Help! Difficult Choice: UVa vs Oberlin vs Tufts

jlb2820
Sat, 16 May 2009 17:06:14 +0000

I actually applied to both Oberlin and Uva. I was admitted to both. In the long run, I chose to attend the University of Virginia. I was flown into Oberlin College on a weekend recruitment program for top minority applicants. This helped me decide that Oberlin was clearly not the place for me. I suppose I could share a little about the reasons why.
First and foremost, the Oberlin Campus was not stunning. It wasn’t even nice. It was basically a collaboration of buildings with little to no premier architectural design. For me, that was a huge let down. On the other hand, UVa was simply breath-taking.
Second, the students tried way too hard to be out of the box. I mean, I understand that people want to be different, but there is a fine line between idiocy and wanting to be different. This was the main reason why I chose not to attend Oberlin. Now on the other hand, Uva students are a good mix of classy, preppy, and outgoing. I am sure that those type of people are at Oberlin, but not in widespread amounts.
Third, Oberlin is expensive and not very generous with merit or need based aid. When I saw the horrible financial aid package they through at me, they were almost immediately scratched off of my list. Uva is not the most generous school when it comes to aid, but it’s a state school so you should be able to mange.
Feel free to ask me any more questions if you have them.