I was surprised to read that Kenyon has a pretty strong Greek system. I’ve been to a few virtual sessions and it was never mentioned. Anyone have insight into this? My son doesn’t liked Kenyon but rethinking it because he doesn’t want a school with fraternities.
For context, note that Kenyon does not appear in this list of colleges with high, or relatively high, fraternity participation: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-frats.
My daughter is a sophomore at Kenyon. She wasn’t interested in Greek life at all, and Kenyon was the only LAC on her list that had it. After our visit, whatever concerns she had were alleviated, and her experience there has been that Greek life isn’t prominent at all and it’s more like clubs. She has lots of friends, and none are in fraternities or sororities. She loves the school, couldn’t be happier with her choice.
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Our daughter just started at Kenyon, and she also had no interest at all in Greek life. She talked to many students who assured her that it’s not a huge part of student life, and she’s certainly found that to be true so far. I believe only about 20% of students are involved, and there are no residential Greek houses. Students also can’t join until sophomore year. Seems really low-key.
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Also, when we visited campus and asked our arts tour guide about Greek life, he mentioned his fraternity as an example, which, according to him, was all about opposing toxic masculinity. Definitely not a stereotypical frat.
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I might differ in interpretation on one point that is often assumed with respect to Kenyon. While Kenyon does not have stand-alone Greek houses, it does reserve sections of its residence halls so that students in Greek organizations can live together. In my opinion, this represents residential Greek life.
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This is true, but any club or group can apply for the same kind of housing, and the common spaces in those dorms don’t “belong” to any one organization. They also don’t have kitchens or dining spaces—it’s a very different feeling than a fraternity or sorority house.
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Good point!
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GM! As Recruitment Week is about to begin and I have a nervous freshman daughter, I wanted to get some updated feedback on Greek Life (specifically sororities) at Kenyon. How inclusive/competitive is rush? What have people’s daughter’s experiences been (positive or negative)? Any advice (other than the usual recruitment advice)?
TIA-
My son is at Kenyon. Not involved in Greek life but has a friend who joined a frat. Totally inclusive, not competitive, I think anyone who wants to join, can. Greek life never comes up as an issue. I think it’s very small and seems like just another club or something.
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I agree that Greek life is a relatively small part of the social scene at Kenyon, especially compared with larger or more Greek-heavy colleges. From what our daughter has told us, the rush process overall is fairly low-key, and there are groups that anyone can join (Archons is one example – they’re a co-ed group). For sororities specifically, some do make cuts along the way, but the usual rush advice applies. Be yourself and trust the process – our daughter knows people who did and didn’t get bids/join sororities, and they all ended up equally happy with the results.
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Kenyon is in a very rural area with little or no traditional college social activities. Fraternities and sororities, while relatively low participation, provide most if not all of the social life on campus. That said, the administration is openly hostile to greek organizations. In addition, what little social life and parties that occur on campus, by greek orgs or otherwise, are quickly closed down by security. Unless you are looking for a very rural campus with little traditional college social life, I would think twice about the school. Please visit the campus in the middle of the winter to get the best feel for campus life.
Fraternity and sorority rush is in second semester for freshman.
A few fraternities have “lodges” that are off campus where they hold meetings and parties. The current administration is clamping down hard on parties on and off campus. This has the effect of forcing students to hide in their rooms, binge drink and isolate. Students hang out in small groups and do not interact with the broader student body as a result of the school’s policy on parties. Unless you are an extreme introvert you should probably look at other schools.
There are many of us here, myself included, who have happy kids at Kenyon who would vehemently disagree with your assessment. The administration is trying different things to keep underage drinking under control, and some feel they may be overstepping. Perhaps you or someone in your life is hiding in their room, binge drinking and isolating, but the idea that many/most students at Kenyon are doing so is absurd.
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This is absurd. In our experience, Kenyon is one of the happiest campuses we visited. Our son has lots of friends, is very happy, and loves school.
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The Board of Trustees formed an Alcohol Task Force several years ago. The primary finding was that binge drinking in dorm rooms was pervasive on campus and represented a threat to student health and safety let alone created negative social life. Covid restrictions have only exacerbated the issue. And the current administration has implemented draconian policies that restrict what are considered normal college social life at almost all other colleges in the US. Current administrators stalk student social media accounts to find violations. This fact alone should raise red flags for prospective students. While many students may be fine with the current social life on campus, many prospective students who are looking for a robust social life on and off campus will be very disappointed as to what Kenyon offers. Unfortunately, Kenyon is in a rural setting and far from a city that offers even a small amount of social activities. But to have school officials actively cracking down on student social activities only emphasizes a weakness of the school. All students look for different things in their college experience but to say that social life at Kenyon is robust is not true and absurd.
Wow, I’ll ask my son about this “stalking” of their social media accounts. I haven’t heard anything about this. My son has an active social life, I’ve met his friends and they all even like happy and social kids. They are out and about frequently — not stuck in their dorms. Sorry to hear it hasn’t been a positive experience for your child. To each his own.
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As the parent of an applicant, I’m glad that Kenyon is taking steps to curb problematic drinking. I assume from your posts that the school isn’t cracking down on board game nights, generalized hanging out or other low-key social activities that don’t involve alcohol, but more on parties with heavy drinking? If that’s the case, I’m pretty sure my kid will be good with it.
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Another parent of a very happy Kenyon student here. My daughter (a senior) is not into drinking, parties or Greek life but has had a very active and fulfilling social (as well as academic) life there.
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