<p>Yukiomo,</p>
<p>One of Kenyon’s greatest attributes is the balance of academic strength throughout the departments. I can personally attest that the physics department is awesome. I was not a fan of physics in high school, but I have learned so much and I really feel like I am walking away with a very thorough and practical knowledge of physics.
Besides my personal experience, I have friends who are both math majors and physics majors. One of them was accepted to a bunch of grad programs (I know of at least Northwestern and Dartmouth). I think that the major advantage to the math/physics programs here is that we have such small classes and a very dedicated faculty for both departments. As you know, math/physics is easiest to learn when you have a teacher who engages you and Kenyon professors will perpetually keep you on your toes.
Overall, Kenyon is famous for humanities, but every single program here is held to the same academic standards and honestly (as a science major) I feel more challenged than most of my non-science major friends. I am fully confident about the material that I am learning. When I talk to my high school friends who go to a couple other liberal arts colleges and some Ivies, I always feel like I have really mastered the material while maybe some of them have only memorized and regurgitated.
Now, I do not know anything about Oberlin. To be honest, I had never even heard of it until I came to Kenyon and I played them in the fall of my freshman year.
Kenyon has an exceptional pre-professional and pre-graduate school program. We had 12 Fulbright scholars last year alone and we have had Fulbright scholars every year since 1999. We are one of the top producers of Fulbright scholars in the country (of any college liberal arts or otherwise).
This should give you an indication of not only Kenyon’s academic rigor, but the strength of the academic advising program. Most advisors have about 10 students/class that they are responsible for so they know you very well and they are able to guide you. I like to know that my advisor will know me well and have taught me so that when they write letters of recommendation (study abroad, internships, jobs, grad school) they will represent me as a person.
I don’t know why Oberlin has an “undeniable” statistic of grad school acceptances, but you should be wary of those types of statistics. Look at how many years after graduating those were taken, what majors those stats are for, etc. Kenyon also has an impressive amount of students earn terminal degrees in their respective fields (I think after 2 years, well over 80% of grads are at some type of post-grad program).
Bottom line, Kenyon will prepare you for whatever you want to tackle after Kenyon. Again, I urge you (all of you) to try to make decisions based on the intangible things that are unique to you. I’m sure that both Kenyon and Oberlin will offer great opportunities for their grads so you should just pick a place where you will get support and be happy. They are both excellent choices and I doubt that you will have any regrets.
If you need any more hard facts, I’ll try to track 'em down from my boss for you. I can also give you some real opinions not found online.
Good luck with your decision (have you visited both? It sounds like you are from Ohio?)
KTG</p>