Kenyon College Top Questions

unfortunately, they are

I'd say!

No, but there are a lot of English majors. The Political Science Department is also excellent, maybe better than English.

There are some people like that here, but there are people like that pretty much anywhere.

While the English department is great, the "writers' school" label sells the other departments short. The Physics department is top notch with a spectacular faculty, facility, and student:teacher ratio (there are typically only 6-10 majors each year, and there are 8 professors on the faculty). That's the only department of which I have solid first-hand knowledge, but my friends (only on of them is an English major) are all quite satisfied with their departments and teachers. The student body isn't very racially diverse, but there are all types of people here, so in terms of interests and lifestyles, yes, Kenyon is kind of diverse, but yes, it is also quite white.

Obviously not universally, but a large chunk of the student body does fit this profile.

In some ways, yes. It is very useful to have a very good grasp of the English language, and being ditsy is a sign of being uncultured and uneducated. However, there are many more areas of excellence at Kenyon, a lot of very intelligent science and economics majors and some very gifted art students. But on the whole most every one is very laid back and enjoys writing to a certain extent.

For some people, but most people are very in touch with what is going on.

Some. If you want a preppy school, Kenyon is probably not the place to go. Don't get me wrong, there are preppy students there (like myself), but you will get a lot of artsy people who are REALLY smart. There is an eclectic group of students at Kenyon.

Not really

I think mostly they are, although I don't think that automatically means that being financially comfortable and liberal are bad things. That is a completely different discussion.

Answered in last response (sorry, didn't read this till after)

yes, yes, no, yes

Mostly--most people know everyone else, and it's hard to escape anyone. And the students aren't (for the most part) the preppy jock-y types at a big school such as Boston College.

Hell no.

Well, it's not the most party-hardy school, so yes, that's accurate.

The stereotype about the college itself is far from the truth. Once, I was speaking with a former admissions officer from Yale and I told him that I was attending Kenyon. His response was that Kenyon is the only legitimate college in the Mid-West. While his comment was strong, generally you will find that the quality of the academics at Kenyon are highly regarded. And the character of the campus? Let's just say that we are referred to as either the "Princeton of the West," the "Williams of the West," or the "Amherst of the West" (or "'insert top-notch east coast school here' of the West).

Yes, they are.

All of it is pretty accurate. There are Republicans, but even they are socially liberal for the most part. Most people are from wealthier families, but some aren't, and it isn't money we're snobby about, but education. We value the education we're getting, and we're hear to learn. It's more intellectual snobbery against people who don't want to make the most of what they've got. That being said, we're not a really competitive group of people. We want to succeed, but we also want everyone else to as well. We're a really supportive group of people. Awkward and smart are pretty accurate.

Yes, mostly. It's hard to define Kenyon students. Most of us are too apathetic to really get involved in politics or student environmental groups or the like, so we're not like Oberlin students. Our main form of activism is through allstu emails. Now that it's become a better-known school, the students have to be pretty smart to get in, but some have an edge in admissions because they're "legacies." There's a lot of drinking, but we work really hard, too. Most of us are individuals. We get along pretty well as a student body, despite our differences.