Oberlin College Top Questions

Oberlin is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the world, without dispute (the very top in my opinion, though that might be disputable). All of the programs Oberlin has to offer are top-notch, and there is a wide range, especially for such a small school. Oberlin is very strong in the sciences, which is unusual for a small liberal arts college. At the same time, Oberlin is equally strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which is unheard of. Oberlin also requires students to complete 9 hours in each division: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences, as well as 9 hours in Cultural Diversity classes. Some complain about this, but my thought is that we chose a liberal arts education, and my problem is actually choosing a major because I like everything, so I have no sympathy for them.

Oberlin is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the world, without dispute (the very top in my opinion, though that might be disputable). All of the programs Oberlin has to offer are top-notch, and there is a wide range, especially for such a small school. Oberlin is very strong in the sciences, which is unusual for a small liberal arts college. At the same time, Oberlin is equally strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which is unheard of. Oberlin also requires students to complete 9 hours in each division: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences, as well as 9 hours in Cultural Diversity classes. Some complain about this, but my thought is that we chose a liberal arts education, and my problem is actually choosing a major because I like everything, so I have no sympathy for them.

Oberlin is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the world, without dispute (the very top in my opinion, though that might be disputable). All of the programs Oberlin has to offer are top-notch, and there is a wide range, especially for such a small school. Oberlin is very strong in the sciences, which is unusual for a small liberal arts college. At the same time, Oberlin is equally strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences, which is unheard of. Oberlin also requires students to complete 9 hours in each division: Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences, as well as 9 hours in Cultural Diversity classes. Some complain about this, but my thought is that we chose a liberal arts education, and my problem is actually choosing a major because I like everything, so I have no sympathy for them.

The academics are what you make of them. Many professors are door-always-open types: they really want you to excel and if that means sitting with you every week to review class material, then that's what they will do! I spend a lot of time with my professors outside of class because I'm a theater major and many times my professors are people with whom I'm working on a show. I came from a small High School, so I really enjoy being comfortable with my professors in that way.

Professors are super accessible. You will be friends with at least one by the time you graduate (and by that I mean, go over to their house regularly, know their spouse/kids/dog, talk about life, the universe, and everything, etc.). You will have classes you LOVE and classes you hate. Same with professors. The ones you love will make up for the ones you hate. You will find the department you love, and that will be the one you major in. (For me, it was Politics.) Expect to spend a lot of time studying. My strategy is to take classes with different kinds of work (i.e., one class that focuses heavily on reading; one that focuses on writing; one that is more math- or science-based so it focuses on problem sets or labs; and one that is in a foreign language or a practicum or something else different) to break it up. Oberlin is nice because you only have general distribution requirements (a couple classes in Math/Science, a couple in Social Science, a couple in Humanities) so you get a broad education without having to take classes that you know you won't be interested in. Oberlin's degrees are based in liberal arts and they don't offer pre-professional programs, so it might appear that Oberlin doesn't prepare you for the real world, but in reality, they offer tons of internship/fellowship opportunities. I got an all-expenses paid trip to intern on a political campaign in California for a summer through the Cole Scholars program in Politics.

Academic life can be very different depending on the major you have chosen. But one thing that crosses departmental lines is the passion of the faculty. Oberlin professors are hired to teach first, do everything else (research etc) second. Each professor is required to have open office hours each week, where students can drop by to talk about homework, problems in the class, or just to say hello. We have an inside joke here at Oberlin which goes "If you haven't been to a professor's house by the end of your first semester, there's something wrong with you". So Oberlin has a very personalized approach to learning.

Academic life is pretty varied. Students have to take a broad range of classes in the three divisions (social sciences, natural sciences, and arts and humanities) to graduate, which is natural for a liberal arts institution. These requirements are easy to fulfill though, I'm on my third semester and almost done. Also, the ExCo or Experimental College program is fantastic, which is basically student run classes on anything from Tango classes to the Office to Korean.

I was shocked at how challenging the academic atmosphere was when I arrived, and pleasantly surprised at how intelligent most people were (with some exceptions). I went to a good high school, and was always lazy about academics, and was able to glide through with decent grades without doing much. Then I got to Oberlin, with few if any serious aspirations, and realized I would need to get my act together If I was going to do even remotely well. I credit Oberlin with seeing the potential in people, placing them in a challenging environment, and expecting them to live up to expectations. I loved 95{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of my teachers and was genuinely in awe of their abilities. As much as I loved Oberlin in other regards, without the legitimacy of the education that I got It would be a completely different story.

It is very easy to skate through, riding the proverbial "B." Having intellectual conversations in the middle of Tappan Square during a snow storm is pretty pointless--or having one just about anywhere, at any time as well. People are way too serious.

This is for SCIENCE majors 'cause that's what I know about. The Oberlin faculty is unbelievably dedicated to their students. You WILL look forward to their classes. You WILL go to their office hours. You WILL have dinner with them, have a beer (shh, don't tell Finney) with them. There is a certain east-coast competitor to Oberlin that proudly boasts that it has more NSF science grants than any other liberal arts college. Big deal. That means that the faculty are into grant-getting and their own research. In every field in science, Oberlin blows away all the other elite 4-yr liberal arts colleges in the number of alums who go on to get PhDs. Why is this? Because faculty pay incredible attention to what they teach, how they teach, to helping you out in lab, to schmoozing with you about science, to bringing you on to their research projects and making you a part of it. Let me tell you how good the faculty is: I became a professor myself (at Brooklyn College) and my ideal, the kind of professor I strive to be is based on my teachers at Oberlin. They are the model. They are the gold standard.

Classes tend to be small enough so that you do get to know the professor and visa versa. Most of the time, the professors do take an interest in their students, not only as to academics, but their personal lives too.

Oberlin logo or emblem is Learn and Labor. That's all. Tighten your belts and be ready for Oberlin academics. All life is library. Students are flying in sky. Everyone has the highest intellectual characteristics. First time in life that I saw academic conversations everywhere. Anyway, you will learn and you will be prepared for Labor.

Professors are very often helpful one-on-one; some can still be distant. I feel comfortable talking to most of my professors on a first-name basis. Students are fairly intellectual; we work hard and play hard. Not like those suckers at Swarthmore. Not competitive academically. The psych major is underwhelming. I could've chosen a better school for it. I haven't been given enough guidance on grad school - I'm a junior and have NO IDEA what to do.

Classes range from 5 students in seminars-120 students in intro course, (PSYCH). I took an anthropology class of 12 students callled "Ethnographic Perspectives on Small-Scale societies". We looked at hunting-gathering, fishing, agrarian communities around the world and engaged in great conversation about the role of outside influences interrupting and affecting their lives, among many other topics. I wrote 3 papers of the Hadza tribe of northern tanzania after i had traveled there the summer before. Many classes have just papers and some have tests and papers...depends of the class and teacher. Spending time with professors outside class if rare fairly rare but many teachers are great about wanting you to attend office hours. The requirements are not bad, unless you hate the sciences and are forced to take 3 course in either math or science. It can be intimidating, but really, you can get around it in different ways. It's not so bad. Some people study endlessly, others not at all. I don't study very much and still do well (3.3 so far). It's all up to you. If you're NOT MOTIVATED you will NOT BE HAPPY. Oh, and our libraries are fucking sweet.

Education at Oberlin is definitely geared toward "learning for learning's sake," even in the conservatory. In fact, it is so much this way that many seniors find themselves at a loss when it comes to considering "life after Oberlin." In the conservatory, this is not as much of a problem because most kids just go on to graduate school. In the college, there tends to be more ambiguity--i.e. what does one do with a Classics major? The college is working on improving resources for life after Oberlin--there is now a pretty helpful Career Resources Center located in Stevenson Dining Hall. Professors are generally very open to meeting with you outside of class. Some of them even require that you meet with them at least once at the beginning of the semester so they can get to know you! Professor Beers night is, so I've heard, a great way to get to know your professors in an informal setting. There is also Azariah's cafe, in Mudd library, where you can meet one-on-one with your professors. But don't expect all of your professors to know your name, particularly in the larger 100-level courses! For first-years, first-year seminar courses are great if you want small (less than 10 students per course), discussion-based classes. The academics are pretty rigorous. Professors are demanding, expecting you to be incredibly thoughtful and non-judgmental particularly in essay writing.

Academics are a high priority at oberlin, and the professors have pretty high standards for their students. One benefit is the professor/student ration, which is small. The professors are very accessible for talking about papers, etc. Also they make an attempt (sucessfully) to learn your names. During the weekdays, most people study. Conservatory students spend on average 3 hours practicing their instruments.

Professors are where Oberlin really shines. Best in the land. Not a teaching institution, so undergraduate students get the best of both worlds: lots of research opportunities AND attention from professors. Our professors are real people, and some are confident enough with themselves to let us call them by their first names and meet us for drinks at our local bar, the Feve. In the Philosophy department, the professors got to know the students very well. Small class sizes and mandatory seminars made the whole group of majors very close. My best friends are Philosophy majors for this reason. Only one professor is a bit stilted, but his teaching is still excellent by any standards. In the Chemistry/Biochemistry department, the intro courses are the most difficult (same with all institutions by nature of the major material to be covered? maybe.) but the 200-level courses and beyond are EXCELLENT. I learned more than I ever thought I would in this major, and the professors and students both aided me. The professors and students are slightly less personable in this department, but if you ask lots of questions and don't put on airs you will optimize your education without pretention.

My professors were all very good. Usually we're on first name basis with them, even visiting ones. There is a sense of comeraderie and exploration in the classroom, you're never talked down to or even merely at. Teachers are very available at office hours or beyond; they have coffee with you, you'll see them at campus events. Some seem more like friends to me now that teachers almost; I've even gotten to work with some of them and so we're colleagues. Academics can be quite challenging, but you'll work you're way up to it and teachers are usually forthright about what they expect from you for the course. Talk to others who've taken it though. The trick is too balance your time and schedule. It can be very tempting to do too much, too many classes, too many clubs, too many shows; and that can really kill you in the end. Trying things is good, but overkill is not. Students are competitive, but mostly just to better themselves than comparing themselves with others.

The average class size at Oberlin is about 33 students, and your classes will NEVER be taught by anyone but a professor, so there is a great close-knit environment in the classroom. Professors generally know your name and are extremely accessible- they want to spend time with you outside the class and answer all your questions, and every week the club on campus hosts Professor Beers- (discounted beer if you bring a professor), which is a great way to get to know your profs in a different setting. Academics are extremely rigorous, but the competition is only with yourself- there is very little student-student competition, which is great because it means that you really have a chance to work with and get to know the people in your classes and students are very willing to help each other. I love the 9-9-9 system of requirements, because it's the perfect compromise between having a strict core curriculum with required classes and having no guidelines at all. And the few requirements we do have are very very easy to fill- I was done with all of them in 3 semesters without even trying. Students definitely have intellectual conversations outside of class- I'll never forget one time when I was walking around campus and I passed three groups of people in a row, the first discussing a symphony one of them was in the middle of writing, the next debating philosophy, and the last heatedly discussing the primaries - I thought, wow, where else could this happen but here?

Oberlin is a tough school academically and very well respected. What I like best is the opportunity to form relationships with your professors. It really is a community and they are part of it. I can often see my professors riding their bikes, taking strolls with their family, and sometimes you even get invited to their house. This can be especially useful if your in the sciences or some other research-based field where having that relationship with a professor can really give you a leg up.