iAries

Hey all!

I thought this clarification of the "Why Oberlin" Supplement Essay would be helpful!

From Elizabeth Houston's blog -- Oberlin Blogs | Blog Entry: "The Oberlin Supplement"

"Over on the Oberlin Hopefuls Facebook page (Oberlin Hopefuls | Facebook), I recently answered a few questions about the essay part of the Oberlin Supplement, and I thought you all might be craving a bit more information.

If you're applying to Oberlin this year, you probably already know that we take the Common Application, but that we also require you to complete the Oberlin Supplement. The supplement asks a few additional questions, and also gives you the (required) opportunity to write an additional essay about why you want to attend Oberlin. The wording sometimes changes from year to year, but right now the question asks you to "Please write a brief statement that addresses the following: Given your interests, values, and goals, explain why Oberlin College will help you grow (as a student and a person) during your undergraduate years." We refer to this essay in our office as the "Why Oberlin?" essay, because we basically just want to know why you want to attend Oberlin, and what you think you're going to get out of the experience.

Everybody's different, and we like differences, so we don't have one perfect answer to this question that we want everyone to approximate. We're looking to find out a bit more about who you are, and why you want to come to Oberlin. This is helpful to us in several different ways as we do our holistic review of your application.

1) It gives us a better sense of who you are as a person and what you will add to the community.
2) It gives us the opportunity to discover your level of enthusiasm for Oberlin and how much you're really interested in attending.
3) It's another chance for us to evaluate your writing skills, and make sure that you can express yourself coherently and grammatically."

MORE HERE: Oberlin Blogs | Blog Entry: "The Oberlin Supplement"