Kenyon has a strong reputation as an excellent LAC particularly in their English department…this is that we’ve read online and have been told. DD is interested in sciences: biology, plant genetics, etc. but fell in love with Kenyon during their recent summer science visit event (we all loved it frankly). Obviously the event was made to put the new science facilities in the most positive light available, but we would love feedback from those more in the know if Kenyon would be a good fit for a quiet, somewhat nerdy kid would wants a small school, rural area.
I will say DD participates annually in NANOWRIMO so she’s not a non-writer, just worried it won’t have the science chops or research in equal proportion.
My girl is just starting Kenyon this Fall to major in biochem so I can pass along some of the reasoning that led us there. I too worried about the rigor of the science programs. I analyze clinical research data for a living and I saw the statistical models that the students used to analyze data presented in their posters. These were appropriately applied, heavy-duty statistical models (example: 2 factor repeated measures ANOVAs) which showed me that they have technical resources and are mentored very well. I was impressed by the overall technical knowledge conveyed in the student research on those posters. Just like we found at Case Western the students have access to print their own posters with guidance from a devoted staff member. Also a faculty member saw us looking at the labs through the windows during our visit and let us in to look at them. My wife has a grad degree in biochem and gave a big thumbs up to their lab facilities. So the resources are there and available to the students and the faculty member was visible and nice enough to let strangers in to the lab knowing that we would be impressed. Their requirements of 7.5 units of science for the biochem degree out of the 16 units required overall for graduation were more than any of the other places that we looked. That was nice - I was worried that some of the depth of the science offerings would be sacrificed to accommodate other majors or general education requirements. The faculty received their doctorates from Cornell, Emory, Yale, etc. and there are no TAs teaching any courses. The lower level courses are capped at a low number (maybe 30?). Also, they were very generous with merit aid with us which appears to be rare based on several other posts here but perhaps it was because they are wanting to increase the visibility of science on campus?
Those were the reasons that we thought Kenyon was stronger in science than we had originally thought and ultimately appeased our concerns about rigor. Kenyon met us in the middle (pun? intended) showing faith in our daughter’s ability via merit aid in return for our faith in their science rigor.
Kenyon sciences would be stronger if the school added a geosciences department. Geology is the fundamental earth science, and relates as well to social sciences such as the archaeology subfield of anthropology.
Thanks for asking - She is really enjoying it. She is working hard and is appropriately challenged. There is a big push toward integrating statistics in the analysis of their biology lab results so I am pleased to see that. They ave done regression analysis and a simple ANOVA using R. She considers herself fortunate to be at a place with such opportunities and definitely feels good about her choice. There are plenty of meetings with professors and tons of science classes to pick from which is rare.