Explore new horizons, by way of the academic curriculum, and other opportunities for growth.

Connect your ideas, values, and interests to your coursework and your co-curricular activities.

Deepen your connection to your fields of study and to the communities in which you live.

Develop independence in your life-long pursuit of intellectual, artistic and personal growth.

Year Two: This year poses particular challenges and opportunities. While the novelty of the first year begins to fade, many students find excitement in connecting to Oberlin in creative ways. Use this year to select a major, broaden your general education, and understand more deeply the communities of Oberlin and beyond. Continue to give shape to the connections between your passions and your education. Ask for help when you need it. Remain confident that things will come into focus for you.

Connect your ideas, values, and interests to possible majors and other areas of study

Take courses in the departments and programs that you find most compelling. Talk about your interests with students and faculty, including department chairs. Find out, for example, how compatible a particular major is with different study-abroad programs.

Finish your distribution requirements, including 9-9-9, quantitative proficiency, writing proficiency, and cultural diversity. Take the necessary steps to declare a major by the time you accumulate 56 credits (for most students, that will occur during the spring of your second year). Use your distribution requirements to explore disciplines and departments that complement one or more of your prospective majors.

Develop a résumé and begin to compile a portfolio of your achievements, assessments, and plans. Each of these tools can serve as a personal archive, to allow you to reflect upon what you have done, so that you can choose wisely what to do next.

Connect with local, regional, and global communities

Pursue activities in student organizations.

Commit to some form of civic engagement that relates to your academic interests.

Talk to your advisor about nominating you for the Academic Ambassador Program.

Consider studying abroad in a location where you can speak the native language and learn more about the nation and the world. Review your academic progress, including winter terms, as you develop your proposal for an academic leave to study away.

Connect your education to your vocations and avocations

Look back on your initial set of educational goals. Assess the ways in which they have changed, and update accordingly. Recognize the flexibility necessary to this endeavor, and imagine how different your values and identity may appear again in the next couple of years.

Plan a summer internship and consider a Winter Term internship related to your social values and fields of interest. Use summer and January to explore real-life experiences, which can deeply affect your education at Oberlin and opportunities after Oberlin.

Begin investigating what you might do after Oberlin. Learn about fellowships for recent graduates and explore graduate and professional school programs. Broadly speaking, explore the careers you may pursue once you graduate.