Campus Visit: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA

First in a series of essays on campus visits, I hope my experience will provide you with a "feel" for this college that you may not get from guide books, virtual tours or word-of-mouth stories. Like what you read? Contact the college and schedule a tour for yourself!

aerial view of Occidental College

On Monday, 10/29/18, I made the drive from Santa Monica out to Eagle Rock--a neighborhood in Los Angeles that borders the sprawling San Fernando Valley. Hidden on a hillside between a working class residential neighborhood and a stretch of discount strip malls, family-run Latino restaurants, and an old bowling alley sits Occidental College, or Oxy as the locals call it.

I pulled into a generous parking lot adjacent to the admissions office and happily learned that parking is both abundant and free. No parking stations to hassle with while making sure a parking pass is properly placed on my dashboard. I entered Collins Hall, home to the admissions offices and in reality, a former home to some lucky faculty member back when Oxy was founded over a century ago. Two kind women, likely in their 60’s, ran the check-in desk, and one of them handed me a folder filled with all the information that a college counselor would need. She then led me to what was once the dining room of the house where I could fix myself a snack and coffee/tea before my info session began. My collective first impression from my arrival and check-in was that of genuine hospitality.

The info session was an intimate, laid-back, yet informative affair. Monday afternoons are not typically busy tour times, so I shared a space with two prospective students with one parent each and a female admissions officer and Oxy alumnus in her mid-20’s named Michelle. We all sat in the bright parlor room of Collins House on comfortable couches and wing chairs with inviting photo books about the school on the coffee and side tables around us. The walls were adorned with authentic California plein air paintings, and I noted that I felt more like I was meeting someone for afternoon tea rather than engaging in a college info session.

The homey atmosphere surprisingly paid off. Not only was Michelle extremely informed about every detail of her college, but she encouraged our small group to ask as many questions as we desired and not hesitate to jump in at any point. Michelle was completely professional, yet she also kept the tone of the session relaxed and friendly. I could see that even the prospective students lost any shyness they may have arrived with and posed several questions of their own. My big takeaway from our hour with Michelle was that she wanted to communicate how Occidental College is deeply committed to promoting a sense of community among students, professors and staff. She proudly stated that Oxy requires all students to live on campus for the first three years (and most stay for senior year as well) so that students get to know one another like family and regard their campus as a home base, while they also take advantage of the myriad opportunities for exploration and fun in the sprawling city of Los Angeles. Michelle’s words and tone rang of authenticity, and I sensed the students in the room with me felt it, too.

Our walking tour was led by Sarah, a sophomore originally from northern California, who was about to declare a major in mathematics. As we strolled through campus, I used the time to ask Sarah about the more social and day-to-day aspects of Oxy life. She spoke languidly and candidly and painted a picture of an environment that was very similar to the way Michelle described it. Oxy was her home and her fellow classmates were congenial, supportive and curious learners. Sarah expanded on a theme that Michelle talked about—namely, a student body of strong intellectuals who value hands-on learning from a wide variety of internship opportunities, political activism and exploration of the city as a way to draw conclusions about the greater world. Sarah shared some examples of friends of hers who were currently engaged in internships, political campaigns or independent study projects. She exhibited a sense of pride in her school and her peers’ preferences for embracing opportunities to learn outside of the classroom and share their knowledge about the real world with each other. Sarah shared another source of pride for just about every member of the Oxy community—the fact that their most famous alumnus is Barack Obama--and she showed us his dorm, the steps where he gave his first political speech and a shrine-like display case of all-things-Obama in the campus library.

I must say, I have lived in Los Angeles for twenty years, but I never gave much attention to the merits of Occidental College. This may be partially due to the fact that I live at least 45 minutes away near the ocean (Los Angeles is a big city!) and because nearby UCLA and USC get so much attention as powerhouse institutions of learning. I now understand that this has been an unfair assessment on my part because I was trying to compare an intimate liberal arts college to a pair of grand research universities with a massive sports presence. Oxy does not attract the “rah-rah-paint-your-face-GO-Bruins!” type of student. Instead, it provides all elements of a classic liberal arts college—smaller class sizes, emphasis on creative thinking, personal attention from professors/staff, intimate living community—all while being situated in one of the most populated, busy cities in the country. As Michelle pointed out during the info session, this puts Oxy in a unique category of colleges that allows one to earn a true liberal arts degree while using its bustling, major city base as a place to explore and expand one’s intellectual curiosities. I was sold on this pitch, and as much as I tried to find something negative about this college, I could not. Passing by students lounging on the lush grass in the main quad on a glorious 72-degree afternoon, I felt pangs of envy and wished I could linger on campus until the sun sank behind the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles off in the distance.

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