Kenyon College Top Questions

Shout out to the swim team! The lords swim team is pretty famous for winning 34 NCAA championships and having the longest winning streak in NCAA history. A lot of students are on sports teams, though, and all the teams seem to be close-knit. There are a variety of frats and sororities that are also very close. The sports teams and greek life organizations throw great parties, often held in the Old Kenyon basement, that the whole school is invited to and encouraged to attend, and no one cares whether you're drinking or not drinking, which is great. Our a cappella scene is absolutely stunning, and there are a variety of other musical groups you can participate in, too. There are lots of clubs and committees, so whatever you're in to, I'm sure you can find a club/sport/committee/organization to be part of at Kenyon.

Everyone is involved in something and has at least one activity they feel passionately about. As a two sport athlete and double major I didn't have a ton of spare time but I still worked on campus, was on the junior/senior class council and volunteered at the humane society, wiggin street elementary school and hotmeals. Frats and sororities are important to those involved and also to pretty much everyone that likes to party. All greek parties open up to the student body so they are a great place to dance, meet people and drink free beer.

the frisbee team has become more popular, along with frats. athletic events are not popular at all. the dating scene is almost non existent, with the occasional drunken hook up that happens to turn into something more. I met my closest friends in my dorm. people party every weekend and every wednesday. if you don't drink, don't expect there to be much else to do, because the social life is strongly centered around getting drunk every weekend.

Athletic events are a joke. Freshman year Homecoming weekend was on the same weekend as reading days-- when many students leave campus and go home. Theatre is a big deal. Kenyon has a great theatre programme and the theatre kids are VERY much into honing their craft. Really, they are on the ill thespian jumpoff. Parties at Kenyon involve heavy drinking. When the beer runs out, the party's over. period. Fraternity life is quite present, as they pretty much control the party scene. Parties are free, and every weekend, without fail, some fraternity is throwing a party. Be it registered of unregistered. These parties can be fun, but sometimes the music choices can be questionable. Party nights are Fridays, Saturdays and Wednesdays. Wednesdays are serious business. There's always a party, and sometimes the parties can be more live on Wednesdays than on the weekend. It's weird, but it's the perfect day to get silly. Every year we have the winter formal Philander Phling, Shock your momma, and Summer sendoff. At all three events, people get really shitty.

Students playing golf with tennis balls on the Science Quad.

A Kenyon party, with singing

Theatre is wonderful. There is a lot of opportunities to take part in a production even if you aren't involved in the drama department. Shows are put on by individual students in the smaller student operated theatre called "the black box." These are easy to audition for, very relaxed, and a lot of fun! The theatre department tself is a little more political and intimidation - for someone who just wants to participate, it is hard to get in over serious theatre majors who know the faculty directors etc etc. There are a lot of traditions, like Phling, which is like a spring dance (spring fling - but I am not from the US so I have no idea what that is), the bug dress up Halloween party which EVERYBODY goes to and is so much fun, other themed parties take place throughout the year too, and loads of semi-formals for the different greek organisations. I personally am not much of a partyer or a drinker, so i doubt I am the best person to ask about that. I think there is too much partying and drinking, but of COURSE I am going to say that! I have already talked about some of the different campus organisations, but there are so many more, like the women's centre, the different singing groups and musical groups/bands, film clubs, political clubs, ballroom dancing, martial arts, etc etc. I really enjoy going to the movies in the athletic centre on Fridays. There is a cinema-like theatre where the film society play movies every Friday evening. There are plenty of dry events that are held on weekends too.

I don't know what groups are the most popular, I only know what I do. I"ve spent some time working with campus literary magazines but for the most part I run ArtClub which organizes and puts up student art shows around campus. I've also spent time working with the screenprinting club which is sort of underground at the moment, but we print for different campus organizations, or really just making whatever we want for fun. Frats are important if you want them to be, honestly I never go to the parties but certainly enough people do to make a life of that, though of course the other possibilities really are endless. If I were awake at 2am on a Tuesday I'd either be writing a paper, camping in the woods, swimming in the kokosing or running around with a friend, maybe building something.

Clubs, IMs, and fraternities are popular on campus. These organizations are by no means mutually exclusive. The fraternities tend to be the social scene on campus and are not exclusive at all, they are probably the friendliest people on campus surprisingly. People drink but its not out of control, except for the first few weekends when freshman girls think they can drink as much as freshman football players. But after a few bad hangovers everything mellows out.

My friends lived on my hall Freshman year. I did not get along with my roomate so I spent a lot of my time in their rooms. All eight of us found a way to room in the same hall the next year and now we share a suite together. At Kenyon you will make life long friendships. At the end of each school year, we have an all day event called Summer Send-Off. DUring the morning and afternoon, activities are held on Ransom Lawn for the members of our community (face painting, jupiter jump, sand art balloons, etc.) Towards the evening, various schoolbands plays. It culminates in the performance of a famous band. (Student do tend to drink all day and night on this event.)

Popular teams: Swimming--longest running winning streak in the nation for national championship wins in any category or division; Rugby, both men and womens; a Capella groups; theater; Greek organizations--more popular among guys. I was a captain of the Women's Rugby team and it was a lot of fun. Its a club sport, with a lot of social as well as athletic components. There are a number of road trips and tournaments and lots of parties on campus after games or on weekends. Students usually don't lock their doors if they have roommates, and apartments are never locked. Events of all sorts are generally well attended, but usually not overwhelmingly. The dating scene is non-existent. There is single but hooking up or married lifestyles. I lived next to my best friend freshman year and met my others through my sorority, classes, mutual friends, and sports. 2 am on a Tuesday I'm probably studying/chatting with friends/catching up on some tv. Traditions: freshman sing; all campus lounge parties all first semester; formals in winter and spring; rush in February; pledging second semester; ghost stories at Halloween; Summer Send Off festival (drinking all day, lots of free stuff, games, and a concert at night with a decent band). People who do party party 2-4 nights a week, from most popular to least on Saturday, Wednesday, Friday, and Monday. Greek life is a big part of campus, but not essential to join a group to be involved in their parties. During rush and formals its necessary to be a part of one to be involved, but otherwise parties are open and all are generally welcome. There are always alcohol free events, especially before 10pm, like a play, concert, sporting event, or social board activity--like lazer tag, or a trip into Colubumus or $1 movies. Off campus nearby there is Wal-mart, the High diner 24 hours, Fiesta mexican restaurant, or in Columbus there is plenty of shopping and all kinds of food and OSU.

Ultimate Frisbee has been the thing that defines me here. I joined the team right away, and all my best friends play with me. That's not to say I don't hang out with other people too. You could party every night or not at all here, and people do both. I locked my door for the first couple of weeks, but now I rarely even close it. Dating is easy here, because you always see people everywhere. I met my girlfriend at a party and we've seen eachother pretty much every day since then without trying too hard. The only problem is when it comes to actual dates, you have a pretty limited set of places to go. We have an active Greek community, however by no means must you be Greek to party.

There are Greek organizations on campus, which to me sounded scary. I was unsure about how I would fit into the Greek community, if at all. I ended up joining Archons, a co-ed Greek service organization, during my sophomore year.

Party nights are Wednesday, Friday, Saturday with a few extras scattered in occasionally. Parties range from big (a few hundred) to small room or apartment parties. Fraternities are responsible for most of the bigger parties but these are still relatively tame compared to frat parties at most schools and are always open to everyone. While partying often involves drinking, there is rarely any pressure to drink, even if you hang out with the party crowd. Freshman year I was a varsity athlete and had 48 hour dry before games but those dry nights were some of my most fun party experiences. While the party scene is probably the predominate social activity, there is always other stuff going on too. There are a lot of small live music shows, movies, performances going on most of the time. The dating scene is pretty weird and dominated by random hook-ups that might turn into something slightly more serious. I met my boyfriend playing Ultimate.

Students are recommended to lock their doors because we don't know how many people outside of campus came in and steal things. Frat and Sororities are not important. People don't have to join a greek organization to have friends. One can find friend anywhere on campus. Just reach out. Saturday can be a movie night between friends or going in town for a good meal. There are things that students can do beside drinking.

im in the archon society...a fraternity/sorority that is all about community service. i am also involed in the campus newspaper, the collegian. contrary to popular belief, all the athletic events i went to were pretty well attended...swim meets are extra fun becuase there is some amazing eye candy lol. dating scene = non-existant expect for a few hard-core married couple types. hook up culture = in full swing, more so, in fact, than that of larger universites, at least according to my friends that attend said larger school....that factor, of course, could come from the fact that we are such a small school and there are these little circles in whcih everyone knows everyones business and for some, dibsing becomes a huge deal...if im up at 2 am on a tuesday...which i am...i am studying in my room. there is the freshman sing every year. people mostly party friday and saturday, and some on wednesday. i generally go out 2-3 nights a week. i have heard that about 25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student body does so as well, hence those little circles i mentioned....you get to know everybody pretty fast.but i would say that we throw AWESOME parites and my friends at UC school have expressesd their profound jelousy that they dont get to got to 80s workout, or "Things that Don't Exisit" or other oddly-themed parties. we have more themed parties than i thought possibel,a dn people actually really get into it....they take their costumes seriously....very seriously....and then we get all dressed up, guzzle cheak beer together, and dacnce like mad to 80s and hip-hop....its sooo crazy fun! and ususlaly the weekend starts with.....omg this was the hardest week ever...i've had sooo much work to do...lets go get DRUNK!!! to be perfectly honest, i dont really know what people do on saturday ngiht that doesnt involve drinking, but heresay says that some people jsut hang out, watch movies, you know, that kind of thing. haha there HAVE been a few weekends i've stayed in, and as i sit cozily in my bed, reading, watching movies on my laptop, i laugh to myself as i hear people stummble home around 2 am, singing, laughing lougdly, talking and think, oh gosh, i hope i dont sound so obnoxious, but of course, i do, and itss all great and fun. and then i wake up, sans hangover, and am like, ok, i have got to go out tonight! early on saturday nights, if there is say an acapella conert, i would not miss that for the world....and those are usuallly at 8 pm so they dont in any way interfere with your party life haha. going off campus usually involveds a trip to wal-mart, and once in a while, to the movie theater. if you can, i would strongly advise you to bring a car-- you will be glad you did. im still working on petitioning the parentals for that one....

There are many things to do, you just need to get yourself out there. Even if you are not a party-er, there are things that can be don for enjoyment, 2 dollar movie nights for one. If you are a party animal then there are numerous parities that you can attend. Also, Kenyon will through a few, non-alcoholic, festivities in the mix a treat for the entire campus.

Greek life involves 30 percent of Kenyon students. Greeks provide nearly all the of the open campus parties and all do community service. There are more fraternities than sororities, and many people are anti-sorority. There is nothing official to do on a Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking. Social Board sometimes organized activities that end around 11 p.m., but if you do not want to go to a party, it is up to you to decide what to do. It is possible, however, to go to party and not feel pressured to drink.

Parties are pretty easy to find at Kenyon, which is another thing that separates it from many school. Fraternity divisions in dorms are usually places to be. Also, after music concerts, there are often really fun after-parties. This Friday, I'm going to the Kokosingers' concert (an AWESOME male a capella group), then to their after-party. Saturday, I'm going to see Fools on the Hill, an improv group, then go straight to a Stairwells' concert, a "folkapella" group. Then, I'll go to my friend's radio show, where she'll probably have a couple of beers for me and my friends. After that, who knows? Sunday, I'm going to a theater production of One Acts, and then to the college's Gospel Choir concert. Admittedly, there is a lot to do this weekend since school is almost ending, but one can easily find just as much to do on any given weekend. The frat scene here is interesting--there are the stoner frats and the bro frats, and all of them have parties on the weekends. The frat scene is definitely not huge here, though, and easy to avoid if you don't care for that scene. If you're not into parties or drinking, there are definitely things to do. The Social Board, as well as first year CAs, are always planning events that don't involve drinking.

I've heard the dating scene can be awkward, mainly because it's a small campus and word travels fast, but many people do date here at Kenyon. Those who choose to party most often do so 2-3 times a week (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday). For those like myself, who aren't into that sorta thing, you can always find people who just want to chill and play games or have a movie night. Most people don't leave campus on a regular basis, but some take the shuttle into Mt. Vernon (the neighboring town) on $2 movie nights or take a trip to Walmart. Most of the fun takes place on campus, though.