Kenyon College Top Questions

I absolutely love it! The community is close-knit, your professors will all know you by name, and the athletic facility is gorgeous. There are so many things to do here, even though the community is secluded: I love to go hiking at the Brown Family Environmental Center, go swimming in the Kokosing or in the athletic center's awesome pool, and go to plays. Academics here are of the utmost importance, classes will stretch your mind and challenge you, and your peers will be brilliant. Overall I believe Kenyon provides an atmosphere that encourages you to be your best self, and is well worth the cost.

It's nice to not be at a huge school but I definitely could do without seeing every single person I know when I go to breakfast in sweats and no make up on on Sunday morning. If people have heard of it, they're impressed. Otherwise they think you're in Africa. The worst things are the isolation, drinking culture, and weird social vibes. Best are the professors.

I love this place. But then again, what I looked for in a college is different from what many other people want. The size is intimate, the town of Gambier is charming, but limited to a few restaurants and a single market. The smallness of both bothers some people. It doesn't bother me at all but it comes down to personal preference. The campus often wins or does very well in "Most Beautiful Campus" rankings, and rightly so. There are a lot of trees, nearby farms, bike trails and dusty country roads through all of it. And the stars are AMAZING. Being in a rural area (albeit a quick free shuttle ride away from the much larger town of Mount Vernon, complete with Wal-Mart and fast food) annoys people. It's certainly a change from living in an urban or even suburban neighborhood. But it's also a great way to focus on four years of study and sort of hide away from the rest of the world until an entire lifetime of manically running around cities. Again, goes back to personal preference. In my opinion, this campus has a terrific atmosphere that needs to be experienced in person in a visit before anyone can make an educated decision about its merits. A key part of this is EVERYONE IS SO POLITE AND FRIENDLY. It's really difficult going back home and getting used to not being able to smile and say hello to every stranger I walk past in the street. It bothers me not being able to relate to many people back home--people who haven't heard of Kenyon or think the liberal arts isn't worth it...again, personal preference is important concerning this.

Kenyon is a small school which makes making friends really easy but also can get old if you don't decide to make the most of the opportunities available to you e.g. get involved with a bunch of student groups, study abroad etc. There are always great people you have yet to meet, even after living in such a small town for four years. Time on campus is spent studying at the library, working out at our amazing athletic center, partying in old kenyon or getting involved in some activity or others. There are a ton of relatively unknown beauty spots where you can swim in a nearby lake or the Kokosing river or go sledding. Being bored at Kenyon doesn't really exist as there's always something you should or could be doing. People complain about the food just because its something to complain about but alumni cannot wait to come back and visit somewhere where you can eat as much as you want for every meal without having to worry about wristbands, meal tickets etc. Kenyon kids have a ton of school pride and for good reason, for the most part they have the best 4 years of their lives there.

The best thing about Kenyon is getting to know people so well, so quickly. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. I'd change its location and size. The size, to me, is stifling. I think that it is too small, but coming from a large city, this has been quite an adjustment for me. People tend to react positively--if they know what Kenyon is--once I tell them where I attend. I spend most of my time either in my dorm, at the dinning hall, or at the library. There's no college town. The campus is the college town.

Kenyon's REEEEEEEALLY small. But in spite of that, I often see a bunch of people I have never seen before, which is always nice but very confusing. Theres more Kenyonites than Gambier-ites, so I don't think it's really a college town. It's more like a college nook. It's quaint.

About Kenyon. Something that I absolutely adore about Kenyon is that it is so well organised. I mean academically speaking in particular. I came from an IB school, a United World College in fact, and one thing I hated with a passion was the IB's absolute inflexibility with anything. EVER. At Kenyon, it is so obvious that a professor teaches a subject exactly as they want to. There doesn't seem to be any interference from above, and the freedom for them to give students what they are passionate about, makes it so easy to maintain an engaged class environment. I have never, in both my completed years at Kenyon, had one class that I didn't adore. The Anthropology department is my baby now, and I found it just by going to an academic fair in orientation, and later on remembering one of the professors who seemed like fun. Now I am a junior and just got back from Kenyon's Honduras field program for Anthropology, and it has changed my life. In addition to academics being just wonderful (in my opinion), I love all the other staff members too. The dean of admissions is my best friend and we gossip and go out together, all of the directors and high positions seem to be women (yes!), the dining hall staff are so friendly and really appreciate talking to students and making friends (if only more students would take that initiative), the staff of all the offices I have ever entered (oh the accounting ladies are lovely), the health Centre is well run and I have always found that they have provided for me in every way I needed, the same goes for the Counseling Centre, where there is a lot of support. No matter the problem, whether it be alcoholism, drugs, sexual abuse, any kind of abuse, depression, over-stress, or what have you, there is something set up to help. It is all very personal too. It is so easy to get to know all of the staff who make the place run as smoothly as it does, and when you do, they are always so happy to do you little favours (like going easy on you for getting caught with something naughty in your room for example) and be as helpful as possible. There is so much to get involved in if you just give it a chance. I do a lot of work with the environmentalist and sustainability organisations, and the local food movement in Knox County is HUGE. Kenyon has a large portion of local food in its dining hall (ALL meat and chicken), and with the PEAS organisation parading itself all over, this is becoming something people are more aware of. Walking down middle path, people greet each other. Kenyon is small enough that you can be a well-known face if you so choose, but it is small enough that you can disappear off the radar for a while too if needs be (trust me, I know). I am sure it is not the place for everybody, and it took me a while to settle in, but I adore it now. I babysit for my advisor's loud and gorgeous little boy, I can talk on the phone to Jennifer Delahunty about anything, I exchange gifts with the Gund Gal's (dining hall ladies), I gossip with the ladies from downstairs in admissions where I work, and generally I just enjoy softly observing people going about their business in peace.

It's a little small, definitely too small for some people, also too isolated for some people. the campus can get boring if you are unable to create your own fun. however, because it is so isolated there is a really strong community and a lot to do on campus. the food is not great, i'll admit that, though I'm certainly picky. The administration is small and approachable, the professors are great and extremely connected to the student body. I spend a lot of time working (I am a studio art major) but I also have plenty of time to spend with friends and thus develop myself on more than one level.

Kenyon is amazing. It gives you so many opportunities to take classes that you normally wouldn't. For instance I came there thinking I wanted to be pre-med but now I'm in the honors economics program. Also you can be friends with everyone, including the faculty who are so nice. They want to teach you but more importantly for you to find the desire to learn within yourself. The campus is beautiful and everyone seems to be happy all the time (excluding maybe 2 weeks in february(ohio winters).

I love the campus feel here. It is so beautiful. Everyone knows each other. It is a cute little college town. We are sortof out in the middle of nowhere. Polaris mall is a little less than an hour away. We have a movie theatre, bowling alley, walmart, and good restraunts like LA FIesta in nearby Mount Vernon. If you need the city life, Kenyon is not the place for you. Kenyon is having a big problem with communication right now. There is a disconnect between students and adminstration, professors and administration, and in some cases involved students and uninvolved students. We are working very hard on ways to get information out to people in a better way. We are holding more community forums, where students can come and ask questions of staff members, and we are working on sustaining the student government memory by having those in office mentor their successors.