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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