Road Trip: Oberlin College

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I graduated in the mid 1950's and found my double music degree an open door to many, many opportunities both in performance and teaching public schools. It is what you do after Oberlin not picking apart one professor's failings. I continue to write my Oberlin prof of flute, who is teaching at age 85 and eager to recommend me for further endeavors.

Judy Phillips of CA 8:16PM March 02, 2010

You can get a good education at Oberlin - but watch for a few mediocre teachers. When I was there in the mid 80's I recall having one of the worst music theory lectures ever. He began with discussing chord inversion and chiding a few erroneous assignments only to spend 70% of lecture discussing his experience lunching with Rachmaninoff! I mentioned this to one of the faculty at Juilliard about a year or tow ago and he recalled this guy and told me he never really wanted to teach. The professor was overdue to retire. But that was long ago.
What irks me is for 50,000 a year you can have an excellent small to mid size classes in liberal arts without a fewer extraneous perks (free art in your room) through several state and city universities. In particular, the City University of New York has some wonderful schools (sans residence halls which at Oberlin aren't that stellar ... I recall many upperclass students loved renting a house) with a yearly tuition UNDER 7,000.

c sahar of NY 10:04PM September 11, 2009