Part II of our big Midwestern college fandango: Ohio schools!
-
Denison: Up for the boys/Same for me. My boys (17 y.o. and German exchange student) were favorably impressed with the the look-and-feel of the campus (although the German admitted that he generally prefers collegiate gothic architecture). There was a lot of emphasis on their ability to help students find careers (career center in Columbus, etc.). Our tour guide was cute, which surely didn’t hurt. It’s tucked up a hill from a quaint, New England-looking town that nonetheless has a decent Asian fusion restaurant tucked inside a brewery, as well as a CVS. They sampled Whit’s custard and were appreciative. The students seemed (on average) more normie than those at Macalester. Academics seemed fine. Lots of kids do summer research, which our tour guide said “looks good on your resume.” Dorm rooms were spacious and well-appointed. SO MUCH storage compared to what we’d seen at St. Olaf and Macalester.
-
Kenyon: Up/Same. It makes a stunning physical impression – beautiful architecture, a mixture of styles (some prominent collegiate gothic + interesting more modern buildings) laid out over a generous open space with a quaint village in the middle. I think the boys and I liked it even more than Denison, at least at first. The academics stood out on our tour. The dorm room we saw was depressing (but they are building two new dorms, and the upperclass housing looked interesting – lots of little houses?) The food was fine. We spent the night there and I realized that we’d basically patronized almost every extablishment in the village over our stay (a coffee house, a burger joint, the convenience store stocked with fancy snacks and essentials…) I started to have nagging feelings after eating alone in the cafeteria and watching the students. Eventually asked one of them where to take my dirty dishes and impulsively/bluntly asked “Are students happy here?” She ended up walking with me for half an hour and telling me her story. We hugged, twice. She’s happy now but had a rough time and did find the place to be a little isolating (through no fault of the school). She has made great friends, though – LOVES her professors – and said that having a car was what made a difference for her. I could really see that. It’s one fo the smallest schools we’re visiting and although being up on that hill would be beautiful, I could also see how after a while it could feel suffocating. I still have grit in my boots from walking back and forth on Middle Path.
-
Oberlin: Up/UP. I’ve been vigorously defending Oberlin in a different thread (the “ED mistake” one) but the truth is, I was wondering (especially after Macalester): is my son too “normie” for schools with a visible and pervasive counterculture? Not if that school is Oberlin. This school wowed us. The admissions presentation was given by a pre-vet student who was still wearing her boots from the barn. She talked about how so many students at Oberlin have 2, even 3 majors/minors and emphasized the school’s commitment to sustainability (they have a bunch of LEED-certified buildings and are close to achieving carbon neutrality.) Our tour guide reminded me a lot of two of my son’s closest friends (played the same instrument + D&D, even!) and he was from California, which was eye-opening for the kid (he seems to think that most kids from California properly want to stay put.) The campus is huge and the variety of interesting architecture styles makes it feel even bigger, maybe? And the town, nestled in the middle, has a bunch of good restaurants and interesting shops. It felt so vibrant after Kenyon and Denison. My son spotted a sign advertising a a badminton tournament and was hooked. The dorm room we visited seemed reasonably spacious and they have some new freshman dorms in the works. There was a lot going on around campus – a comedy show that night (free), multiple master classes and performances at the conservatory (the one I snuck into was amazing, but just casually tucked into a classroom because – so said the cellist from the Verona Quartet, who was sitting next to me – there was a lot going on and they had to put it somewhere.)
-
College of Wooster: Same/same. After such a glorious day at Oberlin, we woke the next morning to dreary rain and the exchange student got a head cold. We had to hustle out of town and drive to Wooster in time for a 9:30 class, so everyone was cranky. My expectations for Wooster were not astronomically high – I’ve read glorious reviews and also noted that a fair amount of students transfer out. They had put together a whole day for DS: a class visit, a tour, an interview, and lunch with a student. We were dragging (too little sleep). Still…campus was large and lovely. It reminded me of parts of Duke’s East Campus (although the architecture was more collegiate Gothic). We ate breakfast in a cozy cafe with amazing local bagels. The lunch in the cafeteria was surprisingly diverse (a bunch of vegan options) and reasonably tasty. DS thought the physics class was easy but that wasn’t a bad thing. (he encountered new material and it didn’t go over his head.) The new life sciences building made a particularly favorable impression. The career services office smelled like a Yankee Candle Shop, though, and we were all pretty anxious to get out of there. N.B. folks: Harvest Apple Crisp (or Caramel Latte, or whatever it was) is a good smell for home; notsomuch for work. My son enjoyed his interview with another student. So far so good. And yet…our tour guide actually started talking about how she wondered sometimes where she could have gone if she’d decided to leave Ohio. She caught herself but it was interesting. And we heard a surprising amount (from different students) about bats getting into the dorms and students needing to get rabies shots. And then there was the campus paper which featured (prominently) the low approval ratings of the student-run survey. (Since we didn’t see comparable surveys of other schools, I want to be careful not to overweight this one factor but it made an impression.) In the end I think everyone thought Wooster would be fine but it didn’t pack the same punch as the previous three schools.
Later: impressions of Dickinson and (briefly) Lehigh.