Walk around Oberlin College‘s campus and you might hear a classical piano concerto, a steel drum band, a rock group in the student union bar and venue Dionysus Disco, an impromptu a cappella show outside the library, and an eclectic midnight “organ pump” performance on the towering, 4,014-pipe organ in Finney Chapel — all on the same day.
Oberlin hosts more than 500 concerts and performances each year, in part thanks to its 152-year-old Conservatory of Music, a rarity at a liberal arts college and the oldest such continuously operating facility in the country.
At Oberlin, home to roughly 2,900 undergraduates, “creativity is in the air,” says Rebecca Whelan, chair and associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. After all, this is a place where students camp out for the popular art rental program, through which they can borrow real artwork for $5 per piece per semester from the Allen Memorial Art Museum on campus, which has more than 14,000 pieces of art.
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Founded in 1833, Oberlin opened its doors to women and African-American students very early in its history. Today, underrepresented minority students make up about a fifth of those enrolled, while 94 percent come from outside Ohio, including about 9 percent from abroad.
Many students say that their peers share a progressive attitude about politics, the environment and social issues. “So many people care about social justice,” says senior Thobeka Mnisi, a politics major from South Africa.
“People are really good at questioning everything here,” says junior Andrea Wang, a neuroscience and linguistics major from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Located in the small northern Ohio city of Oberlin, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland, the college adjoins a quaint downtown of shops and restaurants. In an effort to break out of the campus bubble, more than half of students participate in some sort of community service project annually.
The Bonner Center for Service and Learning helps facilitate programs with more than 200 community organizations. Sustainability is also a shared interest on campus, and each spring students participate in Ecolympics, a water and electricity conservation competition.
About 2,300 students enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences, where the liberal arts curriculum offers more than four dozen majors. The 600 or so conservatory students can choose from 10 divisions — jazz studies, say, or musicology — and private study in 42 areas. About 180 students pursue a double degree from both the college and conservatory in five years.
All students enjoy generally small classes — about three-fourths have fewer than 20 students. For many, a sense of community is established during the first-year seminar, an interdisciplinary course capped at 16 students .
Whelan, for instance, teaches a class on Marie Curie that blends history, chemistry and art. Students can even create and teach their own for-credit courses through the Experimental College on topics like “Seinfeld” and basic Korean.
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Each January, Obies can participate in winter term, a four-week minisemester where they pursue a project, internship or study abroad experience. At least three are required for graduation.
Sarah Minion, a 2017 grad in politics and comparative American studies from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, helped a health care advocacy group in Alabama, interned on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and studied political street art in Berlin ; Amsterdam ; Tel Aviv , Israel; and Jerusalem.
Nearly all undergrads live on campus, and roughly 1 in 4 are members of the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, which manages eight student-run co-ops. These close-knit communities, each with its own vibe, give students of like interests the space to come together to cook, eat, listen to music, debate and more. Obies also can participate in more than 175 student groups and 21 Division III sports teams.
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This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Colleges 2018” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Ohio College Road Trip: Oberlin College originally appeared on usnews.com
