Oberlin vs Lawrence AMA

LMC9902
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 14:37:39 +0000

@friendbullwinkle I also have a daughter entering Oberlin this fall. She is on the introverted side and not focused on politics. She’s planning to major in creative writing and after visiting last week she fell in love with their cinema studies program as well. We are told that it’s a common double major because there are classes that can count for both majors like screenwriting. It does seem like creative writing is a competitive major and they only take so many each year but the department head told students that if they’re open to criticism and willing to work across genres they have a good chance of making it. He said that many students who go in another direction are the ones who only want to write a YA novel and won’t try poetry or playwriting, which is hard in a program that wants to graduate well rounded kids. Now that doesn’t mean this is the case with everyone who doesn’t make it of course, just that many people realize it’s not what they want.

I also wanted to comment on Oberlin being remote. I think it’s about 30 minutes from the Cleveland Airport and getting there is all highway until the exit and then it’s like two miles off. It’s not like you’re driving for hours through corn fields or anything. I had very low expectations about the town and was pleasantly surprised because it was pretty cute and friendly with a great hotel, some B&Bs, many shops and restaurants and a movie theater owned by the college. The town and school are very intermingled and it seems like a nice place to spend a few years.

Good luck with the decision. It’s a great school!