Kenyon College

Date: Sep 20 2017
Major: Biology (This Major's Salary over time)

Hopefully, this will provide some insight to all of you who are trying to decide which small liberal arts college (student body >2500) is for you.

First, try to get some basic parameters of what you are looking for while you read this review, because Kenyon College. will resonate with you or it won't.

I choose Kenyon over Vassar, Hamilton, Bates, and Grinnell (as well as Whitman, Pitzer, and Denison as backups) and could not be happier. Kenyon College is the perfect gem. To understand why I say that let me put my review into context.

I knew I wanted a top small liberal arts college with excellent academics, accessible faculty, an open collaborative accepting community, good resources, a good-strong alumni network, strong PHD placement, good internships, in a nice chill, but intellectual environment, with students who are real and decent people, with a minimal number of histrionic angst ridden nearly 20 something's and with a diverse thinking, but left leaning student body where the prep contingent would be toned downed, maybe vineyard vines with jeans ( being a prep myself), with guys who could rock beards if they want and anyone could wear shorts or sweats in the winter, no one had to dress up just to go to class and campus life was inclusive. I wanted to be challenged (but not suicidal like some of my friends at other LACS and Ivies), stretch and reach as far as possible with the support of the college community, but not be broken.

I didn't care if the LAC was rural or city , although a campus feel was important to me. I was looking mostly in the northeast and Midwest, a little on the west coast and the northwest. like the seasons. So with that in mind, perhaps this review will be a good College Confidential, Unigo, Cappex, etc. review rolled into one. Good luck.

The reasons I choose Kenyon are: ? excellent academics ? excellent accessible supportive faculty ? chill environment ? collaborative community ? beautiful campus (Hogwarts eat your heart out, Kenyon is the quintessential college setting it could be right out a movie set, just walking down Middle path makes , which bisects the small town that supports the college, makes me feel smart (lol)) ? friendly and accepting students and faculty ? an administration that cares is not the bane of your life ? caring not invasive campus security ? Liberal, but with a nice sprinkling of different points of views ? Great merit/grants (even if you are not poor) up to $45,000- they fight hard to get the northeast leaning kids to look at Ohio ? Personal attention ? Ohio is beautiful and friendly and s nice place to be to focus on your studies (with international and city options available ) ? safe, no worries

Albeit, Kenyon ( as with my other LAC choices) may not be well known outside academia or outside those who know top LACS, it is a gem of a school.

What differentied Kenyon from the other schools for me were:

Hamilton

I loved the school, not too much the lac/frat bro douche frat science. For me, that scene really put an entitled douche feel to an excellent liberal arts school. Kenyon has frats, but they are more chill and less jockey entitled and closed

Bates

My top toss up with Kenyon. Love love

Bates. Did not like Lewiston and the drinking was way extreme for me (I do like to party in moderation and will join a frat @ Kenyon, but this seemed a bit for me. My friend who went there before me transferred to Barnard because of the drunk ice hockey scene- yeah the ice hockey dudes- if you are into take then this is cool for you.). Gambier has very little, it is a small sweet charming, and, yes, boring town that grew up to serve Kenyon. Amish sell their wares on Middle Path and the US PO is the college PO, but I always feel welcomed, safe and the town is a gown town and it is beautiful. Lewiston is also boring not too safe (at least from the folks I spoke to) , big pretty not charming and not gown. Too bad Bates was not where Bowdoin is.

Vassar

Great rep and academics. Great profs. Liked the campus, although I thought it was run down and not kept up. No interviews and no personal attention. Friend who goes there likes it very much, but thinks Poughkeepsie sucks and does not get into NYC much. Does find a bit more than average "angst ridden 20 something poser. Nice house system. For me, not enough philosophical or political diversity. Given ranking and draw backs (plus anyone over 50 still thinks it's a seven sister's college) it was not worth $78,000 for me. Not merit. Just need based.

Grinnell

Ok, up front, my mom wanted me to go here. Excellent sciences, great profs, nice students, fairly international student body, excellent academics, known for their total acceptance of any thing and radical, top 20, endowment over a billion. Make any major you want. Money for whatever. But, this a school you have to visit I just could not do Iowa. If you can, Grinnell is awesome and they do give great scholarships. The students I met were not as happy as you would think so that and Iowa turned me off despite the scholarship and my mom.

So Kenyon was just the perfection of Bates, Hamilton, Grinnell and Vassar rolled into one.