Are you the kind of student who’d want to spend your free time working through physics or calculus problems written on the side of an Adirondack chair in the quad? If so, you might be the type of student who feels at home at Kenyon College. Founded in 1824, Kenyon College has a long and storied history. It’s a small liberal arts college about an hour from Columbus, OH, and it’s well-known for its writing and literature programs. “The New York Times crossword puzzle is a varsity sport here,” our tour guide, a graduating senior from New York told our private counselor tour.
With just over 1700 undergraduates, Kenyon College has small class sizes and a low student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1, which provides for great connection and interaction with faculty. In fact, the entire freshman class fits into the music auditorium – which is great, because Kenyon is a very musical place. A cappella concerts are huge here, and students stand on the steps of Posse Hall singing when they arrive as freshmen, and again before they graduate.
A traditional liberal arts college, Kenyon College offers 35 majors, 13 concentrations, pre-professional advising and cooperative programs with other schools. Kenyon has distribution requirements, so students will take a variety of courses from the natural and social sciences, math, arts and humanities during their time here. For students interested in political science, Ohio is a great place to be – it’s a purple state! English and Economics are the most popular majors, and many students double major. Of course the writing program is very strong as well.
About a third of Kenyon students join Greek organizations. There are no Greek houses, but there are rooms and areas for groups to live in close proximity to each other. The brand new athletic center is amazing! And when I visited in spring, 2018, Kenyon was about to tear down the older library to build a brand new facility.
Kenyon College students take their athletics seriously – about a third of Kenyon students are varsity Division III athletes, and the swimming and diving teams have won multiple national championships.
Kenyon is very selective in its admissions; they admit about a third of those who apply. Unlike many of its peer institutions, Kenyon is not (yet) test-optional; the average weighted GPA of incoming students is 3.9, and the middle 50% of test scores are 30-32 on the ACT and 1450-1490 on the SAT. Many students who apply to Kenyon also apply to colleges in the NESCAC https://www.nescac.com/landing/index, as well as Oberlin and Grinnell.
You can scroll through all of the photos from my visit to Kenyon below.