My Best Obie Advice

Hello, new Oberlin students (or in its shortened form simply new Obies). At the end of this spring 2026 semester I received my diploma. As you start out (or consider starting out) your time here, I’d love to give my top pieces of advice, not only as a recent, involved grad, but as a past peer advising leader (PAL), campus tour guide, and blogger. Here are the top things I recommend:

1. Explore and be Open

This advice goes for anyone in college. I mean “explore” in every sense, but I want to emphasize the sense best captured as “branch out.” 

Of course you've heard the old adages, “get involved, find your people.” These are all well and good. I most want to tell you, though, that you might not find your people the same ways you did in the past. I’m a long-time and unabashed theatre kid who kept that up in college. I surprisingly found my best friends though, through swing dance, study abroad opportunities, and co-operative dining. Go ahead and bring your old hobbies to Oberlin, but be purposeful about searching for new ones you can take on too.

In this same vein, you should explore the worlds of unfamiliar classes and academic programs too. I went into Oberlin with my two majors and a minor decided on, and started getting the classes for these done before exploring. Thus, I didn’t find out until late in my college career how I might have loved other areas of study, like linguistics (which I did fit in a minor for in the end) and gender, sexuality, and feminist studies. You shouldn’t be afraid and should try to branch out into new coursework you may have only a small interest in or have previously been challenged to engage with. 

With courses and extracurriculars, you should be open to where unexpected paths could lead you. 

2. Utilize The Benefits of Being an Obie and Stay Informed About Them

If you come to Oberlin, you should consistently read (and perhaps submit to) the campus digest! It will show up in your inbox every weekday morning during the semester.

Why should you read it? Because it contains info and links to participate in all sorts of awesome opportunities. I didn’t start reading it with any regularity until my third year, and was aghast at the kinds of things happening around campus I’d been missing. 

Oberlin, like any college, has a schedule filled to bursting with talks from students and faculty (resident and visiting) concerts to enjoy for free or cheap, workshops hosted by campus offices that often provide free lunch, and much more! The digest isn’t the only way to stay informed and won’t have info about some things, such as parties (for these you should follow instagram pages, pay attention to word of mouth, and perhaps download the annoying, but sometimes useful, app YikYak). Likewise, it will have a lot of info that’s relatively useless to you, but I still urge you to read it, sign up for events, get out, and go to them! 

The huge number of opportunities you’re afforded by being an Obie is unfathomable. How would you like, for instance, to get a bus ride and fully paid ticket to Cedar Point amusement park for just $25 dollars on your term bill? I did no fewer than three times and loved every minute. If you need ways to pay the reduced expenses that still go with these (or parts of your tuition, for that matter) I recommend conveniently working on campus. There are many options to do so, but I loved writing blogs (Oberlin Blogger Job), giving tours (Admissions Jobs, including Tour Guide), and helping new students with their transition to college life (PAL Job). 

Other than events, there are many benefits to being in college simply from having access to your student email account. Did you know Oberlin affords students free Canva Pro and New York Times subscriptions (as of June 2026)? Your college account also allows you to order and access thousands of texts through the library and OhioLink system, as well as through countless academic databases you easily gain access to via the institution. You even get to keep your @oberlin.edu address for four years after you graduate!!

However it’s getting paid, your Oberlin tuition isn’t cheap. Don’t throw away the opportunity you have—make sure to take advantage every day of these great parts of being a college student. 

2. Act Early and Try Don’t Underestimate Yourself

Your time at Oberlin WILL be over before you know it. The only way to ensure you get to take that one class or do that one thing you want before graduating? Do it ASAP! You never know what might come up to prevent you fitting stuff in later on. 

You should do every piece of advice on this list as early as you can fit it in. Don’t think you have the time? This may be so, and it is indeed important to at least make a shadow of an effort at not being (as we Obies sometimes say) “obercommitted”. But honestly in my experience… the limit of things I could stuff into a given semester and still enjoy it all turned out to be ridiculously expansive. 

In my final semester, for instance, I overloaded with five academic classes, joined a co-op for the first time, took an ExCo (Experimental College Course) on Fencing, taught an ExCo on TabletopGameDesign, gave campus tours, sang in the a capella group Pitch Please, and went to as many plays, concerts, and parties, as I ever had before. What should have been an impossible load to take on somehow worked out for me. As such, I say to you all with respect to your own situations, don’t underestimate yourself. While limits are important, if you want to do a lot of different things, you may be able to fit them all in.

Lastly on this note, when I say act early it does, somewhat terrifyingly, also include planning for your time after Oberlin. Like everything else, you’ll want to do this before it becomes an urgent thing to fit in before graduation. Luckily, there’s lots of support for this sort of planning. Making appointments in your first and second year with the office of career exploration and development and fellowships and awards can have multiplying, major benefits for getting your plans together. 

I was very glad, for instance, for the help the fellowships and awards staff gave me in applying to the Fulbright (for which Oberlin is a top producer!). Although I didn’t begin thinking about this until my senior year, when the time came, they gave me and 67 other Fulbright applicants specific, tailored advice to hone our essays to the best they could be. If you question whether you really should be applying for a prestigious fellowship or job of any sort, once again, don’t underestimate yourself! Go for it, and don’t be afraid to take advantage of all the college’s support along the way. 

3. Prioritize What Matters to You

This is maybe the most surprising piece of advice I have here. I keep saying to do more, but when it comes to this aspect I do mean to say it’s important to drop out of things when they aren’t working out. Yes, branch out, but if you realize you’re doing something that just isn’t worth your time, end it as soon as it’s practical. 

Why? You can do a lot at Oberlin but you can’t do it all. Your time here is precious. Don’t waste it on an activity you somehow felt obligated to get into or a major that bores you. Instead, prioritize what you really want to do most. 

Maybe this means dropping a “safety” major. Doing so is definitely not wise for everyone, but for some people, if your passion major is what you really intend to follow, why waste your time with another one? I certainly loved all I learned about biology at Oberlin, but I’m not sure I needed to complete the full major for what I intend to do next. 

This could mean cutting extracurriculars or even classes out for a semester, to spend more time with friends. I was afraid to do so, but ended up enjoying it greatly when I took that leap. 

This could mean something very different to each person, but at the end of the day, you’re not at Oberlin to waste away and be bored. You should fit in as much as you can, while ruthlessly prioritizing fitting in what matters to YOU. 

4. Enjoy What Makes Oberlin Unique

Oberlin is unique for countless reasons, many of which are communities I didn’t get to explore. To recommend a few Oberlin specialties I did love though, consider the following:

A. Engaging with Music

Oberlin is best known for its conservatory, and its presence on campus promotes a torrential blossoming of musical opportunities. You should go see all sorts of concerts, plays, and dance performances, happening constantly. These include things from Oberlin’s world-class operas and orchestra concerts, to student musicals, and a-cappella performances. If you have an interest, you should consider joining any of the groups putting these on (even if not in the conservatory, you can almost always audition at Oberlin, though of course it gets competitive). You could also consider taking conservatory classes and/or secondary lessons, potentially resulting in a major or minor in musical studies. 

B. Joining a Co-op

The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) is the largest student-run organization of its type in the nation, and it provides an incredibly unique experience of living and dining at college. If you’re considering this option, you should read my post Should I Join a Co-op at Oberlin? Being in OSCA is also a great way to stay informed about campus life, including the aforementioned parties spread via word of mouth. 

C. Taking and/or Teaching an ExCo

The ExCo program is similar to programs started at many colleges through which students promoted courses in new areas of study. The way the Oberlin one continues to allow students to design and teach courses on their interests today, however, is quite unique. For just a sampling of those taught already, I’ve seen courses on Taylor Swift, Japanese Taiko (drumming), swing dancing, rock climbing, cooking, Marvel, and much more.

D. Finding Yourself

Self exploration deserves its own mention as uniquely Oberlin, because there’s no social community I’ve seen that better welcomes and promotes all conceivable types of positive relationships and methods of self expression. 

You can have unique friendships and relationships at Oberlin, whether romantic or otherwise, judgement free. If you choose to have sex, the sexual information center (SIC, the link is to their Instagram and some info can also be found on this page) exists to provide the information and resources you might want to do so. 

You can wear whatever you want to express yourself or simply for the heck of it too. I’ve seen men at Oberlin wear skirts for the fun of it—because why not? Oberlin is authentically a judgement free place for a wide range of modes of exploration.

So enjoy taking risks and exploring yourself while you’re here, whatever—sometimes surprising—things that might mean to you. Hopefully you’ll always carry what you learn about yourself with you. In any case though, there’ll never be a better time to experiment than while you’re at Oberlin. 

In Conclusion

That finishes out my advice to new Obies. I send great thanks to the whole community that has made my Oberlin time incredible, and hope that new Obies can take the advice here to thoroughly enjoy their time as well. Goodbye to any readers of these blogs, at least for now. I’ve been so lucky for the experiences I’ve had here, and to get to write and share them through the blogs as well. Thank you!