Hamilton v. Kenyon v. Sewanee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DD is a writer and plans to major in creative writing and it's at the top of her list. We are planning to visit during Junior Visit Day in April and I'm hoping the location isn't an issue for her. She's pretty chill but also loves big cities. For parents who have children at Kenyon, can you share more about the social scene? She's much more into small groups, creative hang outs and theater than drinking and big parties. Does that sound like Kenyon? Do most students have cars or is the action all on campus so they don't need one. TIA for insight.

Yep. Sounds like Kenyon. But beware that there's not much of a middle ground: it's either perpetual drinking or low-key, alcohol-free hanging out with mostly religious kids. Tougher to find something in between.

You had me until you said "religious kids". She's totally fine with low-key and alcohol-free but I'm not sure about that last part. She's not against religion, mind you, but she's not what I would describe as religious at all. Good to know.

Yes, it draws a lot of students from rural communities, and with that comes religion. Students and faculty at Kenyon lean more on the conservative side, not to say the full spectrum isn't represented there. But it's pretty staid, compared to Oberlin. As an avowed leftie, I found the climate at Kenyon intriguing, and preferable to being surrounded by like-minded people. But I was hard-pressed to find anyone who just wanted to have a few beers and watch a movie on Friday nights.

If the objective is to end up in California, none of this makes any sense, sorry to say

I think there was someone on this thread who mentioned California for their son but I'm the PP who was asking about my daughter who is a writer. Totally different child. She isn't focused on CA, maybe Iowa for grad school if she works hard!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DD is a writer and plans to major in creative writing and it's at the top of her list. We are planning to visit during Junior Visit Day in April and I'm hoping the location isn't an issue for her. She's pretty chill but also loves big cities. For parents who have children at Kenyon, can you share more about the social scene? She's much more into small groups, creative hang outs and theater than drinking and big parties. Does that sound like Kenyon? Do most students have cars or is the action all on campus so they don't need one. TIA for insight.

Yep. Sounds like Kenyon. But beware that there's not much of a middle ground: it's either perpetual drinking or low-key, alcohol-free hanging out with mostly religious kids. Tougher to find something in between.

You had me until you said "religious kids". She's totally fine with low-key and alcohol-free but I'm not sure about that last part. She's not against religion, mind you, but she's not what I would describe as religious at all. Good to know.

Yes, it draws a lot of students from rural communities, and with that comes religion. Students and faculty at Kenyon lean more on the conservative side, not to say the full spectrum isn't represented there. But it's pretty staid, compared to Oberlin. As an avowed leftie, I found the climate at Kenyon intriguing, and preferable to being surrounded by like-minded people. But I was hard-pressed to find anyone who just wanted to have a few beers and watch a movie on Friday nights.

My DC has several friends there now and this seems really surprising. When we visited it seemed like a standard liberal SLAC that has the same urban/suburban kids as northeastern SLACs. Very popular with kids in this area, especially private school kids. There is a bit of a drug culture there, but I think that's true of many of the SLACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of the schools would qualify as diverse. Hamilton is upstate NY where it is cold as F. And Kenyon is in the mid-west with a beautiful campus. Sewanee is about an hour outside of Nashville surrounded by 13,000 acre campus of woods and streams. Visits are critical. It is important to do it when school is in session so you see the other students. Biggest mistake we made was thinking we could understand a school based on vacation visits.

If you define diversity as being skin deep perhaps, which is a pretty superficial, 70s era view of diversity.

[Anonymous]

We visited Hamilton and Kenyon several times, and both are great schools. Hamilton seems to have a bit more of a path to Wall Street vibe, perhaps because of its location in NY State, which can be good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DD is a writer and plans to major in creative writing and it's at the top of her list. We are planning to visit during Junior Visit Day in April and I'm hoping the location isn't an issue for her. She's pretty chill but also loves big cities. For parents who have children at Kenyon, can you share more about the social scene? She's much more into small groups, creative hang outs and theater than drinking and big parties. Does that sound like Kenyon? Do most students have cars or is the action all on campus so they don't need one. TIA for insight.

Yep. Sounds like Kenyon. But beware that there's not much of a middle ground: it's either perpetual drinking or low-key, alcohol-free hanging out with mostly religious kids. Tougher to find something in between.

You had me until you said "religious kids". She's totally fine with low-key and alcohol-free but I'm not sure about that last part. She's not against religion, mind you, but she's not what I would describe as religious at all. Good to know.

Yes, it draws a lot of students from rural communities, and with that comes religion. Students and faculty at Kenyon lean more on the conservative side, not to say the full spectrum isn't represented there. But it's pretty staid, compared to Oberlin. As an avowed leftie, I found the climate at Kenyon intriguing, and preferable to being surrounded by like-minded people. But I was hard-pressed to find anyone who just wanted to have a few beers and watch a movie on Friday nights.

Hmm I am a Kenyonite and had quite a wide spectrum of acquaintance while there, from religious drama majors and druggy philosophy types, to workaholic swimmers. Kenyon is kind of a do it yourself place. It is a good place for a one-off person who already has their own ideas. It is small and tons of students go abroad in junior year, so you can immediately involve yourself in any activity or scene, and if you stick around, you can be a leader senior year. I was there because I am a writing and reading studious, people watching type and just loved it. If you take the more challenging classes, you can really get deeply into your studies and have the work loaded on heavily. Or you can scale it back a bit, and go somewhat more relaxed social road. Yet since it is out in the country, somehow there was still time to hang out drinking tea during extendo lunch, procrastinating even if you are intense.

My sibling went to Oberlin so I was exposed to both cultures, and Kenyon was umm more sane imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DD is a writer and plans to major in creative writing and it's at the top of her list. We are planning to visit during Junior Visit Day in April and I'm hoping the location isn't an issue for her. She's pretty chill but also loves big cities. For parents who have children at Kenyon, can you share more about the social scene? She's much more into small groups, creative hang outs and theater than drinking and big parties. Does that sound like Kenyon? Do most students have cars or is the action all on campus so they don't need one. TIA for insight.

Yep. Sounds like Kenyon. But beware that there's not much of a middle ground: it's either perpetual drinking or low-key, alcohol-free hanging out with mostly religious kids. Tougher to find something in between.

You had me until you said "religious kids". She's totally fine with low-key and alcohol-free but I'm not sure about that last part. She's not against religion, mind you, but she's not what I would describe as religious at all. Good to know.

Yes, it draws a lot of students from rural communities, and with that comes religion. Students and faculty at Kenyon lean more on the conservative side, not to say the full spectrum isn't represented there. But it's pretty staid, compared to Oberlin. As an avowed leftie, I found the climate at Kenyon intriguing, and preferable to being surrounded by like-minded people. But I was hard-pressed to find anyone who just wanted to have a few beers and watch a movie on Friday nights.

Hmm I am a Kenyonite and had quite a wide spectrum of acquaintance while there, from religious drama majors and druggy philosophy types, to workaholic swimmers. Kenyon is kind of a do it yourself place. It is a good place for a one-off person who already has their own ideas. It is small and tons of students go abroad in junior year, so you can immediately involve yourself in any activity or scene, and if you stick around, you can be a leader senior year. I was there because I am a writing and reading studious, people watching type and just loved it. If you take the more challenging classes, you can really get deeply into your studies and have the work loaded on heavily. Or you can scale it back a bit, and go somewhat more relaxed social road. Yet since it is out in the country, somehow there was still time to hang out drinking tea during extendo lunch, procrastinating even if you are intense.

My sibling went to Oberlin so I was exposed to both cultures, and Kenyon was umm more sane imo.

Thanks for this. I was the PP who asked for my daughter who is a writer. This sounds very much like her kind of scene. She definitely plans to go abroad for a semester or, more likely, a year so I'm glad to hear that this is a big part of the culture. We are looking forward to visiting Kenyon in April!

[Anonymous]

Oh I am Kenyon PP and so glad you found it helpful. I was sold by the campus visit and interview. I also liked taking long walks and bike rides in the country and the Amish selling baked goods on weekend mornings.
Also loved small classes around the seminar table, talking about ideas. You really do have to do the reading though. There is no skating when there are only 5 people and the prof who assigned it all. Have fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh I am Kenyon PP and so glad you found it helpful. I was sold by the campus visit and interview. I also liked taking long walks and bike rides in the country and the Amish selling baked goods on weekend mornings.
Also loved small classes around the seminar table, talking about ideas. You really do have to do the reading though. There is no skating when there are only 5 people and the prof who assigned it all. Have fun!

Thanks! She won't have any trouble with seminar style classes and doing a lot of reading because she's in a very academic private already and many of her classes have been this way since middle school. I will let her know your feedback ahead of our trip. Much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

My kid needs helps deciding. Just wants to be in "business" one day. Your views?

[Anonymous]

Very few people anywhere will have heard of these schools. But I have worked with a few Hamilton graduates, and they have impressed me.

[Anonymous]

Can Kenyan or Hamilton compete with this:

http://newschannel9.com/sports/sports-headlines/sewanee-car-will-race-at-atlanta-motor-speedway-this-weekend

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can Kenyan or Hamilton compete with this:

http://newschannel9.com/sports/sports-headlines/sewanee-car-will-race-at-atlanta-motor-speedway-this-weekend

The college is Kenyon. Obama may be Kenyan.

[Anonymous]

I attended Kenyon for one year before transferring to a bigger school (Ivy if that matters). My year at Kenyon was in the late 1990s but from what I've heard little has changed since them in terms of campus vibe.

It's a good school. Some of the best classes of my college years were at Kenyon. I loved my Ivy but have to admit that Kenyon faculty did know how to teach. It was a more intimate environment and the classroom discussions were terrific. I would say the top 10-15% of the Kenyon student body was comparable to the middle of the pack at my Ivy.

The campus is lovely.

Beyond that, what some have said is correct (or at least it was in the 1990s). It's a "preppy" school, not very diverse, the bulk come from suburban UMC households in the east and midwest. A fair few came up from the South as well. There were some kids from small towns, particularly small Ohio towns but a good percentage of those were kids of faculty at other small LACs in the Midwest. I never found Kenyon to be religious in any meaningful sense although there were campus Christian and Jewish groups. Drinking is a fact of life. Students did drink, and heavily. But not necessarily more than at comparable LACs in comparable settings (put it this way, at some schools students consume a lot of hard liquor, at Kenyon they drink a lot of beer). My Ivy had a drinking culture as well but it was not quite as dominant as at Kenyon and the diversity of the student body at the Ivy meant that you were much more likely to find 2-3 good friends of similar interests so if all you wanted to do on Fridays was to watch a movie with one or two beers and argue philosophy, that was easily found. Because Kenyon has no college town your social options outside the college drinking scene is unfortunately limited.

The other thing that stood out compared to my Ivy was the heavy smoking but this (I hope) has probably changed. Can't comment on drugs beyond that drugs are probably everywhere at every college.

I left Kenyon because I wanted a bigger school and I was tired of being isolated in a small environment in the middle of nowhere. I enjoyed Kenyon and did fit the Kenyon mold on the exterior but yearned for more diversity and range of activities/opportunities. I'll never forget the drastic difference in my first month at the Ivy after leaving Kenyon. But if the transfer had never happened I'd still have been quite happy at Kenyon. Many of their graduates do very well in life in the professions, academics and arts. Going to "Wall Street" is doable from Kenyon, you just have to be persistent and gun for it.

[Anonymous]

All things being equal, if the goal is to attend one of these 3, which school affords the best chance of ED admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All things being equal, if the goal is to attend one of these 3, which school affords the best chance of ED admissions?

Sewanee by a lot.