CWRU, Oberlin, Kenyon, Wooster and Pitt. Knew he wanted Oberlin. But if it hadn’t worked (and we did call and negotiate on merit to make it work without loans), them St. Olaf was his second choice. And ai would have been okay with it. I did the Minn trip with him and understood why. Special place.

As a funny aside, my Oberlin kid only applied to W&M because we required an in state school he would probably get into (and for various reasons, he was a strong admit). But he hated it. His sibling who hated Oberlin ended up at W&M and loves it so much. Life can be strange.

Happy hunting!

Anonymous wrote:Trying to decide if we should visit Oberlin or any of the Ohio schools. If DS liked SLACS liked Colby, Wes, Pomona, Vassar, and Hamilton but felt weirdly out of place at Bard and Reed, would he find Oberlin too quirky or alternative?

If your kid likes Vassar and Wes, I think Oberlin could be a fit. Lots of overlaps and commonalities with those schools (I’d say more so than with Bard and Reed).

Trying to decide if we should visit Oberlin or any of the Ohio schools. If DS liked SLACS liked Colby, Wes, Pomona, Vassar, and Hamilton but felt weirdly out of place at Bard and Reed, would he find Oberlin too quirky or alternative?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

Some other schools to check out: Wesleyan, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Haverford.

All of these are too woke for me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

We have looked at both schools. We just got back from Skidmore. What was it that she didn’t like at Oberlin? I can weigh in whether there was a difference.

I think it felt a bit too insular and remote. We went for a junior visit day but Oberlin was just starting spring break that day so campus wasn’t as vibrant as it may have been on a regular day. She also didn’t like the meal she ate on campus. Picky, I know, but these things all leave an impression on teens.

She seems drawn to suburbs near a city/town so hoping Skidmore and Saratoga Springs may be more appealing. We will wait until fall to visit (summer visits when campus is empty aren’t great from our experience). My daughter is interested in liberal arts, writing, languages, and music/theater opportunities.

I think your DD will love Skidmore! Saratoga Springs is much bigger and vibrant and upstate NY will be really pretty in the fall. Skidmore is ranked second best college food in NY... behind the Culinary Institute of America.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

We have looked at both schools. We just got back from Skidmore. What was it that she didn’t like at Oberlin? I can weigh in whether there was a difference.

I think it felt a bit too insular and remote. We went for a junior visit day but Oberlin was just starting spring break that day so campus wasn’t as vibrant as it may have been on a regular day. She also didn’t like the meal she ate on campus. Picky, I know, but these things all leave an impression on teens.

She seems drawn to suburbs near a city/town so hoping Skidmore and Saratoga Springs may be more appealing. We will wait until fall to visit (summer visits when campus is empty aren’t great from our experience). My daughter is interested in liberal arts, writing, languages, and music/theater opportunities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

Some other schools to check out: Wesleyan, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Haverford.

Thanks! Lots of these are already on the list, including SLC, BMC, and Mt. Holyoke. She probably does t have the stats for some of the others like Haverford, Wesleyan and Smith. Bard seems too remote.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

Some other schools to check out: Wesleyan, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, Bard, Haverford.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

We have looked at both schools. We just got back from Skidmore. What was it that she didn’t like at Oberlin? I can weigh in whether there was a difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

Saratoga Springs is great—it’s huge comparatively and very cute. I bet she’ll like it.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

So glad! I really wanted my daughter to love it and I was very impressed with Oberlin, but she felt a bit meh (she’s skeptical of living in Ohio). Going to tour Skidmore in the fall to see if it checks more boxes.

OP here - thanks to all who commented. it worked! She loved it!

Anonymous wrote:Get the Camus paper and go see some of the live music
Go hiking in the Arb
There is a a Frank Lloyd Wright house Oberlin owns you can tour
Go to the Art Museum
Visit the memorial for the stop on the underground railway
Definitely Blue Rooster and the Feve
The Hotel at Oberlin is nice and they have good food
They gave me a discount when I mentioned I was staying to visit a student - “friends and family”
My kid visited in 2019 and was able to spend the night with on a students on their dorm room floor, visit the observatory and visit classes
Visit Lake Erie. There is a way to Kayak

And ask admissions if your child can sit in on a class. My DC went to a class, and came out of it saying that it was exactly what he wants college to be like. He's now a very happy sophomore there!