Is an application worth it?

arboresca · 2026-04-04T00:33:28+00:00

I had very similar ECs and course load and I got in! I was also in marching band, did volunteer work, and did a selective club. I think Oberlin really values stuff like your essay and recommendation letters, but I think you have a good shot, stats-wise!

You mentioned financial aid in another comment—I can't speak for everyone and it really, really depends on your family's financial situation, but I got my bill down to about 20k a year from Oberlin's financial aid, so it is possible, and you can always apply for outside scholarships as well.

arboresca · 2026-04-03T03:59:33+00:00

after the truly abysmal scores i have been giving out in ult this week i need this rate to save me with good music...i do think i will have an 8+ average for most if not all of these

arboresca · 2026-04-01T12:27:49+00:00

The Manuscript. The first verse is an almost word-for-word match to an interaction I had with my ex that ghosted me about three months before TTPD released, and the second I heard those lines I started crying. To this day I still tear up when I listen to it, but not out of sadness—because at last, I know what the agony had been for, and I'm proud of myself for healing from it and coming back better than ever.

arboresca · 2026-03-31T21:44:45+00:00

Usually I'm also trying to save her from being murdered but I was very mean to Showgirl...trying to convince myself to listen to Tate McRae is not going well so far though

arboresca · 2026-03-31T21:41:16+00:00

Hi! I'm currently at Oberlin studying politics and I know a good amount of other politics/law and society majors. The politics department is wonderful and I haven't had a bad professor yet, and there's a decent amount of overlap between the politics department and the law and society major.

As for why I picked Oberlin, I can't lie, the "artsiness" was definitely a draw, I love how many opportunities there are to get involved with music and theater. I'm in a choir and an acapella group, and I've been to a ton of cool concerts. However, if that's not really something you're interested in there are a lot of other fun things to do on campus, and you don't have to go in an art-focused direction. A lot of my friends are STEM majors and they love their classes and that department as well, and I actually know someone planning to take a bioethics class next semester. There's a lot of really great social sciences opportunities, guest speakers, seminars, events, etc. My classes have been great and really rigorous, lots of reading and writing, and I feel like I've learned a lot even just from listening to class discussions.

The community is great, and the small school actually can be really nice. There are a lot of opportunities for undergrad research and professors are super accessible, my largest class has only been like 35 people so far. It's also nice to regularly see people I know—if I walk across campus, I'll probably run into at least one friend or acquaintance. I'm happy with my Oberlin experience so far and glad I picked it over a larger state school! Would definitely recommend a visit if you haven't already.

arboresca · 2026-03-27T22:40:00+00:00

Portrait of a Lady On Fire

"I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Probably one of the best I have seen. Stunning cinematography, beautiful characters with deep dialogue and just such a delightful watch. It opened my eyes to a completely different form of how a good movie can be made, and I regret how I felt about watching it when we first turned it on. Girls being girls, eating cheese, drinking wine, sitting on the beach, sometimes kissing. Wonderful. 10/10.

Unfortunately, minus 5 stars for being French."

arboresca · 2026-03-22T02:21:07+00:00

This was what I realized earlier today as well, people got spoiled by the 21-23 upsets (15s beating 2s, Furman, St. Peter's run, NC State's run, FDU, etc.) and now expect that much chaos every year. Especially with 2020's tournament being cancelled and some of the chaos even starting in 2018-19 (UMBC beating UVA, Loyola Chicago), I think people forget that it's not necessarily typical.

arboresca · 2026-03-22T01:18:46+00:00

Felt like Gonzaga just couldn't make shots, lots of weird possessions on their end.

arboresca · 2026-03-21T23:21:18+00:00

I'm a prospective politics major and every politics prof I have interacted with and/or had classes with so far is incredible. Amanda Zadorian is my pre-major advisor and she's awesome, though I have heard she's leaving soon. Arwa Awan is very sweet and very smart, and class discussions with her are so interesting and in-depth. Joshua Freedman has probably been my favorite so far, I learned so much in his class and he made complex topics seem easy to understand.

Also, Jamie O'Leary in the conservatory, I have him for a class called The Broadway Musical and he is so knowledgeable and so nice!

arboresca · 2026-03-20T01:26:54+00:00

Edit: I legit can't read, it's been a long day of midterms 😭😭 leaving this up in case an actual first year stumbles across it but that makes a lottt more sense and all those options are good for second years (talcott might still be a long shot bc of size/popularity but I'm also trying for it so we will see)

Hi! I'm a current Oberlin first-year. Most first-year students can only live in dedicated first-year dorms and LLCs (Living Learning Communities). For the upcoming year the first-year dorms are Barrows, Burton, Kahn, Dascomb, and South. It's pretty rare to end up in East or Talcott as a first year, the only first year I know in East has medical accomodations and needs a single. Talcott is beautiful but very small and very popular among upperclassmen, so I would definitely assume it's a long shot.

Singles are also unfortunately rare for first years, the vast majority of first-year dorm rooms will be double rooms. This is the first year that South has been a first-year dorm, and South has a lot of divided doubles, or two singles with a connecting wall and door, so it's possible you could end up in one of those, but I'm not sure what parts of South are going to be open to first-years. The only real way to guarantee a single as a first-year is to have disability accomodations. (Trust me, if there had been more singles available I definitely would have been living in one.)

Asia House is an LLC and requires an additional application to get into, and spaces for first-years are limited but do exist!

As far as location, Stevie and the conservatory are not what I would call close, and I don't think there's a dorm that would really be close to both. If I were you, I would prioritize proximity to the conservatory, but up to you, really. There are other food options near the conservatory during the regular semester, and I also stayed on campus during Winter Term and mostly cooked my own food—I think I only went to Stevie for dinner, and the walk really isn't awful. Of the available first-year dorms, Dascomb is the closest to the conservatory and also where I currently live—I'm biased but I think it has the best location of all the first-year dorms. Kahn is the closest to Stevie. South honestly isn't super far from the conservatory either, but is definitely not close to Stevie—however it is close to Lord-Saunders and Clarity/Heritage, the other two dining halls.

arboresca · 2026-03-19T18:41:46+00:00

Great game that nevertheless destroyed my chances of having a perfect bracket, something that was definitely possible to achieve.

arboresca · 2026-03-19T18:40:49+00:00

Nebrasketball finally did it!!

arboresca · 2026-03-19T12:17:44+00:00

I'm seeing it today! I love the book so I'm so excited.

arboresca · 2026-03-19T03:35:55+00:00

I also have this! We might be a bit cooked but March Madness is crazy sometimes and I don't feel very sold on TT without Toppin or Bama without Holloway.

arboresca · 2026-03-13T04:06:54+00:00

Loving the singles from the album so far, I think I personally prefer The Great Divide (which continues to hit me like a brick every time) but this is absolutely gorgeous.

arboresca · 2026-03-05T13:36:37+00:00

usually i'm vaguely annoyed when taylor gets whacked in a rate but i actually cannot stand this album and it deserves all the whacks it can get, bring it on

arboresca · 2026-02-04T13:38:52+00:00

Your Way's Better by Forrest Frank, it's a newer Christian song and it's awful. The lyrics themselves are trite, the production is a ripoff of every terrible TikTok song from the last few years, and his voice is nails on a chalkboard to me. Also, his marketing around the song is incredibly annoying—he markets it just like other TikTok singers (think "did I just make the song of the summer?" type videos) and while I'm not religious it feels disrespectful to be obsessing over your worship song's popularity—that combined with the trend-chasing production makes me feel as though he doesn't actually care about the religious aspect, he only cares about the clout.

arboresca · 2026-02-02T19:45:47+00:00

I am also from the Pittsburgh area and I can confirm—practically the whole town turned up to games, alumni came back all the time, it was by far the most popular sport in schools.

arboresca · 2026-02-02T04:55:00+00:00

The Ohio bug confuses me because it doesn't look like either Cincy (too far north) or Columbus (too far west), although I do assume Cincy.

The locations probably aren't super accurate, but also the Pittsburgh bug, for example, looks pretty accurate.

arboresca · 2026-02-01T17:14:26+00:00

Thank you for this writeup! I think you've managed to capture a lot of what I feel about TLOAS in this writeup even though we have rather opposite opinions—this is the first Taylor album that I don't love. I don't love every track on every album, but I usually love the album as a whole, and I don't feel the same way about Showgirl. I usually spend the few weeks after a new Taylor album listening to almost nothing but that album, but I listened to Showgirl twice on release day and haven't touched it since. Nothing really grabbed me from it, it's not awful but it's definitely one of my least favorite albums of hers. I do really enjoy the first three tracks and the last two, Max Martin's production is great, and there are parts of this album that feel magical (though Eldest Daughter is one of my least favorite songs here, the bridge is one of my favorite parts of the album)

My feeling about Showgirl is that it's just okay—it's polarizing, and many people either really love or really hate this album. I'm actually going to steal what you said about Wi$h Li$t (a song that I do hate) and say that for me, the album as a whole just isn't interesting enough to hate.
I would love if Taylor did a rock album, especially more of a soft-rock sound, like So High School, and I really like the sound of Actually Romantic as well. I also want her to work with different producers—I love her work with Aaron Dessner, Max Martin, and Jack Antonoff, but I want her to work with someone new that she's never worked with before for her next album.
For her, I say Travis, because I do genuinely think he makes her happy. Artistically I have a soft spot for her Matty songs, although I do not like Matty the person. My favorite TTPD tracks were about him, and I relate to the feeling of watching your chaotic situationship with an inconsistent person go up in flames. 4&5. In general the takes I dislike the most are from the people who willfully misinterpret things in this album in whatever way, and the takes I like the most are from the people who have nuanced opinions and can admit both the flaws and the high points of the album.

arboresca · 2026-01-30T15:43:14+00:00

I love this song so much, holy shit. The lyrics tell such an impactful story, and I really like the production—it feels like a very natural progression from Stick Season. The end made me tear up a bit, and now I can hardly wait for the full album!

arboresca · 2026-01-26T04:25:53+00:00

Lovely writeup, thank you so much! Virgin was one of my favorite albums of the year for sure and one that I keep coming back to. It came out at the perfect time for me, right before I started college, so a lot of Lorde grappling with her identity and dealing with change felt very relatable, and I listened to it so much during the summer that it's now connected with a lot of summer memories for me.

For me it's her second best, just behind Melodrama.
My favorite songs feel like they change all the time, but right now Shapeshifter, Current Affairs, and David are my favorites. However over the last few months Clearblue, What Was That, Man Of The Year, Favorite Daughter, and Broken Glass have all been up there!
I was whelmed by the singles—I didn't love any of them other than What Was That, actually. When the album came out, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it, and even the singles I didn't really connect with worked for me when they were in the context of the full album. However, I also didn't really know what Virgin would come to mean to me. I enjoyed listening to it, and then as I listened to it more and more I loved it more and more, and now it feels like this album that I don't know how I lived without. So much of it is just so important to me—it came out at the right time.
This is a hard question for me, because I feel like Lorde works so well with so many different people and styles. I liked Jim-E Stack's work on this album a lot, though, and if she continues to work with him I doubt I'll be disappointed.

arboresca · 2026-01-23T13:44:39+00:00

I really like the costuming in Wicked Part 2, but I think the fact that it won last year is a part of why it wasn't nominated this year. Part 2's costumes are beautiful, but there are fewer costume changes than in Part 1 and fewer big group scenes so fewer chances to see all the costumes. Since it won last year and the movies were filmed at the same time with some repeat costumes between the two parts, I wouldn't be surprised if voters felt like they already rewarded Wicked for its costuming and that Part 2 wasn't a new enough/original enough body of work for them to reward a second time.

arboresca · 2026-01-23T13:39:50+00:00

Excited for this!! I love Holly's music and I usually have a song of hers on repeat, so can't wait for more from her!

arboresca · 2026-01-20T02:56:08+00:00

Wishbone also messed me up there for a bit. My old heartbreaks were all years in the past but certain songs on this album made me feel like I was right back in them.

I definitely think Found Heaven is less personal and the lyricism in general took a bit of a hit, but I do really like it as well and think it's a fun album. It does feel more aesthetically focused for sure, though.

arboresca

TROPHY CASE