Charles Grim

As Robert Frost said, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." My road has led me to Abu Dhabi. I hope that wherever yours takes you - Oberlin or elsewhere - it will make all the difference in your story.

The idea of using an agent has some merit. But what are the values of those things? That depends in large part on what other sources of information are available and how much they cost.

Calculating international GPAs is a bit of a challenge, but we still do give it a shot. There are 4 primary tools that we use when calculating GPAs for school systems with which we are unfamiliar.

There are a few differences between the liberal arts colleges and fish markets, though. Liberal arts colleges generally smell better, for instance.

Oberlin parents are just amazing. When I called to offer to take some Oberlin parents in Quito out for coffee, they instead invited me into their home for a delicious dinner.

If you are interested enough to know how clouds form, then you might also be interested to know about one of the really cool pieces of equipment that we have in Oberlin's chemistry department - a custom-built turbulent flow chemical ionization mass spectrometer.

Last year Oberlin students did more than 60,000 hours of community service - that we know of. None of it was required.

Our new crop of international students arrived late last week and began international orientation Saturday evening.

You can look forward to seeing the detailed itineraries up on the website soon, but I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of our international travel plans.

Without ANY planning on my part to "eat exotic," here is what my wife and I did to travel around the world just in the last 9 days.

We are aware of the general educational system in China and have tried to look at the whole picture of all of the students that apply.

Diversity is not the result of any one or two students that we have at Oberlin, but rather the result of the integration of the unique perspectives of all of the students that we have on campus.

This post doesn't really have much to do with Oberlin College, but after last night's thrilling Cleveland Cavaliers win over the Orlando Magic, I got to thinking about how it isn't just college campuses where one can find international diversity.

For those of you abroad who don't know, this past weekend was a holiday in the US: Memorial Day.

As we approach Oberlin's Commencement Ceremony, I couldn't help but think about Commencement speeches that I've heard over the years.

Today I'd like to take a moment to think about the natural disaster that struck China one year ago and reflect on the many Chinese people who devoted days and weeks of their lives to trying to make a difference in the aftermath.

So far 31 foreign A&S students have confirmed. This represents the most in Oberlin College history!!

I know that my leaving home and traveling to that wonderful country changed me in important ways too numerous to even count. At the very least, the assumptions I left with about my country and its relationship to the rest of the world changed in profound ways.

When it comes to international students, almost no students have interviews. But what is an interview like when I do actually find time to offer one?

To assure that we have great diversity when we are done with the final crafting of our international class and that we have also chosen the individual applicants who are most likely to thrive, we use a three-decision process for early decision applicants.

Last night I visited the United World College in Costa Rica and had the pleasure of speaking with a prospective student from Spain. Xiana is a native speaker, not of Spanish, but of Galacian. This got me thinking about differences in language diversity within countries.

Environmentalism is probably the single most prominent cause on campus at the moment.

Monday, September 29, 2008 1:45 pm EST Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean

Friday, September 26, 11:00 pm Islington, London, UK

Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 6:16 am United World College of the Adriatic, Duino, Italy

Sunday, September 21st, 5:00 am Domus Maxima B&B, Rome, Italy

Sunday, September 21st, 6:40 pm Fiumicino Airport, Rome, Italy

Friday, September 19, 11:50 pm Pudong Airport, Shanghai, China

3:54 am, September 17th, 2008 Asiana Airlines Flight 724, Somewhere over the Yellow Sea

Hong Kong Airport

Here in this tiny island nation Chinese, Indian, Malay, Europeans, and many others seem to live together in a harmony not often seen.

The flight here was the second of 14 flights that I'll be taking over the next 17 days as I literally circle the world to spread the word about Oberlin College.