How liberal are students at Oberlin?

forgottenboy
Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:18:25 +0000

Oberlin is very liberal, but I didn’t find it to be dogmatic and we had plenty of people who were “openly Republican,” Christian, and homophobic or bigoted. (We still have a football team, and two senior football players were expelled my year for beating up a Black kid who wrote sarcastic commentary about the football team in the Grape). I went to Hampshire before I transferred, and I hated the self-rightousness there, but most who I met at Oberlin were down to earth and there were plenty engaging political discussions. Also, the ‘gay community’ at Oberlin is not ubiquitous. You don’t have to go to Dragball, but it accounts for some of my best times at the Obe even though I’m straight. Anyway, I had an incredible experience at Oberlin, academically and socially, and I don’t think anyone should be detered from going to the school because they’re afraid of hippies or radicals, since our anarchist dumpster diving hippies and commies are a very small percentage of kids, about the same as the Randians and Republicans. I think my education gave me a huge advantage in law school, and I am now a very well compensated corporate attorney, despite having gone to such a liberal institution. I mean, you wouldn’t turn down a great job in San Francisco or New York because you think the cities are too liberal, at least I wouldn’t.