<p>I am an international student at Kenyon from South-East Asia and I think I can answer some of your questions.</p>
<p>1) Kenyon is not exactly well-known in the US because of its size and its lack of research output by the faculty. So the average Joes in America would not have heard of Kenyon. But graduate schools (and highly-educated people) do know of Kenyon and seem to think highly of it. If you do well at Kenyon, you will have no problems getting admitted into top graduate schools, law schools included.</p>
<p>2) Having said that, Kenyon is as hard and challenging as any big name schools. It really depends on you – you can double major, undertake departmental honors and so on. If you want to challenge yourself, the opportunity is there for you. But one thing about Kenyon is that professors here are truly amazing. I can’t really say a lot of bad things about the professors here. They truly care and are there for you.</p>
<p>2) It is hard to graduate in 3 years from Kenyon because one has to complete a senior exercise (two if you are double-majoring) before students are allowed to graduate. From my knowledge, only a few schools like Pomona, Carleton and Kenyon has such a requirement. And the senior exercise tends to be time-consuming and demanding. Also, why not take the full four years? College comes only once in your lifetime. Enjoy it.</p>
<p>3) Kenyon’s location in rural Ohio has both pros and cons. I personally think that Kenyon students are at a disadvantage when it comes to getting a job because employers don’t come to Kenyon (rural Ohio) that much to recruit students, although Kenyon does participate in the Selective Liberal Arts Consortium. On the other hand, I can pretty much concentrate on my studies without having a lot of distractions. Kenyon is a place for you to think and reflect. Winter breaks and summers at Kenyon can be very lonely though, so make sure you go somewhere over the breaks. </p>
<p>4) The international student scene is fine. We don’t just hang out with each other. Most of us hang out with Americans pretty well. And Kenyon has definitely worked hard on diversity and it is showing. The class of 2013 has something like 20% students of color. LGBT scene is just fine as well, probably not as vibrant as NYU or UC-Berkeley because the number of LGBTs at Kenyon are substantially smaller than big liberal places. </p>
<p>5) There’s no summer study abroad programs at Kenyon, although you can pretty much go where ever you want in your Junior year. I know of people who go to varied countries like Nepal and Mongolia in their Junior year. However, there’s a caveat: you need to have taken at least 1 year of Spanish if for instance, you want to go to Spain and 1 year of French if you want to go to France and so on. Kenyon however, has the summer science program and allows you to undertake a research project with a faculty member over the summer (while giving you $3000 and free housing). Kenyon also has the summer legal studies award, which allows you to undertake a legal-studies research project and you also get to go to Oxford for a week or so to present your research.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think OSU is as mediocre as you think. OSU is pretty well respected for its graduate programs IMO. Many of Kenyon’s math professors come from OSU and they are amazing.</p>