<p>an Obie Dad here; the football players I met at move in day were quite passionate about their sport . . same with ruggers . . and swim team, from what I hear. In other words, within your sport you wil find students who are as passionate about what they do as at any more traditional footbal school. Pockets of passion wherever you go.</p>
<p>My take on the conservative/liberal thing is that the culture at some schools is more communitarian and at others more libertarian, and Oberlin seems more the latter than most. In other words, at some schools the culture - whether left or right - tends more toward “being one of us” . That 's the feel I got at Wesleyan and Swarthmore, that it was fairly important to be the Wes or Swattie type of student in order to be fully engaged in campus life. </p>
<p>The feel I get from Oberlin is that it’s more important to be passionate about what you do, and that students do not care as much about what your passion may be. So, all else being equal, I’d expect a conservative student to fair better at Oberlin than at most other “liberal” schools because Oberlin has a stronger strain of libertarian in it.</p>