All the clubs! All the time!

The first place to learn about most of the clubs on campus would be to visit the student organizations section of the student life page. I know it’s a lot, but what can I say? We’re pretty involved and if there’s something that seems to be lacking here on campus, chances are a group of students will start something new to fill the niche.

If you have the opportunity to visit Oberlin, I highly encourage you to take a look around any bulletin board to get an idea of what’s going on — this will give you an idea of not just of the events happening on campus, but the groups behind them, too. There’s also a giant directory list of student orgs and clubs up in the Wilder Student Union that you can get excited about in person.

In arriving at Oberlin as a new student, there are several opportunities during orientation — including the community fair — that will let you visit with and talk to any number of student organizations in person.

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association includes nine co-ops.

Four of them are living and dining co-ops:

• Harkness
• Keep
• Tank
• Old Barrows (Old B)

There are also five additional dining co-ops:

• Pyle Inn (Pyle)
• Fairchild (Fairkid)
• Kosher Halal (application-based eligibility)
• Third World (application-based eligibility)
• Brown Bag Co-op (BBC is only eligible to students who are living in village housing or off campus, it’s an ingredient purchasing co-op that requires you to have your own kitchen to prepare food)

If you live in a co-op, you are required to eat there (with the exception of if you are a part of one of the two application-based co-ops; it’s not unheard of but it’s not particularly common). If you are an incoming first year student who wishes to dine in Harkness, Keep, or Tank, you will be required to live there during your first year. For all other years (and for all other co-ops listed), you are welcome to dine in any of the co-ops listed without living there.

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

The average GPA for the class of 2016 (and, actually, the class of 2015, too) is 3.9 weighted, 3.6 unweighted.

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

According to our last inquiry with the director of piano technology at the end of September, we have 231 Steinway pianos, though not all of them are grands (but I think they’re all just dandy!).

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

From admissions officer Elizabeth Houston:

There aren’t really “right” or “wrong” answers to that question. It was added in 2009, I think with the idea that, in looking at the applicant pool as a whole, the general trends of what people answer might be significant or useful in some way. But we didn’t want people to stress out too much about what to choose, so we added fun options like albino squirrels and womb chairs. We won’t hold it against you if you choose those options. Your answer to the essay question will give us a much better sense of why you’re interested in Oberlin.

The way I see it: it’s not a trick, but we also want to let you know that it’s okay to be playful and candid — even in your application to Oberlin. We’re a serious but silly bunch sometimes.

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

From the First Year Experience Area Coordinator:

There are at least 200 applications for just under 150 spots each year. So, if you have a quality application that is in by the deadline you have a great chance! 

Plug: if you want to know more about FYRE… you can now follow them on Tumblr, too!

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

(Note: everyone who asks about their chances for Oberlin will be linked to precisely the same blog post from now on.)

To quote Elizabeth Houston…

…It’s important to note that, especially at schools like Oberlin, who use a holistic review process to evaluate applications, it really is impossible to reliably predict whether or not you will be admitted on the basis of some bare-bones information like your GPA and test scores. The full application and various supporting documents are required for a reason, and we really do use all of that information when making decisions.

More from whence this came on the Oberlin blogs.

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

You’re getting out of my realm of answering capabilities, since this is beginning to sound like a specialized case. Luckily, admissions should be able to clarify your application status (college.admissions[AT]oberlin.edu) and if you’d like to learn more about the transfer credit process, contact the registrar (registrar[AT]oberlin.edu).

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

I’m not sure if there are external factors that might limit your word count on the common app (digital word counts or something like that), but Elizabeth Houston stated the following last year regarding the supplemental essay:

We don’t count words. If it really is well-written and informative, then it’ll be no problem at all. If it’s actually excessively wordy and boring, then, well, we’ll be bored, but thirty seconds later we’ll get on with our lives.

In short, don’t be wordy just for the sake of being wordy. A tight, cleanly written essay is a challenge, but a worthy one! You can do it!

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator

It depends heavily on the instructor. Good protocol is within a day or two of the fair, though that will depend on if the course is lottery-based (in theory, a quick process) or application-based (more subjective, decisions have to be made based on what you write) but in either case, definitely by the first class meeting. A good number of instructors only send emails to those accepted to the course, though I speak from personal experience in saying that it’s equally useful to get the “sorry, not this time” email as well.

As an instructor, my general process would be to send out three sets of emails (provided that I could decipher who signed my signup list) by the evening following or the morning after the ExCo fair to the accepted students, the waitlist, and the students who should try again next semester. The first two groups were invited to the first class (and anyone else who replied to the “try again” email that this was the only course they desired to take — usually one or two per semester) and we would proceed with the course from there.

I’m sorry you’re stuck in waiting limbo, and I hope that you get out of it soon!

- Ma’ayan Plaut ‘10, Social Media Coordinator