<p>Oberlin is a college with a long tradition of excellence. It also has a very distinctive personality. Students at Oberlin tend to have diverse interests - which they are encouraged to explore during the January term. Oberlin’s Jan term is much more organized than others I’m familiar with. Students can take classes or engage in research on campus, but most get internships far away from the school. Sometimes those internships tern into jobs or longer commitments than a January term. Students at Oberlin are treated as individuals, so if a student decides to stay at an internship over the spring term - so be it, but they may graduate late. I’ve known a student who added a fifth year to graduate because he wasn’t ready to leave - he changed his major as an upperclassman. I’ve heard of others who decided to get a double degree after freshman year. But I think the figure of 46% of freshman as graduating is ridiculously low. At graduation, hundreds of students graduated along with my son. Some of his friends were staying for a fifth year. The difference between Oberlin and the types of schools where graduation rates are low is that kids were adding a year by choice, not necessity.</p>