Oberlin vs Lawrence AMA

MusicEdGuy
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 15:03:16 +0000

Troyus, I value what you’re saying because, again, I don’t have a very typical view of Oberlin as a student. That said, from what I have seen (and I have plenty of undergrad conservatory friends), your daughter’s experience is unfortunately not the norm for most Oberlin students. When I have gone to campus life events, I have repeatedly, repeatedly heard the phrase, “I don’t know anyone in the con” from college students upon introducing myself. There’s some of that at Lawrence, but it’s a lot less. Also, Lawrence music majors have to take a larger portion of their classes in the college than do Oberlin music majors so they’re kind of forced into intermingling more. (This also makes pulling off the double degree a little easier there.) I’ve also met very few Oberlin College students who are heavily involved in school-sponsored music whereas at Lawrence it seemed like practically every ensemble had someone who wasn’t in the con.