You all are busy! Still on the road but about to return home and I am far behind on campus visit reports. But first:
@dfbdfb Many thanks for the detailed report on Alabama. D17 wilts in the heat and humidity so southern schools are out, too bad. Sounds like there is much to offer there.
@2muchquan Grinnell doesn’t have a dance program with enough depth to fill D17’s needs. So unfortunately, it didn’t make her short list. A shame as visiting would have involved only a short detour.
QOTD: Personally I prefer semesters over quarters. But it’s not enough to eliminate a school from consideration.
Likelies/Matches/Reaches: Right now, she’s honing in on a total of 8-9 applications, 2-3 safeties, 1-2 uber reaches, and 3-4 matches.
College Report of the Day - Kenyon:
If you want to live in a bucolic bubble and subsist on the heady life of the mind, this may well be your place. The campus is beautiful with a mix of historic stone buildings and some newer structures. The science center is new and impressive; the dining hall looks like Hogwarts, and the campus has a Chilully glass sculpture on display. The town, as we were told in advance, is tiny, consisting of a post office, a bank, a market only a bit larger than a 7-11, a deli, a coffee shop, the college bookstore and the Kenyon Inn, which offers the town’s only upscale restaurant. Mount Vernon, with more shopping options including the usual big box stores and other staples like Chipotle and Starbucks, is a short distance away with free hourly shuttles. Farther to the north is Amish country with lovely farms, antique shops, hand-crafted furniture, etc.
Our student tour guide was a funny, unpretentious, charming young woman from Zambia. The tour was the usual round of academic buildings, as described above. The library was inviting; the “typical dorm room” was on the small side. The school has an impressive 400 acre environmental center that also serves as an educational space and an organic farm where students can live and work. There is a single meal plan - free access to the dining hall whenever you wish.
The info session was pretty typical although the admissions officer used an ungrammatical expression repeatedly while also emphasizing how much Kenyon emphasized good writing. Oops!
Both he and the student guide emphasized that the relative isolation is not an issue for the student population because it attracts students that are seeking that tight-knit community experience, rather than external stimulation. The range of speakers and events that come to campus is impressive. A significant percentage of students do some study abroad.
Our regional admissions officer took the trouble to introduce herself and visited with my daughter for a few minutes. They had a good conversation. Her interview was with a current student - it was described as an informal “conversation” but she felt as though it was more structured than some others that she would do over the week.
Swag: we got a free copy of the Kenyon Review
Conclusions and Why College Visits may be Important:
One thing that has become clear to me on this trip is that my daughter is very sensitive to place. She is an introvert and prefers suburban or rural places to dense urban ones. Some cities are OK, some instill some anxiety. I have also learned that a college that is integrated into the surrounding town and is walkable/bikeable is also very important to her. In the end, while she was attracted to the academic offerings at Kenyon, the town of Gambier was simply too small and isolated and felt a bit claustrophobic to her.
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1 is our luck # (1 fees waiver, 1 college visit, 1 attempt on standardized tests) 