@homerdog I have visited all three with my rising first year, who decided to ED at Oberlin. It hadn’t really been on her radar in the spring of junior year when we did a spring break trip to Ohio to see Denison, Kenyon and Wooster but it really impressed her once she saw it. I originally thought she would gravitate towards Kenyon because she’s a writer and already had a good friend there but she was luke warm after spending the day there because the town was just SO small. Well, there actually wasn’t a town, it was just a nice hotel and one restaurant. She also didn’t like that there was only one dining option. She liked Denison a lot more than I expected and had the stats to get great merit from them so it was exciting. She said the students were very friendly and the classes were interesting. She’s not looking for greek life but they convinced her it wasn’t a big deal if she didn’t. The town of Denison was cute, though a bit of a walk if you’re going there in the winter! The campus (to me ) was very hilly - I kept saying that I would be worried about her if it was icy. She rolled her eyes though.
Once she saw Oberlin, things changed. One thing I love is that Oberlin has regional fly-in programs in the fall and they are one of the only schools to do this. Many other schools have them for minority/under represented students but Oberlin has a program from major cities where anyone can pay something like $200 and they send a member of the admissions staff to the local airport (ours was BWI) and you travel with a group of 20 students and spend two days on campus. This meant I didn’t have to take time off of work or spend money flying myself AND she got to see campus with a group of students. A win-win.
She is not a SJW (social justice warrior) but does acknowledge there are several at Oberlin. That being said, I was expecting a lot more of that when we visited and was somewhat surprised by the fact that many students were more mainstream. What she loved most was the attitude of the people at Oberlin - smart, curious, driven but not cut throat competitive. Her focus is creative writing and cinema studies and they have great programs and opportunities for both, including a movie theater run by the college. Now that I’ve visited I can also see why she loved the town - it is a great little college town and everything is just across the street from campus. The town was bigger than I expected with several restaurants (maybe 5 or 6), two coffee shops, a brand new hotel and other shops that were cute. Things that make Oberlin unique include the art museum and the fact that students can rent art for around $5/semester, the ExCo which is a separate program of classes taught by students, faculty or people in town around topics ranging from beginning Korean to Dungeons and Dragons. They also have the option of traditional housing and dining or living and eating in a co-op. And of course there is always music everywhere and it’s really amazing - I was impressed and I only went to a jazz lunch during accepted students weekend.
Good luck to your son! Enjoy the visits!