Oberlin College Visit Report by momonthehill

Visit Activities:

Information Session: Yes - Due to large (HS) spring break crowd, it was held in a lecture hall in a science building. The admissions administrator spoke about what made Oberlin unique & went over the application process.

Campus Tour: Yes - Our tour guide was a bit hard to hear over traffic, but otherwise was okay.Stops included the art museum, Conservatory, dorm, Center for Environmental Studies, one of the co-ops and a dining hall.

Classroom Visit: Yes - D sat in on a literature class. The class discussions were interesting though sometimes hard to follow as she wasn't familiar with the particular book being discussed.

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Campus:

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The students seem quite friendly toward one another. On our tour students were frequently either shouting out how great our tour guide was, or calling out snark to the tour group.

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Aside from one rather grumpy dining hall employee, the Oberlin staff were quite friendly and helpful.

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The campus has a small town charm about it, the way it's arranged around Tappan Square, with the gazebo in the center.

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The buildings, aside from the dorm, looked fine. The Conservatory and the "green-designed" environmental studies bldg. were particularly impressive. Wish we'd gone up to the 2nd fl.of

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The dorm that we visited looked rather dark inside and very dated.

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Although we didn't any visible signs of security equipment (i.e., blue light stations, etc.)we felt very safe around the campus.

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Pleasant small-town campus, although it didn't feel too cut off from the outside world.

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Off-Campus:

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Some cute small stores, restaurants and coffee shops.

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Basic midwestern small town. Not much there other than the above-mentioned small shops and an IGA supermarket.

Campus Visit Notes for Oberlin College

Visit Description:

Between D's class visit, our campus tour and the info. session, we think we got a pretty good sense of what Oberlin's like. Oberlin has many impressive programs and facilities, including their Creative Writing program, the Conservatory, their art museum and the Environmental Studies Center. The campus, while located in a small town, felt like there was enough activity going on that a student wouldn't feel as though (s)he was trapped in an isolated bubble.
On the other hand, Oberlin does have a very distinctive campus culture--artsy, offbeat, and quite politically charged. This can be stimulating and inspiring to some, but by the end of our visit, D wasn't sure that she would fit in well with the Oberlin campus culture, particularly on a 24/7 basis.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

We stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn, about 25-30 min. away from the campus. Very nice, comfortable room.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

We ate lunch in the Stevenson dining hall--the food was good and there was a decent variety.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

We parked in the lot behind the admissions building.