Reasons to Explore
The path to finding your perfect college home is exciting and full of possibilities. There’s a reason for everyone to explore Oberlin—here are a few of our favorites!
Whoever you are, you’ll find your people here.
Oberlin professors will get to know you as a person.
Your relationships with your Oberlin mentors will last a lifetime.
You can hear a folk band, an orchestra, and a jazz trio all on the same night.
- Pursue cutting-edge research with faculty—no grad students to compete with!
- We have plenty of spooky basements to explore.
- You’ll always be learning from your friends.
- Hang a real Picasso, Matisse, or Miró in your dorm room for $5!
- Halftime shows feature anything from dance group AndWhat!? to OSteel (our Steel Drum band).
- The swings in Tappan Square.
- You will have intellectual deep-dives with your professors at the local coffee shop.
- When you’ve got the AUX, you can play an aria, and everyone will love it.
- Our president flips tires...for fun.
- More Oberlin grads have gone on to earn PhDs than alumni from any other liberal arts school.
- You can hear a folk band, an orchestra, and a jazz trio all on the same night.
- Our 13-acre solar panel array in a field mowed by sheep.
- Our athletes celebrate diversity and inclusiveness just as much as a win.
- Access a powerful, inclusive alumni network stretching from Goldman Sachs to Google.
- Even the bathrooms here have interesting design elements and great acoustics.
- Because our faculty study the origin of the universe, you can too.
- We were the first college to admit students regardless of race, as well as the first coeducational program.
- Our awesome environmental studies building and its “living machine.”
- You can see the entire “metropolis” of Oberlin from the Kohl Building’s beautiful skydeck.
- It’s always showtime here: 500+ performances a year!
Wander wherever you'd like, you'll end up somewhere wonderful.
Our student orchestra performs at Carnegie Hall.
Want to write a book? Get immersed in a new language? Learn how to 3D print? During Winter Term, you can.
Our campus will reach carbon neutrality in 2025.
- Our campus will reach carbon neutrality in 2025.
- Glowing orbs in our buildings change color to let us know how much water and energy we’re using.
- The only Greek life you’ll find here is in the classics department.
- There’s always a crate of $1 vinyl outside the local record store.
- We think consent is sexy.
- Oberlin a cappella groups are awesome. And they will serenade you on study breaks, or even on your birthday!
- Our living and dining co-ops are one of the largest student-run non-profits in the country.
- The Princess Bride was written by an Obie.
- On a Saturday night, groups of friends can be found playing board games or D&D...they'd love for you to join.
- Impromptu jazz parties at 2 a.m. are normal, if not expected.
- You can drop in on a free yoga or spinning class.
- Invest in what you care about with an Oberlin finance degree.
- People will call you by any name you ask to be called, and not think twice about it.
- There is definitely someone here who loves the same obscure, canceled TV show that you do.
- We’ve produced four Nobel Prize winners. You might be next!
- You'll find Obies interested in anything and everything.
- You can teach Spanish to local elementary school kids, who will think you are the coolest.
- Give love to shelter kittens, volunteer at the local CATSS rescue.
- Our student athletes play hard and study harder.
- You can choreograph and produce a large-scale dance work (even if you’re not a dance major).
You can coauthor an article in a science journal with your professor.
You can form a cover band and rock out at the WOBC Cover Band Showcase.
The Cat in the Cream coffeehouse has live music nightly and cookies the size of your head.
Paint a rock in Tappan Square, adding to years of art, awareness, and advocacy.
- Classroom discussions hardly ever stay in the classroom.
- We’re about 10 miles from a Great Lake.
- Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house here, and you can visit it.
- You can join the circus (without running away).
- At Oberlin, we have always been and always will be focused on progress.
- Start out at a student publication—end up at The New York Times or NPR!
- Paint a rock in Tappan Square, adding to years of art, awareness, and advocacy.
- The Apollo Theatre has first-run films with $4 admission on Mondays.
- Chart the stars in the Observatory on top of Peters Hall
- Organ Pump: lying on the Finney Chapel stage with the lights out, feeling the vibrations.
- Novelist Toni Morrison grew up nearby, and her gift of a “Bench By The Road” is a wonderful place to sit quietly and reflect.
- Transform your passion for music and technology into a thriving production career.
- The Feve is a local hangout responsible for students believing that tater tots are their own food group.
- Azariah’s Café in our main library is where books, computers, and java create a happy alliance.
- We have a Free Store with the coolest, weirdest, free-est stuff.
- The bandstand on Tappan Square: performances, classes, rallies, speeches...you can find it all here.
- Come out and play—we were named the LGBTQ Institution of the Year by NCAA.
- Whether you're in the classroom or the quad, conversation never stops flowing.
The Oberlin Arboretum is great for leisurely walks, hikes, or wildlife watching.
Teach a class or learn about anything from Taylor Swift to toads through Experimental College.
Our state-of-the-art fitness center is super fun and welcoming to people of all fitness levels.
Jazz Forum at the 'Sco will make your jaw drop and your feet tap.
- Discover your new favorite artist at one of the best college art museums in the nation.
- Magical things happen wherever the college and conservatory intersect.
- Jazz Forum at the 'Sco will make your jaw drop and your feet tap.
- The Oberlin-in-London Program offers custom courses in the center of one of the world’s most exciting cities.
- Peters Hall looks like a Gothic castle, and it's right across from the Brutalist brilliance of Mudd Library.
- Our library has a collection of orb-shaped “womb” chairs that envelop you and lull you to sleep.
- Wilder Bowl: a central hub of outdoor activity. Frisbee? Dancing? Sleeping? Snowball fights? Making out? There’s room for it all.
- Whether you have an honors presentation or a capstone performance, people will come.
- We have a Big Parade—an annual town/gown gathering with music, floats, dancing, and costumes.
- You can wear anything you want, and people will compliment you on your style.
- The College Archives in Mudd Center: a treasure chest of history.
- The Saturday morning farmers’ market in town.
- There are tons of places to be seen, but also tons of places to hide.
- Kulas Recital Hall: Should be re-named Cool-est Recital Hall. Accommodates a wide range of musical performances and makes you feel like more than a spectator.
A railroad track sculpture that jets out of the ground commemorates Oberlin's stop on the Underground Railroad.
Food from cupcakes to Korean, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, and Lebanese.
Build your own bike in a week at the Bike Co-op.
- Our dorm lounges have Steinway pianos.
- Our athletics facilities aren’t just for athletes. They bring students together with the greater Oberlin community.
- Live in an array of identity-based housing, from Women and Trans Collective to Afrikan Heritage House.
- We have an old-school letterpress studio that anyone can use.
- You can bring a car if you like, but you really won’t need one.
- WOBC: A student and community-run radio station that actually answers the phone and plays your requests.
- Rando Bando: where you form an impromptu band from names pulled out of a hat.
- We have an annual Black History Month fashion show that celebrates creative expression.
- We will accept you exactly as you are and make you feel like family.
- Your friends will drag you out of bed at 1 a.m. to sled down Mount Oberlin (our very own 30ish-foot-tall hill).
- One of our ultimate frisbee teams, The Flying Horsecows: great name, great team.
- Surround yourself with people learning to change the world together.
- You can speak your mind. You can change your mind. Your mind will change.
You can speak your mind. You can change your mind. Your mind will change.