Oberlin College
- Campus Dining

RT
Currently attending or alumni?
Review this school!
Are you interested
in this school?
Saving your decision
Yes
Maybe
No

Your information has been sent to this school through our partnership with .

This school has been saved to your schools list.

This school has been removed from your recommended schools list.

For your next recommendation, check out .

Oberlin College - Campus Dining - College ProwlerCollege Prowler4.62

Campus Dining

Quick Stats

Meal Plan Available? Yes
Average Meals/Week 14
Average Meal Plan Cost $5290 per year
Freshman Meal Plan Required? Yes
All students are required to live in College housing or an Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) co-op, and to participate in one of the dining programs through graduation.
Student Favorites
  • Coffee Kiosk
  • Lord Saunders
  • Wilder Decafé

Student Author OverviewWhat's This?

Campus dining is never a treat exactly, but Oberlin does make a point of offering a wide selection of options for students with varying culinary preferences. All three dining halls, Dascomb, Stevenson, and Lord Saunders, include salad bars, fresh fruit, vegetarian, and fried-food options, as well as cereals and all the ingredients necessary for making sandwiches. Students often complain that the dining hall menus grow repetitive as the semester wears on, and that the food isn’t seasoned with much flavor or pizzazz. Still, for dining hall food, it could be much worse than it is. At least students have the option of drinking local, organic milk, and munching on hummus and pita bread if they don’t feel inclined towards the meat and potatoes baked in caramelized sugar.

Aside from Campus Dining Services (CDS), Oberlin offers an excellent alternative for students who prefer to cook their own food, work communally, and eat healthier: the co-ops. Co-ops are run by the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, and are entirely managed by students. It is cheaper to join a co-op than to eat at CDS, but co-ops do have their downsides. First, you must be prepared to eat at exactly the same time every day, or you run the risk of missing out on all the food. Also, students in co-ops must put a certain number of hours into cooking and cleaning in the co-op every week, so if your schedule is overly busy, CDS might be the more efficient route. In general, even though some students complain co-ops are messy and disorganized, they are a healthier, cheaper, and more self-sufficient means of eating.

See how you stack up against students who were accepted to this school . . .And calculate your chances!Register to get started

Oberlin Student ReviewsWhat's This?

Sort by:

Loading...

Campus Dining at Oberlin College

sunxiaohu

'14

History

3.1
B-

Repetetive

its good stuff, but it gets old really fast. also, the meal plan is kinda bulls***. oh well, c'est la vie.

Mar 17, 2011

Comment actions: Rate
Report as inappropriate/inaccurate

Campus Dining at Oberlin College

woot

'13

Law

4.6
A

Good All Around!

Everyone can find the way to eat that makes them happiest. There is a huge number of Co-ops on campus that students can join, and the food is WONDERFUL in the co-ops. They're not always the cleanest of places, but the group works by consensus and so the food is most often coming from sustainable sources. Most co-ops are vegetarian as well, and there is pizza night in all the co-ops on Fridays! The campus dining is also good. People don't appreciate it, but there is always a great number of vegetarian options and meat options, and there is a yummy pizza bar every night as well as a rotating station that has a special meal. (This dining hall is all you can eat). The salad bar is also pretty extensive and has interesting different produce. DeCaf is the place where you can buy food a la carte, and it's great. The fruit smoothies are perfect for a warm spring day spent on the quad, and the sandwiches are designed by you to perfection, with lots of options. The Rathskellar also provides another dining option (though much less popular) where you can go with your professors. Dascomb has a la carte food which is fine, but not great. And there is also the dining hall in African Heritage house that has soul food which is delicious, and amazing desserts! They also have great produces sometimes, I once had a whole mango there. Great food all around!

Feb 26, 2011

Comment actions: Rate
Report as inappropriate/inaccurate

Campus Dining at Oberlin College

aebrown

'11

Political Science and Government

3.8
B+

Average but Lots of Options

The bad news is that the food at the two main dining halls is not that great. They do the greasy food fine, but healthier options are really hit or miss (and usually miss). Occasionally there will be good days, like a tortellini bar (or the holy grail, mac and cheese AND waffle fries). It's also a big pain that you MUST buy at least 5 meals per week unless you are in a co-op, and they're rather overpriced.

The good news is that there are a lot of options. When you get sick of the two main dining halls, there is another open for dinners; there are two cafes on campus; there is a lot of delicious food off-campus. And best of all, the co-op system consists of 9 dining co-ops that each have a personality and style of cooking. If you're lucky enough to get in to a co-op, you put in a few weekly hours of cooking/cleaning/administrating for a really cheap board bill, 19 homemade meals per week, and the opportunity to help make all the rules and elect all the positions. If you elect the right cooks, the food will be great.

Nov 29, 2010

Comment actions: Rate
Report as inappropriate/inaccurate

Student Survey Poll ResultsWhat's This?

Rate campus dining on the following topics

Facts

24-Hour Dining None
Off-Campus Places to Use Flex Money None
Special Options Although students don’t have a wide variety of dining options to choose from, they can use CDS Flex and Obie Dollars to buy food on and off campus. CDS Flex is a declining balance account built into the ID card, and may be used to purchase food from Decafé, or additional meals at any of the four CDS dining facilities. Obie Dollars are also available through a declining balance that students voluntarily purchase in advance and may use at select stores and restaurants off campus. For a special treat, Cookies on Call delivers freshly-baked cookies and cold milk late at night, when you are craving a study break, or an extra party snack. Students who live in the Third World House also have all the amenities to cook in their dorm.
Did You Know?

Oberlin’s first co-op, Pyle Inn, was established in 1950 in response to student’s desire for more economical dining options, and improved quality of service. Run by the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA), co-ops are an excellent alternative to Campus Dining Services (CDS). Co-ops tend to offer more organic and vegetarian options and rely entirely upon the cooking abilities of their members. About 20 percent of Oberlin students choose co-ops over CDS.

Since the director of George Jones Memorial Farm, Brad Masi (Class of ’93), worked with fellow students to redirect college dining into Northeastern Ohio, Oberlin College’s dining service now spends around $225,000 of a $2.84 million annual food budget locally.

The “Thinking of You” program allows relatives and friends to send Oberlin students care packages that will brighten their day, or lighten their late-night study sessions. Parents receive an order form in the mail shortly before the beginning of the school year and can pick from a number of different care packages, including ones for vegans and vegetarians!

Dining Halls & Campus RestaurantsWhat's This?

Coffee Kiosk
Location: Science center
Food: Coffee, snacks
Hours: Monday–Friday 7:30 a.m.–11 a.m., 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Dascomb Food Court
Location: West College Street (inside Dascomb Hall)
Food: Deli, grill, International, pizza, salad bar, dessert bar
Hours: Monday–Thursday 7:30 a.m.–2 p.m., 5 p.m.–8 p.m., 8:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m.–2 p.m., Sunday 5 p.m.–8 p.m., 8:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m.

Lord Saunders
Location: Forest Street (inside Afrikan Heritage House)
Food: All-you-can-eat, comfort food
Hours: Sunday–Thursday 5:30 p.m.–7 p.m.

Stevenson Dining Hall
Location: North Professor Street
Food: Pizza, deli, soups, grill, vegetarian
Hours: Monday–Sunday 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., 5 p.m.–7:30 p.m.; Saturday–Sunday 9 a.m.–11:15 a.m.

Wilder Decafé
Location: West Lorain Street (Inside Wilder Hall)
Food: Snacks, sandwiches, salads
Hours: Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–1 a.m., Saturday–Sunday 12 p.m.–12 a.m.

Wilder Rathskeller
Location: Basement of Wilder Hall
Food: Buffet, á la carte
Hours: Monday–Friday 11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m.

Buy The Guidebook

Most Recent Student Author

College Prowler guides are in the hands of students throughout the entire process. Because you can't make student-written guides without the students, we have students at each campus who write, edit, and survey their peers for every guide that we publish. Thanks to our most recent student author at Oberlin

Name: Veronica Colegrove

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Major: Latin/Computer science

see all student author bios > Become a student author to help update the guide for this school