Jesse Miller

Major: English, creative writing concentration

Hailing from the Hamptons, on eastern Long Island, I came to Oberlin knowing nobody here and nobody who went here, and that’s just about how I wanted it. Back home, I am constantly getting confused faces and awkward comments from people when I tell them I go to school in Ohio, but to be perfectly honest, Oberlin has a lot more going on then my little hometown of Quogue (that means clam, like the seafood).

I chose Oberlin for two reasons: I loved the idea of going to a school with a conservatory attached to it, because it meant that I would be constantly surrounded with amazing music and by amazing musicians. I also really liked the fact that there was a light load of breadth requirements and an academic atmosphere that encouraged learning about things you previously had no clue about. I will note that this doesn’t mean that people (humanities people that is) don’t still complain about their quantitative proficiency requirements, but I say, a little math will do you good … I think. Oberlin is definitely a place where you can, and should, stretch your mind in different directions, and then bring it all together in a short story—or a science experiment, if that’s your thing. Besides the classes I’ve taken in my major, I’ve also taken courses here and there in sexuality, philosophy, physics, and a pretty significant amount in psychology.

I’ve also had the honor and opportunity to work on Oberlin’s wonderful and exuberant literary and arts magazine The Plum Creek Review as a staff member, layout editor, and editor editor. In addition, through working on The Plum Creek Review, I helped to put into action The Public Compendium, a public journal project. If you have any interest at all in working on the magazine, feel free to contact me, either by email or by harassment in passing. An interest in finding and fostering literary and artistic talent on campus is a must, but it’s not too hard to find. Obies are a pretty talented bunch, if I may say so myself.

Short List of Favorites

Local Cuisine: bulk food items at DeCafe: yogurt covered pretzels (somehow far superior to the chocolate covered variety).

Favorite Under-utilized Resource at Oberlin: For Arts and Sciences students, it’s the Conservatory, and all that comes with it: amazing concerts every single day of the year, almost always free.

Favorite First-year Courses

PHYS 51: Einstein and Relativity and PHYS 52: Strange World of Quantum Mechanics. Taught by the exciting and somewhat eccentric Professor Daniel Styer, these lecture classes will help you chip away at that quantitative proficiency requirement while also learning really crazy interesting things that make your head hurt in a good way.

CRWR 201: Poetry/Prose Workshop (spring semester). Submit a portfolio at the end of fall semester and try to get into a workshop. Workshops in the creative writing program have been my favorite classes at Oberlin. I haven’t had a bad professor yet; it’s an amazing department. If you want help putting together your portfolio, send me an email and we can get together to chat.