Do I have a shot at Kenyon?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Kenyon College
1

After spending two weeks there in 2015, Kenyon made my list. I would absolutely love to attend. With these stats, weaknesses and all, am I viable?

ACT: 30 composite (36 English, 34 Reading, 28 Science, 21 Math) and 31 Super Scored
GPA: 3.46 UW/4.03 W
Rank: 154 out of 500+ (Top 30%)
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Highschool Context: extremely large public school that has over 25 APs, known as an extremely competitive environment (ie. often ivies+top 20s will ONLY visit our school in the whole area because they love getting our students. A lot of people say our top 20% is most schools’ top 10%)

Freshman: all honors classes
Sophomore: all honors/pre-AP classes
Junior: AP Psych, AP Seminar, AP Language, honors

Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Extracurriculars:

  1. School Literary & Art Magazine (10th - 12th) This magazine had been dying since at least 2004, and my sophomore year I made it my goal to bring it back so students could have an outlet to express themselves…I’m now the editor and our coffeehouses have the largest turnouts in years.
  1. college prep program designed to help underrepresented kids get opportunities outside of the city (10th - 12th) I'm on this programs student executive board and I also am the focus of another program where I help guide 10 young freshman through their first year of high school; I had previously led them on a wilderness expedition to help them develop leadership skills.
  2. Student Council Executive Board, Senior Commissioner of Activities (12th) I organize all events for the senior class including community service and work with the administrators and class officers to help push policies/petitions.
  3. Church Soccer (9th - 11th) I played a season every fall; had to stop because of how busy my senior year was.
  4. Work (Party Bus; my sister's dad took a bus and recreated it. He knew I needed help with money so he offered me a job to manage the consoles on the bus; i've been working weekends and partial summers there since 9th grade.)
  5. Japanese Club (9th -12th) (we interact with exchange students and learn and celebrate japanese language/culture)
  6. a leadership organization designed to help keep young black boys on track, help them succeed to college, and help them become leaders within their community. lots of community service through this organization. (11th/12th)
  7. links organization - this is actually for women but they created a special section that has an emphasis on black male youth because theres a big problem with them not succeeding in my area; they help us with leadership as well (12th)

Volunteer Work:

  1. Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 11th/12th
  2. local zoo’s halloween function 11th
  3. school’s green team, cleaning the school and collecting recycling every week 11th (had to stop because student council took the slot)
  4. Martin luther king Jr. Da of Service cleaning up the poorer portion of the city 11th/12th
  5. various other events through the leadership organization I’m in 11th/12th

Honors:
National Honors Society (11th/12th)
Distinguished Honor Roll (9th - present)
Citizenship Award (9th - present)
Honorable Mention in my state’s Letters About Literature
AP Scholar

How I Spent my Summers:
2014: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), local college honors camp, local high school’s honors camp (writing)
2015: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Rhodes College Summer Writing Institute, Kenyon Young Writers Workshop
2016: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Deer Hill Expeditions (where I led the kids)

Race: African American
Sex: Male
First Generation College: No, mother went to college. Father dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. I rarely see him.
Family Income: 61k
Household: 3 (my mom, my sis, and me)
Intended Major: Sociology
Hooks: URM, single parent household, love for writing/expression(?)
Weaknesses: Class Rank, C junior year in precalculus and a C currently in physics

2

Anyone? I feel like Kenyon is my one of my last reasonable shots at legitimately going somewhere I enjoy…

3

Not an expert opinion, but I also went to KRYW (hey!) and I remember admissions saying they really value the connection with Young Writers. I also know they’re super holistic in the way they choose people, so you can never rule anything out or guarantee anything.

As someone who is really in love with Kenyon, I hope this works out for us both!

4

@tensummers ah!! What year? And that is good–I really did fall in love with Kenyon, and I was unsure if my attendance there meant anything to them.

Side note: Do people that apply ED2 have a better shot than RD?

5

This year, and I had the time of my life, honestly! I’m really hoping they weigh KRYW heavily.

I have no idea about ED though. I submitted my app RD because of money, but before the ED deadline hoping that would show interest…kinda regretting it now that so many people are getting decisions.

6

Yes you have a shot at Kenyon. No one can say anything more. Their acceptance rate is only 26%. Just two years ago when I made a spreadsheet for my D, it was 38%. I recommend that everyone apply to their dream school regardless of the odds, just have a good Plan B.

I also recommend that you apply and then forget about it rather than driving yourself crazy trying to decide the results before they do. But if you must, take a look at their common data set to see how they evaluate applicants and look them up on College Navigator to compare your stats to their freshman profile.

Your UW GPA as well as your test scores are on their low end. Obviously you have a lot of other good things on your resume.

7

@sumuzu I definitely think you have a shot. My daughter is doing ED at Oberlin but Kenyon is high on her list as well, especially because of their writing program. She couldn’t go the KRYW last summer because she was in China but she did Vanderbilt the year before that and was in VSA Fantasy Fiction and loved it! Good luck!

Btw, have you thought about Oberlin?

8

@LMC9902 ?! What session? If session 3, I know your daughter!

I have not looked at Oberlin!! I will check that out :slight_smile:

9

@sumuzu yes! She loved that class! She had the same name as another student (a boy) in the class but spelled differently - in case that helps you know who she is.

You should check out Oberlin. She is waiting to hear on ED I and I think they find out tomorrow!

10

I think I am going to apply ED2. Kenyon is most certainly my second choice and I hope ED2 helps my chances

11

@sumuzu Good luck! We got good news on Wednesday so you will have a friend at Oberlin next fall in case things don’t work out at Kenyon (though I hope they do!).