<p>Hello all, posting once again after a gap with questions about my second D’s college admissions process. this time the focus is on the LACs and we have a boat load of them! LACs tend to be selective I realize and we wanted to have a good mix of name brand schools with safeties.
One of the schools we are looking at is Kenyon College. I have a few questions around this.
proximity to a riverboat casino - ??
Is is heavy on Athletics and Greek Life?</p>
<p>There is a Kenyon Forum but i saw a few posts about the veracity of recommendations there and thought of the parents forum.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it, unless your child has a gambling problem. A local well regarded school is within a few miles of a casino, and there are no problems.</p>
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<p>This is a personal choice issue. Do you have a specific concern?</p>
<p>Being a resident of Ohio, I have heard mostly good if not excellent about Kenyon. The cost is outrageous of course - not sure how good their fin aid is although a work friend who has been a single mother all her life working at a non-profit has a son going there and I am certain he must have received a very good package to get there.</p>
<p>Her son is very into drama/acting and has had outstanding opportunities. He has also always worked on campus and had the opportunity to stay summers and work on campus. He is not “greek”. I get the feeling the campus is quite intellectual.</p>
<p>One doctor I work closely with - her husband went to Kenyon - I always remember a comment they made to me about Kenyon, “when you go to Kenyon you don’t just learn, you learn how to THINK.” </p>
<p>My niece went to Kenyon. Had fabulous 4 years there. Not involved in greek life at all - except probably going to the parties. Not much doing in the town and nearest big city (Columbus) is at least an hour away, so all the social life is on campus. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a school full of jocks - likely very similar to most lacs in that regard. Known for swimming team. National Champions many, many years.</p>
<p>@abasket, Unfortunately no. We are in Bangalore India and it would be outrageously expensive!! Couple of years ago, when we went to drop the older one at BU, we visited, Amherst, Smith, bryn Mawr. Most of these LACs are very selective and we are trying to cast a wider net. @OperaDad, no such problems! but dear H does not want to consider due to this!!!</p>
<p>@emilybee, will it matter if the student is not very athletic? I mean will they feel out of place? @abasket, definitely applying for financial aid. trying to create a good mix of dreamy and safety schools.</p>
<p>I’m an expat Ohioan, but it appears that Ohio now has seven casinos. (See link below.) Gambier, Kenyon’s hometown, is at least an hour or so away from any of them – or most other forms of civilization for that matter.</p>
<p>Kenyon is a wonderful school, but an international student probably would want to note that Gambier is tiny (population of about 2,300) and relatively remote from both Columbus and Cleveland.</p>
<p>No. My niece was not involved in any athletics at all. </p>
<p>My son is at a lac very similar to Kenyon and athletes at these schools are, imo, very much students first. Participating in a sport is just another EC some kids are involved in. Most also are involved in many other EC’s along with their sport.</p>
<p>Yes, Kenyon does have a great reputation!
Be aware that this college is extremely remote. One amusing question from another family while we were on a tour there was “what crop were they growing on the road to this school?” It was soy beans! Those of us who were Midwesterners just smiled…</p>
<p>There are no casinos ANYWHERE near Kenyon. Not much else near it, either, as it is pretty remote. But a very beautiful campus. My D was accepted there last year, and her best friend from high school will be attending this fall. There are certainly athletes on campus, and I believe they were very proud of themselves for winning a swimming championship from one of their arch-rivals when we visited campus a couple of years ago. But this is a Division III school – so no one is on an athletic scholarship, and all of the athletes are also pretty serious students. I do not have the impression that a lot of the students are “jocks”, either.</p>
<p>There is Greek life at Kenyon, but I don’t think it overwhelms the tone of the campus, and there are plenty of students who choose not to join. </p>
<p>Do you have a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges? If you can get a copy, that is a good source to get a flavor for Kenyon and a lot of other colleges as well. Not sure where your H is getting his info if he thinks Kenyon is too close to casinos and is heavily populated with athletes, but Fiske is a reliable source to get you started.</p>
<p>“One amusing question from another family while we were on a tour there was “what crop were they growing on the road to this school?” It was soy beans! Those of us who were Midwesterners just smiled.”</p>
<p>My niece used to say that she went to school in the middle of a corn field.</p>
<p>“There are certainly athletes on campus, and I believe they were very proud of themselves for winning a swimming championship from one of their arch-rivals when we visited campus a couple of years ago.”</p>
<p>“The college’s men’s swimming team is considered the best in NCAA Division III, for winning, from 1980 through 2013, an NCAA record 34 consecutive national championships.”</p>
<p>@intparent, thanks. We barely heard of Kenyon a week ago, and honestly had no idea where it was. One of the first things to come up in a search was the casino!!!
we have heard highly about it from friends - third and fourth hand conversations but no direct information.
We are going to be far way and are just concerned that this is not a city. But D will thrive in a smaller school - no big city schools for her. @SomeOldGuy, not international, American. @Emilybee, we are from the midwest so not new to cornfields :)</p>
<p>So… stop relying on Google searches to figure out what a college is like. Order or find a copy of the Fiske Guide. The individual college forums out here are another decent source. It gets starred out when you post the name, but I think the c-o-l-l-e-g-e-p-r-o-w-l-e-r site is another good source. And the college websites themselves.</p>
<p>Stick to those instead of (obviously) inaccurate stuff that may come up when you just Google it.</p>
<p>@intparent. Yes, that is correct. I have been down this road before. We will do our best to find a school, the right way. In this particular case, given that we did not know anything, that was a first step. Thanks for the suggestion!</p>