Oberlin College

Date: Jun 30 2005
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
For what it's worth, I transferred to Oberlin from an Ivy League because Oberlin is an amazing place like none other. You can take courses on anything because if it's not offered you can teach it yourself as an Experimental College course and recieve one credit hour. You can travel across the globe if you wish to study abroad or you can do field work in a far away community during "Winter Term" (the month of January). There are poetry slams, independent movie showings, soccer games and guest speakers who will challenge your perception of the world or, at least, entertain you for an evening. The work is incredibly challenging but you will be well rewarded for your effort. There's little (if any) grade inflation but most graduate schools realize this is true about competitive liberal arts colleges such as Swarthmore, Amherest, Oberlin and Vasser so you'll have an edge. Professors are friendly and zany and the students are likewise. True, it's sometime not a very tolerant place for those who espouse conservative ideology but many, less vocal, people are genuinely interested in learning about opinions diverging from their own. While there are a lot of eccentric odd balls at Oberlin, all the students share the common trait of wanting to "change the world for the better" and are willing to work extremly hard to reach that goal. There are a lot of rich, white kids who wallow in their guilt for being privileged but most are just anxious to make the world a more favorable place for the poor and downtrodden. Obies go on to accomplish amazing feats in every avenue of life (from music to art to economics and beyond) so I feel privileged to be part of this amazing community of progressive thinkers.