Right type of person? Gotcha. |
How true. Only full pay kids who were born on third base and thought they hit a triple have the right to do that. They should add that to the student contract. Seems legit. |
| Can anyone comment on Hamilton or Kenyon? |
Great writing programs. Dreary, depressing locations, frigid in the case of Hamilton. |
Both excellent liberal arts schools with bright kids, engaging profs, and beautiful campuses, but in areas that are a bit desolate. |
| Hamilton attracts lots of smart kids interested in open curriculum, writing or working in finance in NYC. The head of Goldman is an active Hamilton alum and GS recruits heavily at Hamilton, as do other alums. My experience, through DS, is that kids are very happy there. DS has a great group of friends, some from this area. School did well with Covid this fall, with students on campus and tested 2-3 times a week. Like many SLACs, many students study abroad junior year. We were worried it might be too remote for DS, but have heard no complaints. There is a small “downtown” down the hill from campus with a couple of restaurants that are quite good, and cute coffee shop and a couple of bars that are college hangouts. Ten minutes from campus there are several new hotels and lots more restaurant options (Chipotle, Blaze pizza, etc), and Utica is 15-20 min from campus with more upscale food/restaurant options. We have other kids at different colleges and have been very impressed with Hamilton. |
Mine will be at kenyon in the fall and we’ve visited twice while going through recruiting process. The academics are excellent and the campus is beautiful. The athletic complex is top notch for a D3 school, and anyone attending can use the facilities. The town is small but very cute. Not many stores but they have a nice inn with a formal dining room, a pub/restaurant across the street and they also have a few other places to eat like a sandwich shop, Mexican takeout and a cozy coffee shop. The school store seems to be a hangout place too. I wouldn’t call it desolate because that sounds negative, I’d say it’s remote but cozy. I visited Hamilton years ago with my older child and liked it a lot. I will say it was hard to get there by driving and felt quite remote in winter. The town had a bit more than Kenyon’s town of Gambier but it’s at least a mile away as opposed to the Gambier town which is part of campus. I’m guessing most Hamilton students rarely trek the mile to town unless they have a car. |
Congrats to your DC (and you!) on Kenyon. My DC has started the recruiting process with Kenyon for admission in 2022. We really like the coach and are devouring as many YouTube videos about the school/campus as possible, but it's still hard to get a real feel for the campus without actually visiting. Hope that can happen by next summer! |
Keep your expectations low for the “town” of Gambier. I think it’s cute and its immediate proximity to campus is very nice, but there isn’t much there there. We’re talking a single block of one street with maybe a dozen buildings and six or seven businesses. Locals use the word village. Campus is gorgeous and athletic facilities are stunning. |
My DD, also an athlete, is very happy at Kenyon. Academic advising has been excellent (we're comparing with the larger schools her brothers went to -- Columbia and Stanford). Profs are creative, enthusiastic and generous with their time. She has a great group of friends and is fine with being in a place with very few restaurants and even less shopping. She has that whenever she comes home and is likely to live in an urban area after graduation, so it's not such a big deal to her. And just to add, students are very excited about the new library and career center, which will be open in September, I believe. |
It sounds like there are alot of Kenyon posters whose kids are athletes. At school, are most of your kids' friends from the team (i.e., is there enough interaction between athletes and nonathletes?). |
Don’t disagree. Just trying to clarify that Gambier isn’t really a town at all. Once you accept it for what it is - a village - it’s a great feature of the campus. |
Kenyon parent here whose kid is not an athlete. She has two friends in her friend group who plays sports. She’s really enjoyed her experience so far. |
I'm the parent of a Kenyon student-athlete -- I'd say that most of DD's friends play sports, but she has almost has many who don't. Athletes and non-athletes are roommates and dormmates, share classes and majors, and get to know each other through activities other than sports. DD's closest friend is not an athlete -- they're both the only girls in their families and are the sisters that each always longed for. |
| In addition to points others have made about Hamilton, it is only 45 minutes from the Syracuse airport. We have made day trips to visit DC/watch sports events, and it’s been easy. The drive is about 6 hours from this area. |