Poor ED choice, what to do next?

Applying to College
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Location is very much a factor in things like total application volumes and specifically ED volumes.

Not sure why you think that.

In their last available CDS, they got 588 ED applications, and only accepted 260 (44%), rejecting 328. That behavior makes no sense if they are overly concerned about filling their class.

OK, so then they were apparently targeting a total class of around 864. They probably yielded around 250 out of ED, so that implies they had about 614 enrollment slots left for RD.

They then apparently had 10009 RD applicants. That’s a lot of applicants. They admitted 2775 of those (27.7%), which implies an RD yield of around 22% (I think this is for all schools). But still, that means they rejected 7234 RD applicants.

So Oberlin does not in fact have a problem getting enough applicants, nor is it in a position where it cannot still be choosey in both ED and RD.

By the way, I happen to have recently done similar numbers for Wesleyan. It got 1047 ED applications, which is obviously a lot more (+78.1%), and admitted 424 ED (40.5%, so not so different), which probably yielded around 410 ED. It enrolled 743 students, so it only needed around 333 students from RD. This right here is one big difference between Oberlin and Wesleyan: Wesleyan gets a lot more ED applications, so even at a similar admit rate ED, it has far fewer enrollment slots left to fill in RD.

OK, then to fill those 333 estimated slots, it had to admit 1672 people RD, implying an RD yield of around 19.9%–actually lower than Oberlin’s! But again because it got so many more ED applications, it has a higher total yield than Oberlin.

Just to finish things off, it got 13,474 RD applications, so a good chunk more again (+34.6%). Despite the lower yield in RD, because it needed fewer people to enroll ED, and it got more RD applications, it had a much lower RD acceptance rate (12.4%).

Point being, yield dynamics are really not so different between Oberlin and Wesleyan. But Wesleyan gets more RD applicants than Oberlin, and a LOT more ED applicants than Oberlin, which leads to a much lower RD admit rate. But still, Oberlin is not struggling to enroll its classes, it just has to admit a higher percentage of a smaller RD pool to get there.

And yes, again this is very much in part a function of location. Indeed, I am pretty confident if Oberlin was in Connecticut, it would have very similar application volumes and admit percentages.

But its RD yield would likely not be any higher.

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64

Yes, usually colleges outside the most popular locations simply cannot afford to do that to the same degree, nor do they really have the incentives to do so. As I was just pointing out, Oberlin’s RD yield is really not bad, it is normal for a very good SLAC.

But it does have to do something to get there–namely offer merit. 354 of 863 Oberlin freshman in that CDS had no financial need but got merit, averaging $21,288. Wesleyan, to continue the comparison, does not have such a merit program (although their CDS actually shows a tiny amount of merit, not sure what that is).

This is also true of private universities in less popular locations, like say Rochester. Unlikely peer colleges in, say, Boston, Rochester doesn’t get the volumes of ED and RD applications that would make yield protection a plausible strategy. Instead, they admit high numbers kids then fight for them with merit.

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65

Just as an FYI…It’s LAC, not SLAC

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66

Yes, it is really only a small handful of colleges that do not have low RD yields. Again, relative ED volumes are the big variable behind total yields, and when you strip those out you tend to end up with low RD yields at most private universities as well–with a few famous exceptions.

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As I noted in that thread, I was persuaded otherwise.

68

Please move on from discussing yield.

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69

Or from defining acronyms. Or really, anything that’s not addressing the OP.

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70

My CIS male apolitical son applied to Oberlin and got deferred. Not an easy admit! I would not be concerned about major. Oberlin is strong across the board. In fact — if Econ and CS are comparatively less popular majors, it means more opportunities for you to stand out.

PS my son ended up going to another pretty liberal LAC and like you, he had doubts going into it. It’s now his sophomore year and he has had no problem making friends and has a girlfriend. He has really expanded his worldview which is what college is all about. I can’t imagine him being anywhere else.

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72

There’s an old saying: “If you keep looking for something wrong, you will find it every time.” If you go into something thinking and looking for the worst, that’s exactly what you will find. If you go in with an open heart and mind, you may be able to connect and have a great experience. Here is a link to the organizations and clubs on campus; look through them and see if anything looks interesting.

The whole idea of “the college experience” is a privileged one that often overshadows what college is actually for, preparing you for a career. Only you can decide to try it or break your ED agreement, take a gap year and apply to some public schools next cycle. ED isn’t a legal contract, but breaking it would likely kill your chances at any peer institutions. Personally, I’d give it a shot; it’s hard to pass up nearly free, and in today’s world, that sets you up for a better financial position than the majority of your peers. If the whole concept of activism and politics is a turn-off, maybe stick to CS instead of economics and look at an MBA after you’ve entered your career. Good luck with your decision!

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73

It’s funny – when I was considering adding Oberlin to my list, my crunchy, alternative medicine-espousing/yoga instructing/bleeding heart anarchist/Reed alumna friend said “NO! Oberlin is ground zero for crazy campus culture wars.” And then she recommended Reed. I have a tough time believing that Oberlin is so much farther out on the spectrum of political correctness than many of the other LACs that we’re going to check out (e.g. Macalester, Reed, Whitman, Clark, Vassar, Skidmore). There are certainly LACs that trend more conservative (most of them in the South) and/or apolitical. But I think the public perception of Oberlin suffers from a few media sources gleefully amplifying a couple of stories over and over again.

The FIRE rankings, whatever one may think of them, give Oberlin an “average” ranking, higher than many/most of its peer LACs. And despite the prevailing stereotype, there seem to be twice as many Obies majoring in Econ as there are majoring in some branch of Ethnic Studies.

TLDR: your overnight experience was probably at least as valuable a source of info on Oberlin as whatever vague reputation they might have in general media. They’re a solid, well-resourced academic program paired with a world-class music conservatory in a cozy college town. There will be serious students there. There will be purple hair and protests, but not more than you’d find on campuses of similar caliber elsewhere. You’ll survive.

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74

That’s funny that the Reedie thought oberlin was too radical!

Goldbug, great schools on your list. Consider Kenyon too.

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75

Visiting Kenyon next week! (along with Oberlin, Denison, Wooster, etc…)

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76

Some people were really looking forward to the Super Bowl. Me? goldbug’s college reviews . . . .

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Back to the original gist (Oberlin’s reputation), I found this article helpful: One of the most famous campus outrage incidents was badly misreported - Vox

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78

Will our decision-making process go into overtime? undoubtedly.

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“Reed lines up for the kick.”

“Looks like Mac is planning an elaborate kick-block scheme, Pat…”

“The snap is good, hold is down, and the kick is up and… good! Reed wins!”

“But wait, Pat – looks like there’s laundry on the field.”

(Ref, over the PA: “Personal foul, illegal use of megaphone during classes, Reed. 15-yard penalty. Still 4th down. Because the clock expired, we will begin the second overtime.”)

“Well now, they’re going to have to punt. Mac will get the ball back with a chance to win.”

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81

On the flipside, these are businesses - and sometimes businesses get to choose their customers.

This student ED’d and sounds like will pay very little.

Yes, ED is a choice and like you we didn’t let our kids. And no one has to ED.

Ultimately the college needs to sell its product and they choose the route most optimal for them.

I appreciate USC for not having ED but don’t begrudge those that do.

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To reiterate, if you’re not addressing the OP, don’t make OT posts. Your opinion of ED is irrelevant. If you want to start a thread about any off-topic subject, feel free.

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