Is Kenyon a good fit for me?

elnino506
Fri, 05 Feb 2021 01:00:02 +0000

Current Kenyon student here!

I don’t know if you decided to ED Kenyon or not or whether you just decided to RD, but I thought that it would be helpful for you if one student shared their thoughts as you start hearing decisions soon.

As other people have said, it’s a very quirky school and the students here have lots of interests (and yes being Kenyon-artsy it 100% a thing although don’t think you HAVE to be artsy to fit into the community). The nice thing is that everyone has their different “niche” per say, and it’s usually not too hard to find other people who would relate to you. Overall, the campus culture is friendly, although I will say that if you break up with a SO or have a falling out with some people that you will see them around campus and it’ll probably be awkward–one of the perils of a small college.

I am also a low-income Hispanic student (although I’m from a rural area), and I will say that the campus has pretty large disparities when it comes to racial and ethnic identity and socioeconomic aspects–that is, a lot of the student population at Kenyon is rich, privileged, white kids, which makes me feel quite out of place sometimes as Hispanic, low-income student. Overall though, I do feel mostly included within the community, although I have definitely had some rough patches.

From what it sounds like, you’re a student with lots of different interests with some environmental biology, economics, political science. Other than English, those three majors are some of the most majored in subjects, so you would have lots of your peers in the same boat as you. They are all pretty strong departments, although I will add that the political science department tends to be conservative. However, I’ve heard from people that it’s not usually a big deal. Being that this is a liberal arts school (and especially at Kenyon), writing is a huuuge part of the education here and is incredibly important for essentially every class (yes, even the STEM classes as I will attest). But like someone said up above, Kenyon doesn’t expect you to be the next Ernest Hemingway coming into college; the professors and curriculum are built to help you become a much better writer and the writing center here is fantastic for helping you with writing issues.

I will just add that working at the Kenyon farm, although it is not something is for me, is an incredibly enriching experience for those that really do enjoy it. I have a couple of friends that volunteered there every weekend and they loved it, and it sounds that you would thoroughly enjoy the experience.

That’s all I have to say! Best of luck in your college decisions and if you have any additional questions, feel free to ask me.