Help! Difficult Choice: UVa vs Oberlin vs Tufts

Keilexandra
Wed, 20 May 2009 18:03:28 +0000

Oberlin factually wins on small classes, and subjectively on access to professors. Charlottesville is not a big city, but it’s bigger than Oberlin, OH; Tufts wins on city. All have great postgrad reputations. IIRC, Tufts’s curricular requirements are more stringent than the other two’s. Echoing other posters, Oberlin is politically diverse within the LIBERAL spectrum–keep that in mind.

In response to jlb2820, whose post doesn’t make much sense: look for photos of Oberlin’s campus, as I visited in-person and loved the eclectic architecture (I was forewarned, too). Womb chairs on the second floor of Mudd Library are awesome. UVA’s campus, however, is gorgeous. As a distinctive LAC, Oberlin’s student body has a certain vibe–you will either be comfortable or uncomfortable–and I did get the same vibe through online research before visiting confirmed it. UVA is more diverse in “type,” being a much larger public university, although definitely a preponderance of preppy.

Oberlin meets full need and can be generous with merit aid; UVA is really expensive OOS (40k/year) and does not offer much need-based aid to OOSers unless you win one of the merit full rides. Tufts is entirely need-based aid. I don’t know how any of this applies to international students, though.