Kenyon College

Date: Sep 24 2009
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
Kenyon College is obviously has an amazing academic program. Certain programs are ranked higher, such as the English program. Most of the academic programs are very good. I don't know of anyone who thinks that they are just doing busy-work.

Many people here are friendly, but just as many of them are arrogant and consider themselves to be brilliant. This did not bother me until I had to have class discussions with them.

Class discussions, as far as I could tell, seemed to get nowhere. I walked out of class with a random assortment of ideas that had been discussed for fifty to eighty minutes. It was difficult to take notes since there was simply nothing to write down. The main objective seemed to be throwing out facts and making yourself heard. This was quite foreign to me, and I often felt confused when faced with the prospect of writing a paper based on the ideas that had been presented.

The tours and student panels used during the visit days are not accurate. They tell you there is so much to do on campus. They tell you no one wants to leave. They tell you drinking is not that big of a deal. They tell you that the fraternities are not prominent on campus. Do not listen to this. For lack of a better word, it is bullshit.

Most of the parties, probably around eighty to ninety percent, are controlled by the fraternities. Every party revolves around drinking and dancing and possibly hooking up. It is rather incestuous around here to be quite honest. If you don't drink, the party is going to be pretty boring. Here are the events of a typical party: standing in line for cheap beer (Keystone), dancing, possibly puking depending on how much beer you've consumed, maybe hooking up with some random guy. And yes, you will have the pleasure of possibly seeing him everyday for the rest of your college career. This leads into the next point.

Kenyon is small. You may like small colleges. If you do, this is a great place. If not, you'll feel like you are still in high school. Middle Path is where you will always run into people you know, whether you want to or not. And the stuff admissions tells you about people always waving and smiling on Middle Path? Not that I can tell. Of course people will wave and smile, as long as you already know each other. No random person is usually going to smile and wave at you. Which, for me, was good. I would feel very weird if a random person started waving at me. But, to each his own.

This school is expensive. It is beyond expensive. It might even be more than the salary you will make for years afterwards. You could get a Master's Degree at a state school cheaper than you will get a Bachelor's degree here.

They will tell you that there are shuttles to take you to Columbus. And, there are. But, only if it's a holiday, and you need to get to the airport. This will cost you around one hundred dollars, and it is not round-trip. Otherwise, they school will take you to Columbus only for planned trips. I think they take trips to the zoo or the mall.

No matter what people tell you, there is a very high possibility that you will feel isolated here. I go to Walmart for fun. I do not like Walmart when I am living at home. But here, it has become a great adventure. Unfortunately, I have to plan a whole day around going because it involves catching the bus at a certain time on one of the four days the bus runs. And, to get food, you need to go to Walmart. The market here marks prices up to about twice of what they usually are. The cafeteria, despite being local food, is not good, especially being a vegan. It is horrible.

At this point, I feel like I'm just going on and dragging it out.

If you want to contact me, I'd be happy to tell you how I felt about it. I knew very quickly that I didn't like it. Never make your choice of a college simply because of a ranking in

U.S. News and World Reports.

That was horrible decision on my part, and I regret not looking more at other colleges that were not liberal arts colleges.

I understand that many people love it here, but it is not for everyone. It's not for me, and that's why I'm transferring next semester.