Visited both the college and the conservatory today. Great campus, with lots of student energy. Love that it sits in the middle of a small town do students feel like they're a part of the larger community. Conservatory was amazing- great facilities and renown faculty. At the top of my son's list for Fall 2024! read more

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We just delivered our son to Oberlin College! He has already taken 3 courses remotely and has had an awesome experience and made some really wonderful connections with students, faculty, and the very helpful admissions and financial aid teams. Oberlin College has a proud history of being the first college in America to enroll Black students. It is socially progressive and rigorously academic! The perfect fit for my kid who is pursuing international politics, sociology, and languages. Due to COVID, all students are upgraded to single rooms made out of doubles, so there is a lot of space to live and study. We feel confident with the COVID precautions that Oberlin College is taking this fall. My kid will have 2 in-person classes and 2 remote classes this semester, and we are just hoping for a safe experience. If he has to come home and participate fully remotely, that's fine too. But he is staring this semester on campus and is loving it already! The town of Oberlin is small, tidy, and friendly. There are some shops and restaurants in Oberlin, and many more within an 8-10 mile drive. There is a hospital very near campus, which is vital for us as my kid has a medical condition that occasionally necessitates an ER visit. Greyhound bus goes through a nearby town, making trips home cheap and convenient. Everyone we met was friendly and helpful. My kid is looking forward to a great year ahead. read more

Oberlin College - Burton Hall. - Colleges & Universities Near Me - Oberlin, Ohio

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We went for brunch on the weekend. Made the reservation in early afternoon but asked to go earlier. We sat at the bar. Food is good and interesting. Want to try their dinner menu! read more

So a little while back - I had a deep desire to review Wobc 91.5 Fm Alternative Radio. I spent a whole day working on the review. Then... just as night was approaching - I realized that despite it being an unpaid and volunteer position - I had essentially worked at Wobc radio (for all of two hours) - and ultimately it could be a conflict of interest if I reviewed it (see the Oberlin mind - constantly working and constantly trying to be morally right in this world :) ) and so I decided against posting it. But each day onward I would look wistfully at that review in the "saved draft" section of my reviews Just begging to be posted. Then one recent afternoon - I realized that - it wasn't so much the radio station that I wanted to review - but rather the people and the experience - that allowed me to part of it. Because - 91.5 is Oberlin. A unique Oberlin Community media outlet for students. I was first introduced to the station through a friend who had a regular late night Wobc radio show - on which he played a stream of grind-core, death metal, and thrash - in between throwing in some off-color dark humor. Not always my kind of music, but listening to him and his friends. chortle their Beavis and Butthead laughs over the air, in between genius Danzig and Blitzkid - was something special. It was Oberlin. One semester - my friend and I had the brilliant idea - to put in a request to be radio subs.We never heard back. Until. One crazy night - we got the call. We were slated to rock out between 2:00am and 4:00am on some random Thursday. We spent all lunch figuring out our show - in which we would give out love and sex advice for two hours (none of which we were experts in - by any means), in between playing absurdly over the top -sassy "you don't need him/or her" anthem songs. We stocked up on sour patch kids, soda, did our brief training on how the radio equipment worked and went into the station with gusto and determination to rock the air. We both kept on nodding approvingly at each other - as we finally figured out how to answer the phones and began dishing out our epic words of wisdom - to intent callers (ie -friends we had coaxed and bribed to call in) Outside of our garbled love/sex advice show (which only aired that one night...shocking) - 91.5 Wobc - is stocked with outstanding well crafted and honed in programs. It couldn't be anything less. It's Oberlin. Oberlin is comprised of people who think outside of the box. Oberlin Radio is the megaphone for all those wondrous souls - who refuse to be jammed in a box. Who refuse to walk under the Oberlin arch during graduation. Who refuse to flush at Harkness, And who refuse to accept their fate - and instead seize it. Oberlin radio is a natural extension of Oberlin humor, craziness, and "wait, what?" I wish I would have taped more of those true pearls, which would stream through my disgustingly messy dorm room. I wish I would have savored - the trippy world music. The political stuff. The sexually liberating stuff. Just. A. Little. Bit. More. I hope current Oberlin students are. Trust. read more

Oberlin is a private, liberal arts college in Ohio. [Sidenote: Ohio seems to have a lot of colleges like this...] This was one of my top three choices to attend college. When I had the chance as a senior in high school to spend the weekend with a host student (a member of the volleyball team at the time), I jumped at the opportunity. My first college experience away from home! Woo-hoo! Well... I did not expect all the throngs of people at multiple parties in one evening with red solo cups and psychedelic posters and the smell of a certain plant drifting through the air. This was definitely different than high school (at least, for me). What an experience. I did not partake in anything (don't worry, mom!) but watched with awe as I saw what students did on the weekends. Memorable first experience of college, indeed. I did delight, however, in the freedom to walk around campus to whatever destination without having to let someone know (hello, mom!). Parties and craziness aside, I really did like the people here. The ladies on the volleyball team were all real -- and very interested in getting to know me. They spent their time discussing films and music and philosophy, which all appealed to me. I got that same vibe from almost everyone I met during my weekend here. People were just happy, kind of free-spirited, and seemed interested in everyone.... sort of.... like hippies. Yes, that's probably a good way to describe them: modern, intellectual hippies (and I'm sorry for kind of putting a label on them). The campus has a variety of old and new buildings spread out and yet, clustered, over several blocks of Oberlin, OH. The town itself was incredibly small and felt like it was in the middle of nowhere (very isolated for me, coming from Chicago). It was definitely its own world. A very artistic, fun world. The variety of classes and majors I heard about were fascinating too. In addition to majors like mathematics, neuroscience, biology, etc., there were 'fun' ones (in my opinion) like cinema studies, Russian, gender studies, peace and conflict studies, and the ability to create your own major, just to name a few. If you like diversity and uniqueness, this might be for you. If you hate being isolated and partying, you may not like this college. I didn't attend; I believe I was wait-listed. Had I been accepted, I still would have declined based on the location and high tuition... it was a very high contender, though! read more

I may never be president of the United States, but you guys gotta check out their bathrooms. There's like a million toilets in this place! Unfortunately for me, they have a pretty serious BYOTP policy. read more

I was scheduled for a college tour Saturday September 10th. I scheduled the tour well in advance. I drove all the way from Cincinnati Ohio to tour the campus. It was disrespectful that the admissions office X'd out my Family's names and said NO SHOW- very disrespectful, and the masks are cheap! The music department was closed. read more

This review is an homage to Darin I's. fantastic review of his alma mater, Bard College - http://www.yelp.com/biz/bEOXA26U1lLML42ltmzuwQ#hrid:2JHGNMCA1xfikQhaAlr6Ag (PS - Everything Darin says about Bard also applies here) Words of advice to Obies about to embark on freshman, oops, FIRST YEAR orientation: 1. I hope you enjoy seeing the sun. You won't see it from October till about...April. 2.Join a co-op. You will starve because the food will only be edible about 5% of the time, but you will be so cracked out on uppers that you aren't going to be hungry anyway. And you will have a LOT more fun than those losers eating cereal 3 times a day in the dining halls. 3. If you've never done drugs in your life, get ready! Because you're about to. 4.There will never be another time in your life where you will drink so much for such a small amount of money. Stop complaining about the 3 dollar entrance fee to some asshole's keg party - it will never be this good again. Also, Quarter Beers!!!! 5. All of your professors are going to be insane. And they will all know exactly who you are, especially after you get out of 100 level classes. Get used to it. 6. Say something in class. Anything. It doesn't matter if you've never done the reading. It doesn't stop any one else from talking. This is especially pertinent in English, Film or Art classes. Just start talking and don't stop. Extra points if you can somehow relate it to something traumatic that happened to you in the past. 7. Get a Nalgene bottle. No one will respect you if you don't have one. 8. Get ready to watch a LOT of accapella and a LOT of improv. Over 75 percent of your friends will be involved in one of those activities. 9. Under no circumstances are you to talk to any of the following people: anyone from Ohio PIRG and anyone from the socialist groups. They are not your friends, they only see you as fresh meat. 10. Don't do anything embarassing in front of anyone for the next four years. By the time you are done washing the puke off of you, every single person will know what happened. It's worse than the SF Yelp community. 11. Sports? What are those, exactly? 12. Go to every concert and cultural event you possibly can. It will never be this cheap or this accesible again. And besides, your friend with a car is visiting their girlfriend this weekend, you have nothing else to do and that 40s party doesn't start until 10. 13. Safer Sex Night and Drag Ball will only be cool for about 5 minutes your first year. After that, the only thing that will be fun is getting wasted on the way there. 14. You will never be able to watch any pop culture for its own sake EVER again. On the other hand, you will be familiar with things that many people aren't: how to be naked in front of other people without being shy about it (THANKS gang showers!!!!!), how to use an industrial dishwasher (hobart!) veganism, the school of americas, bike culture, the difference between transGendered and transSexual and the proper way to put on a strap on. These were all things I learned at Oberlin. ...There is no way that I can ever do this godforsaken place any justice. You were either there... or you weren't. Thank you for making me who I am. read more

Great liberal arts education, fine music conservatory, some of the prettiest little things running around campus... But those parties at the Tank co-op tore it all. Gotta love an alternative student housing community that included a line item for pot on their Thanksgiving dinner budget. I was just a casual observer, a regular visitor of friends who were properly enrolled... read more

First college in America to educate men and women together. First primarily white college to grant degrees to black people. A place where it's cool to get all sweaty and funky studying instead of drinking (although being able to get that classics paper done over pitchers at the Rat is cooler still), where a reading by Jorge Luis Borges rivals a concert by Talking Heads. A leader in the abolition movement and terminus of the Underground Railroad, a place where being aggressively yourself may have been born, Oberlin has walked proudly out of step with the "norm" since it was founded, and though we've had our ups and downs, and some things about it drove me crazy, I am proud to be an Obie. read more

Our wedding reception was held in the Root Room in Oberlin College's Carnegie Hall. The room itself is bright and beautiful. It is a refreshing change from the usual reception site (think: dank hotel ballroom with gawdy chandeliers). The Root Room features two walls of large windows which provide a beautiful panoramic overlook of the town square of Oberlin. The dance floor is quite expansive. The catering staff was extremely accommodating. They took my husband and I step-by-step through the menu planning process. Their suggestions for how to pace the food service was perfect! While they did not offer us a tasting, I was not disappointed with any of our choices and we received many compliments from our guests on the food. I am sad to report that the facilities management for the hall was less than hospitable. The day that the tables and chairs were being set up, we found glitter and stains over many of the chairs. Upon asking for them to be swapped out (who wants their Grandma to have glitter booty at the wedding?), the facilities managers became very gruff, indicating that their shifts were almost up and they couldn't help us. I was left to swap out chairs by myself. Additionally, some of the instructions we left for the facilities managers for moving tables (i.e. the cake table off the dance floor) were not heeded and there was no point person for us on the day of the wedding other than the caterers. I would highly recommend this venue to anyone in the Cleveland area, but with a word of caution about the facilities management. read more

My classmates thought I liked school, when I was a kid, and I hated them for it. School, where young creatures are held in pens to drudge their way through pointless activities. At Oberlin, the topography went two-dimensional and there was nothing beautiful but the spreading black branches of oaks in winter, but for the first time what I was expected to do was intrinsically worthwhile. No one was wasting my time. Turns out to have been the only four years of my life when no one wasted my time, and for a while I resented the place for endowing me with sweet illusions about the nature of existence. But it's like a trial issue of a magazine, perhaps. What someone gives you free at first, you can learn to search out for yourself later, once you know the price is worth paying. read more

I attended Oberlin College for 3 years and graduated in 2002 with a degree in Mathematics. I have mixed feelings about the school. --- Academically, Oberlin is flexible but rigorous; few students are bogged down with base requirements, but the requirements are rigorous enough that (unlike, say, Hampshire college) each student gets through with a certain base level of knowledge and breadth in various subjects, and there's enough structure for the students who need it. Oberlin has an "Experimental College" (EXCO) system, where students can teach classes, and these classes can count towards graduation. I think this is a really great opportunity...I took several of these classes, and they were surprisingly rigorous. Student organizations abound at Oberlin, and students are very involved in them. Most students play a leadership role or major role in at least one organization, if not more. There is a TON of stuff going on. There are concerts CONSTANTLY. Both classical concerts (in the conservatory) and other types of music. There are tons of musical opportunities. Also, Oberlin does not have the same scale of the inane drinking culture that dominates a lot of schools. Rather than a bunch of boring parties, you have people here who are zany, quirky, and (in my opinion) really know how to have fun. Also, unlike some schools, Oberlin is not anal-retentive about alcohol use, and it hosts some random fun things like a Professor beers night. I found there was more drug use, especially weed but also harder drugs, than other colleges. Another thing I love about Oberlin is the religious culture. Oberlin is liberal but it's a place where liberal viewpoints and faith co-exist peacefully. If you are interested in questioning religion without dismissing it entirely, or exploring ways in which social justice activism can interplay with faith, Oberlin is a great place. Lastly, I found Oberlin a really friendly place. People here seem really friendly and sincere...I never had trouble striking up a conversation with people here, and I found I made friends easily. --- Downsides: The biggest downside here was that I found that the professors are VERY overworked. The student-professor ratio is poor among small liberal arts colleges, and classes can be very large (for a small college). I remember frequently waiting in lines outside professors' office hours. I frequently felt like I was bothering professors, and more often than not, I would be brushed aside or ignored, especially when approaching professors outside my major. It was bad enough that I felt like a lot of professors weren't doing their jobs--skimping on basic duties like handling the classes they were teaching--and there was even less effort given to stuff outside of classes. Another negative for me was the tolerance of hostility and negativity on the on-campus dialogue. After Oberlin, I learned more about conflict management, conflict resolution, the role of language in conflict, and the pyschology of conflict, and in retrospect, some of the things I experienced at Oberlin were pretty atrocious. There is some extreme rhetoric on campus...a lot of it coming down to the "You're either with us or against us" sort of thing. I find this very unhealthy. I once was screamed at in a meeting by another student, and I got the impression that this was considerd socially acceptable by most of the people present. Once a student published on a website that he wanted to hit me, because of something I had said. This sort of verbal assault and extremist rhetoric was tolerated at Oberlin. I also thought the Hillel organization was dominated by a particular type of Zionist ideology. Oberlin is a great place for Jews overall; the school actually gives off for a number of Jewish holidays that most non-Jewish schools do not, and the school is better-than-average at providing Kosher options (including Kosher for passover) during the dining hall, but I found some of the extreme Zionist rhetoric offensive. I'm not sure it was the best decision for me to come here. I loved my first year but became unsatisfied, especially with how I was treated by the professors. I have since experience campus life at University of Delaware and Yale and I found it was much easier for me to talk to professors there--they seemed much more accessible, in spite of these both being much bigger schools with far more students! read more

My sister goes to Oberlin, so we went to visit her for her senior piano recital. The school is quite nice, although it's really small. There's a downtown area with restaurants and coffee shops, and there are dorms scattered throughout the campus. There don't seem to be very many buildings for learning though; I remember the science building is pretty huge and it's quite new-looking, and of course there's the conservatory (and the jazz building). I don't really remember seeing other buildings there. In any case, the conservatory building looked pretty standard, though the classrooms looked quite nice. There are a ton of practice rooms, and all the pianos they have are grand pianos! It's awesome. The performance hall was quite nice too; very big with a nice piano. As Oberlin's one of the top music schools in the nation, it was a really pleasant visit as there were musicians everywhere! Very cool vibe though it seems the students there work really hard (there isn't really much else to do, so I guess school it is!). read more

O, Oberlin, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: professor beers, Wilder, the Mudd, womb chairs, co-ops, the 'Sco, Drag Ball, the Sexual Information Center, quarter beers, 4th meal, art rental, Oberlin-in-London, winter term, A-level, Exco, pomos, Praying Manti, co-ed bathrooms, TGIF in the bowl, Safer Sex Night and on and on and on...My dear OC, you have bewitched me, body and soul. And I have enjoyed every moment of it. read more

Pretty amazing place. It has its issues with trying to please everyone. The race relations are iffy - odd for such an open and liberal school but they try hard they really do. Profs and classes are great. Lots of smart kids with great ideas. Lots of talent. read more

I like the atmosphere of this school. I like the students here. They remind me of people from a city with a fast moving subway to it. I typed this review because I know people who are now my facebook pals that I have met through church. read more

a-maaa-zing. Beautiful campus. Shockingly intelligent people. Dynamic professors. Co-ops. Co-ed showers. Excos. Winter Term. The Bike Derby. Naked parties. Womb chairs. The Sco. Safer Sex Night. Drag Ball. Quarter Beers. Professor Beers. Toilets that recycle your ----. Protesting every damn thing you want. Classmates from all over the country. Vegans. Hippies. Men in skirts. Postmodernists. Queers. Voice majors. Antisocial upperclassmen on the 4th floor of Noah. Terrible football. Special Meal at Old B. Naked Pizza Crew. "I survived Barrows" t-shirts. The SIC. Banana House. The women's rugby dating circle. The arb. The Feve. The ghost in the Baldwin basement. Shabbat. Mount Oberlin. Gibson's. The Big Parade. The Oberlin Bubble. "The Harvard of the Midwest." "The Island of Misfit Toys." The best college experience you could ever ask for. read more

Oberlin College's career services office is very weak. The main advice given to my son when he inquired about internship opportunities in computer science was to "contact an alumnus". They have no listings for federal agencies, have no idea about deadlines for national programs and have few to no contacts in the field. read more