Campus is dingy albeit beautiful in a relic kind of way. Very isolated. Dorms are unlivable yet parents try to spin it as "the dorms build character" kind of thing. (Weird toxic positivity) Seems to be split right down the middle with dungeons and dragon groups and athletes. They books all praise it for as intellectual setting but students are mostly disengaged. Sunday morning are difficult as the only place on the meal plan does not open until 10:30 am and trash and empties are chucked all over campus and stay there until Monday. It is slipping in the ratings fast. They need to do something urgent- like a student center and update dorms.

One aspect at Kenyon is under the radar for most. Those who want and major in the natural sciences at Kenyon get on a premier track to a PhD because of the scientific facilities and faculty at Kenyon is lavish for them and securing them phenomenal internships, stepping stones career-wise if they intent to acquire a PhD which is why Kenyon ranks in the top 5 nationally for its science major graduates. They are pampered at Kenyon get a lot of career-enhancing breaks while at Kenyon to hit the ground-running toward a PhD in the sciences. That was not the case at the Kenyon I knew (I was a history major) in the 1960s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Kenyon a school that a conservative can attend without being ostracized?

If you keep your thoughts & your politics to yourself, then you should be okay.

Why should anyone have to do that?

Anonymous wrote:It’s a place where wealthy families send their kids, seeking an experience outside of their exclusive suburban bubbles and exposure to “diversity” only to find that rich kids whether from Darien, Palo Alto, Bethesda, or Highland Park are all pretty much the same after all.

LOL ! 100% accurate.

It’s a place where wealthy families send their kids, seeking an experience outside of their exclusive suburban bubbles and exposure to “diversity” only to find that rich kids whether from Darien, Palo Alto, Bethesda, or Highland Park are all pretty much the same after all.

For anyone joining this thread who does not want to read almost 40 pages of posts:

Kenyon College is a small LAC located among cornfields in a tiny dying rural "town" (about 2 or 3 shops). Depressing village of Gambier, Ohio.

This small school has a great D3 swim team and a beautiful, but small, campus.

Think tiny & isolated, but expensive.

Anonymous wrote:^^^BOT?

I’ve never seen a bot with creativity of this level, so no…probably not

Anonymous wrote:Is Kenyon a school that a conservative can attend without being ostracized?

If you keep your thoughts & your politics to yourself, then you should be okay.

Anonymous wrote:Is Kenyon a school that a conservative can attend without being ostracized?

Depends on how conservative you are. Casual conservative but not super politically inclined? Yes, certainly. Politically active and opinionated conservative? Might be better off elsewhere. Unless you like to hear that Hamas was justified, that capitalism is the root of all evil, etc.

If you/your kid decides to go, pro tip: ALWAYS write the papers with a left-leaning slant (with the exception of a few poli sci professors). You're welcome, I just saved you probably 0.25 GPA points.

^^^BOT?

I am a graduate from when it was all-male.

Enormous changes since the late 1990s when began an expenditure of 1.2 Billion
for new buildings and renovation of older ones. Graham Gund from the Billionaire
Gund family up in Cleveland accounted for probably 250 million toward that
figure and designed most of the new buildings which are state of the art.

With Gund's anonymous contributions, 530 million capital campaign just
concluded for the 200th anniversary Bicentennial 1824-2024.

Kenyon's debt servicing was on 19 million in 1998, now that figure is about
270 million but at 4 percent. No more recent borrowing for two new dorms.

Post-the 1990s, the PC and DEI culture flourished especially during the 2013-2023
presidency of Decatur who was African-American from Cleveland who did not
really succeed in boosting the percentage of Black students over the last ten years.

Kenyon is a tough sell for Black students even theough there is more diversity
overall than 20 years ago. Decatur who came to Kenyon in 2023 form Oberlin
wanted to make Kenyon more like Oberlin at leastin terms of PC-DEI and he
did succeed in that, such as getting the college to drop the "Lords and Ladies" for
the "Owls" as an anti-historical mascot.

Wellsley is now on the list of the overlap liberal arts colleges with Kenyon which
is a strong magnet for young women who want to major in the humanities.
Wellsley is 99 percent female - a warning sign that Kenyon risks that its
gender ration will soon become 60-40 in favor of women which according
to the conventional wisdom in Admission Departments become a tipping point
which cannot be reversed.

One last observation - Kenyon has more students from California now especially
from wealthy and some famous families in LA who are into the entertainment, film
and media culture there -- than any other states except for Ohio and New York.

Kenyon has a very high percentage of geographical diversity more so I suspect
than most NE-MA liberal arts colleges. It geographical draw is amazing and
mot something that parents on the east coast would be aware.

In any case, the big question for the future is whether Kenyon (an all-male college
for 150 years) which caters to women will rise to the tipping point. To avoid
doing that it has given male applicants (only 38 of total applicants) special
preference.

It is much easier generally for a young man to be accepted at Kenyon because
of this desperate need to avoid the 60-40 split.

As for isolation, Kenyon is less isolated than Williams. Real big cornfields?
Go further west than the more hilly parts of central-eastern Ohio which is
actually the Piedmont on the far side the Appalachian mountains. Real
Midwesterns to the west would look upon Kenyon as a eastern college
with a shorter drive to Columbus and Cleveland than Williams is to Boston.

Anonymous wrote:Is Kenyon a school that a conservative can attend without being ostracized?

Yes, it's fine, definitely versus similar schools. It's not Hillsdale but it's fine.
https://reason.com/2019/05/02/10-colleges-where-you-wont-have-to-walk-on-eggshells/

Visited Kenyon. I fell in love the minute we walked out of the admissions building for our tour - artsy kid thought it was middling, too remote, too small, the “downtown” area (about 15min down the hill) was half occupied storefronts. Really need to go to Columbus for anything exciting.

It does seem like a special place for the right student. I wasn’t expecting the very strong reaction I got from my DC, thought they’d be way more interested in the artsy-ness of it.

Plus, pricey.

Anonymous wrote:….

DS is from an unknown public. He was admitted at Kenyon, Denison, Bates, Haverford, Hamilton, Colgate, Lafayette and Lehigh. …. Lots of merit aid at all schools.
….

Bates, Haverford, Hamilton, and Colgate don’t do merit aid….

Is Kenyon a school that a conservative can attend without being ostracized?