What is Kenyon College like -- looking for actual and recent experiences...

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:My impression is that the SLACs are where the athletes and the NARPs can frolic freely together.

Not necessarily. Friend of mine had a son at Williams who said the athlete / rich kid / woke kid / "everyone else" cliques didn't mix much.

so four cliques? jock, rich, woke, and remainder?

I think it’s basically two. Athletes are often from well to do backgrounds so there is a natural overlap with jock and rich. (Some would argue the point of athletics is to attract full pay rich kids.) This woke nonsense has exacerbated the natural divergence between goal oriented athletes and creative/intellectual/dissolute NARPs. Now the NARPs can’t even be reasoned with. My DS at Kenyon is really far from a traditional jock although he plays a sport. But he does find a lot of these NARPs are truly abnormal people- shockingly so. His estimate is about half of them are really off the deep end. I’m happy his social life is centered around the sports/Greek kids (who overlap heavily). This generation may just be a little stranger than previous ones. Raised on iPhones, Covid, the rise of transgenderism/BLM, etc.

I don't even know what this means.

Imagine two boys. One has purple hair, is committed to social justice, enjoys drugs, writes poetry, plays the flute, and considers himself non-binary. Another one plays lacrosse, has a closet full of vineyard vines, enjoys beer and aspires to run a hedge fund. What I’m suggesting is a social paradigm that can be semi-accurately described as a tension between these two extreme poles.

What gives you these ridiculous whacked out visions? Just alcohol, or have you been hitting up the new pot shops in Tenleytown? Seems like a little paranoia is setting in.

I'm drawing caricatures and leaning into stereotypes here, but is there not some truth in this proposed spectrum of college student personalities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not at Kenyon, but I have spent time on campus and my kid is a D3 athlete. Kenyon is a beautiful campus with spectacular athletic facilities. Good luck to your child and you MIL should keep her mouth shut.

Agree. SLAC are nothing like a public high school! Really stupid thing to “wonder”.

Many SLACs are similar--very similar--to prep boarding schools and may resemble to a lesser extent good private day schools.

Similar in what way? My kids graduated from or currently attend three different private day schools in the DMV, all generally deemed as "Big 3" by DCUM. The oldest two went on to a NESCAC college. Neither has found it to "resemble" their high school other than in being a relatively small school where it is easy to get to know their classmates. Both have found their college classes to be more demanding and neither is bored in the least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My impression is that the SLACs are where the athletes and the NARPs can frolic freely together.

Not necessarily. Friend of mine had a son at Williams who said the athlete / rich kid / woke kid / "everyone else" cliques didn't mix much.

so four cliques? jock, rich, woke, and remainder?

I think it’s basically two. Athletes are often from well to do backgrounds so there is a natural overlap with jock and rich. (Some would argue the point of athletics is to attract full pay rich kids.) This woke nonsense has exacerbated the natural divergence between goal oriented athletes and creative/intellectual/dissolute NARPs. Now the NARPs can’t even be reasoned with. My DS at Kenyon is really far from a traditional jock although he plays a sport. But he does find a lot of these NARPs are truly abnormal people- shockingly so. His estimate is about half of them are really off the deep end. I’m happy his social life is centered around the sports/Greek kids (who overlap heavily). This generation may just be a little stranger than previous ones. Raised on iPhones, Covid, the rise of transgenderism/BLM, etc.

I don't even know what this means.

Imagine two boys. One has purple hair, is committed to social justice, enjoys drugs, writes poetry, plays the flute, and considers himself non-binary. Another one plays lacrosse, has a closet full of vineyard vines, enjoys beer and aspires to run a hedge fund. What I’m suggesting is a social paradigm that can be semi-accurately described as a tension between these two extreme poles.

What gives you these ridiculous whacked out visions? Just alcohol, or have you been hitting up the new pot shops in Tenleytown? Seems like a little paranoia is setting in.

I'm drawing caricatures and leaning into stereotypes here, but is there not some truth in this proposed spectrum of college student personalities?

No, not in real life. No one is all one or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My impression is that the SLACs are where the athletes and the NARPs can frolic freely together.

Not necessarily. Friend of mine had a son at Williams who said the athlete / rich kid / woke kid / "everyone else" cliques didn't mix much.

so four cliques? jock, rich, woke, and remainder?

I think it’s basically two. Athletes are often from well to do backgrounds so there is a natural overlap with jock and rich. (Some would argue the point of athletics is to attract full pay rich kids.) This woke nonsense has exacerbated the natural divergence between goal oriented athletes and creative/intellectual/dissolute NARPs. Now the NARPs can’t even be reasoned with. My DS at Kenyon is really far from a traditional jock although he plays a sport. But he does find a lot of these NARPs are truly abnormal people- shockingly so. His estimate is about half of them are really off the deep end. I’m happy his social life is centered around the sports/Greek kids (who overlap heavily). This generation may just be a little stranger than previous ones. Raised on iPhones, Covid, the rise of transgenderism/BLM, etc.

I don't even know what this means.

Imagine two boys. One has purple hair, is committed to social justice, enjoys drugs, writes poetry, plays the flute, and considers himself non-binary. Another one plays lacrosse, has a closet full of vineyard vines, enjoys beer and aspires to run a hedge fund. What I’m suggesting is a social paradigm that can be semi-accurately described as a tension between these two extreme poles.

What gives you these ridiculous whacked out visions? Just alcohol, or have you been hitting up the new pot shops in Tenleytown? Seems like a little paranoia is setting in.

I'm drawing caricatures and leaning into stereotypes here, but is there not some truth in this proposed spectrum of college student personalities?

No, not in real life. No one is all one or the other.

Of course not. That is the concept of a “spectrum.” You define the poles and in real life you have cluster’s around the poles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not at Kenyon, but I have spent time on campus and my kid is a D3 athlete. Kenyon is a beautiful campus with spectacular athletic facilities. Good luck to your child and you MIL should keep her mouth shut.

Agree. SLAC are nothing like a public high school! Really stupid thing to “wonder”.

Many SLACs are similar--very similar--to prep boarding schools and may resemble to a lesser extent good private day schools.

Similar in what way? My kids graduated from or currently attend three different private day schools in the DMV, all generally deemed as "Big 3" by DCUM. The oldest two went on to a NESCAC college. Neither has found it to "resemble" their high school other than in being a relatively small school where it is easy to get to know their classmates. Both have found their college classes to be more demanding and neither is bored in the least.

Was thinking mostly of the elite New England prep boarding schools (HADES for example) and elite NYC private day schools. (Know of several dozen kids who experienced this from those schools.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not at Kenyon, but I have spent time on campus and my kid is a D3 athlete. Kenyon is a beautiful campus with spectacular athletic facilities. Good luck to your child and you MIL should keep her mouth shut.

Agree. SLAC are nothing like a public high school! Really stupid thing to “wonder”.

Many SLACs are similar--very similar--to prep boarding schools and may resemble to a lesser extent good private day schools.

Similar in what way? My kids graduated from or currently attend three different private day schools in the DMV, all generally deemed as "Big 3" by DCUM. The oldest two went on to a NESCAC college. Neither has found it to "resemble" their high school other than in being a relatively small school where it is easy to get to know their classmates. Both have found their college classes to be more demanding and neither is bored in the least.

Was thinking mostly of the elite New England prep boarding schools (HADES for example) and elite NYC private day schools. (Know of several dozen kids who experienced this from those schools.)

Those schools resemble college in general and have college like campuses and often teach college level courses. Logically, a college that is a similar size will seem more similar to those schools versus larger universities.

[Anonymous]

Its to woke now. The smart and popular kids go to Dennison these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its to woke now. The smart and popular kids go to Dennison these days.

So smart that they can’t even spell the name of the school correctly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its to woke now. The smart and popular kids go to Dennison these days.

So smart that they can’t even spell the name of the school correctly?

So smart their average ACT score is two points lower. Kenyon is the better academic school, but Denison is an increasingly strong competitor.

[Anonymous]

Never heard of the term NARP before. I would never want my kid to go to a school where there is a divide. Many college students played sports through high school and have no interest in playing at university. If a campus has a weird athlete v non athlete vibe that’s critical to know. How would one find this info? It’s likely not apparent on a campus tour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Never heard of the term NARP before. I would never want my kid to go to a school where there is a divide. Many college students played sports through high school and have no interest in playing at university. If a campus has a weird athlete v non athlete vibe that’s critical to know. How would one find this info? It’s likely not apparent on a campus tour.

I think it’s pervasive across LACs because they tend to attract artsy/fartsy/intellectual kids who are drawn to the small community, professor interactions, and learning for learning sake vibe while at the same time attracting kids who are able to and want to compete athletically at the college level- a group of students who naturally skew more goal oriented and pre-professional. Unlike larger universities, athletes at LACs are usually some 35 percent of the school. So it’s just in the nature of LACs to bring together these two groups of kids together. Perhaps it’s both a feature and a bug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My impression is that the SLACs are where the athletes and the NARPs can frolic freely together.

Not necessarily. Friend of mine had a son at Williams who said the athlete / rich kid / woke kid / "everyone else" cliques didn't mix much.

so four cliques? jock, rich, woke, and remainder?

I think it’s basically two. Athletes are often from well to do backgrounds so there is a natural overlap with jock and rich. (Some would argue the point of athletics is to attract full pay rich kids.) This woke nonsense has exacerbated the natural divergence between goal oriented athletes and creative/intellectual/dissolute NARPs. Now the NARPs can’t even be reasoned with. My DS at Kenyon is really far from a traditional jock although he plays a sport. But he does find a lot of these NARPs are truly abnormal people- shockingly so. His estimate is about half of them are really off the deep end. I’m happy his social life is centered around the sports/Greek kids (who overlap heavily). This generation may just be a little stranger than previous ones. Raised on iPhones, Covid, the rise of transgenderism/BLM, etc.

I don't even know what this means.

Imagine two boys. One has purple hair, is committed to social justice, enjoys drugs, writes poetry, plays the flute, and considers himself non-binary. Another one plays lacrosse, has a closet full of vineyard vines, enjoys beer and aspires to run a hedge fund. What I’m suggesting is a social paradigm that can be semi-accurately described as a tension between these two extreme poles.

are these my two options????? god help us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is not at Kenyon, but I have spent time on campus and my kid is a D3 athlete. Kenyon is a beautiful campus with spectacular athletic facilities. Good luck to your child and you MIL should keep her mouth shut.

Agree. SLAC are nothing like a public high school! Really stupid thing to “wonder”.

Many SLACs are similar--very similar--to prep boarding schools and may resemble to a lesser extent good private day schools.

Similar in what way? My kids graduated from or currently attend three different private day schools in the DMV, all generally deemed as "Big 3" by DCUM. The oldest two went on to a NESCAC college. Neither has found it to "resemble" their high school other than in being a relatively small school where it is easy to get to know their classmates. Both have found their college classes to be more demanding and neither is bored in the least.

Was thinking mostly of the elite New England prep boarding schools (HADES for example) and elite NYC private day schools. (Know of several dozen kids who experienced this from those schools.)

Interesting. My DCs attended an NYC private day schools and have friends, either from camp or their day school, who attended NE boarding schools. When they are hanging out, I'm not hearing them say, "oh, it's just like HS." Some of them acknowledge that the rigor prepared them for school, but not the social scene.

It's not the 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Niece is at Kenyon. She's an upperclassmen. Happy as a clam. Not woke, not a jock, just a normal, happy, delightful young woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My impression is that the SLACs are where the athletes and the NARPs can frolic freely together.

Not necessarily. Friend of mine had a son at Williams who said the athlete / rich kid / woke kid / "everyone else" cliques didn't mix much.

so four cliques? jock, rich, woke, and remainder?

I think it’s basically two. Athletes are often from well to do backgrounds so there is a natural overlap with jock and rich. (Some would argue the point of athletics is to attract full pay rich kids.) This woke nonsense has exacerbated the natural divergence between goal oriented athletes and creative/intellectual/dissolute NARPs. Now the NARPs can’t even be reasoned with. My DS at Kenyon is really far from a traditional jock although he plays a sport. But he does find a lot of these NARPs are truly abnormal people- shockingly so. His estimate is about half of them are really off the deep end. I’m happy his social life is centered around the sports/Greek kids (who overlap heavily). This generation may just be a little stranger than previous ones. Raised on iPhones, Covid, the rise of transgenderism/BLM, etc.

I don't even know what this means.

Imagine two boys. One has purple hair, is committed to social justice, enjoys drugs, writes poetry, plays the flute, and considers himself non-binary. Another one plays lacrosse, has a closet full of vineyard vines, enjoys beer and aspires to run a hedge fund. What I’m suggesting is a social paradigm that can be semi-accurately described as a tension between these two extreme poles.

The hedge fund-aspiring vineyard vines kid never does cocaine. Never. It's the poet-flautist who enjoys drugs, see.