My daughter is having great difficulty deciding between Kenyon and Lafayette. We live on the east coast, so Lafayette is much more convenient to get to. On the other hand, Kenyon seems to be ranked higher and her high school is all about rankings. She thinks Kenyon is a better fit for her academically, but she liked Lafayette’s campus and its proximity to a town (albeit a very small town). It’s possible that she may try to transfer next year, so wondering if it makes a difference which school you’re trying to transfer from.
What are her areas of academic interest and why is she considering transferring before even starting?
“…her high school is all about rankings.”. Ah, but it’s your D who is attending.
Why are you planning a possible transfer already?
She didn’t get into her top choices, so having to decide between 2 schools that she wasn’t too excited about is all that much harder. I think both are great choices, but she’s not keen on either. Probably still bummed out about not making her top choices… She’s very much a liberal arts person, educational studies, art history, anthropology and the like.
It’s not me that’s concerned about rankings and trying to transfer already. It’s her. She didn’t get into her top choices (and I know these are both great schools), but that’s how she feels. I think she will thrive at either school.
In terms of academics, the difference in rankings between Kenyon and Lafayette would be miniscule for all practical purposes.
The number one reason kids transfer out of a school is because of its distance from home. All things being equal, she should go to Lafayette IMO and not look back.
I agree, but I’m her parent so she’s not hearing a thing I’m saying.
Her ability to transfer to a school “better”, say in the top 25 LACs will be extremely difficult. She shouldn’t plan on it.
Lafayette is a great school and I bet she likes it. Easton isn’t all that small, BTW.
I think her already thinking about transferring is not a good way to start what could possibly be the best 4 years of her life. Why do you say that it will be difficult for her to transfer to a “better” school? Is it because of the school she would be trying to transfer out of?
No because elite schools don’t accept many transfers. They retain almost all their students so they don’t need to take transfers. Do they? Sure, but she has already been accepted to 95th percentile schools to begin with and planning on transferring “up” is a low probability event.
Your daughter doesn’t seem to appreciate that 95% of students can only dream of her choices.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally get the fact that she has great choices. She’s coming from a very competitive school, so she feels less smart to begin with and it doesn’t help that she didn’t get into her top choices. I think she will come to appreciate her choices and realize that she is in fact smart, but that’ll be years from now, just not right now as a teenager.
I’m a parent too I get it. You are in a tough position but she needs to understand she has to decide on the basis of four years. The transfer strategy to a higher ranked school is fraught with risk and not likely.
Where didn’t she get in?
A couple of comments…
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Going into a college with the intent to transfer is a recipe for disaster. If a student has one foot out the door at orientation it will be impossible to build strong friendships, get involved on campus etc. in any meaningful way. And the chance of transferring into an uber-elite LAC is quite small and (if appropriate) the chances of a transfer getting merit aid is also quite small. I would really suggest that she has the intent of staying wherever she starts (and if she decides to throw in a transfer application later on, that is fine as long as she knows it is a longshot).
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My D is a senior at Lafayette and absolutely loves it. Great education, school spirit, small classes, she has worked on 4 research projects with professors, has found it very easy to get involved on campus (she does theater, orchestra, sorority, community service and her friends are involved in many things ranging from sports to debate to art). If there is anything a mom can tell you about Lafayette feel free to PM me. I do think that Lafayette has the “secret sauce” whereby the students feel academically challenged but not overwhelmed and they can find time to be involved in activities and still succeed in the classroom. And if it helps, my D will be going to Columbia for grad school next year (and two other close friends of hers will be going there for grad school as well — all to study different things but they have grand plans to live together at Columbia). Graduates generally do well in terms of jobs (they have a strong career placement office) and grad school. We are from the east coast and the location is great (in fact when my D wanted to consider Kenyon/Oberlin I said that I would gladly let her apply to the schools if she could explain to me why they would be better for her than one of the many east coast LACs we could drive to – she never found a reason and thus she never applied to those schools) The distance is so convenient – ex. last weekend we drove down for her last orchestra concert and took our D and a few friends out to lunch which was very nice to be able to do in a day trip.
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My D also has a friend who graduated from Kenyon a couple of years ago and she really enjoyed it there as well although I have no details. I think that in general, Lafayette would have a more pre-professional vibe as compared to Kenyon.
Hope she finds a schools she can be happy with.
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There’s a very high chance she’ll wind up very happy at the school she chooses and decide not to transfer. It happens a lot.
Given her areas of academic interest, I think Kenyon might be a better fit but I do know more about that school than Lafayette. Looking at the schools websites, at Lafayette they group Studio Art and Art History together in the same department and Anthro and Sociology together in the same department. At Kenyon, those areas of academic study all appear to be free standing departments. She should look over the course catalogs in departments of interest and see which school has more classes that appeal to her. Anthro and Art History course focus can really vary from college to college depending on professors’ areas of expertise and interest. It’s not as uniform as STEM majors.
My daughter is somewhat an anxious person in general and doesn’t like to be in a pressure cooker environment, so I fear that she might be overwhelmed at either place since she doesn’t adapt to change easily. If she’s at Lafayette, at least I can hop in a car and get to her within 2 hours and take her out to lunch or dinner or she could take the bus home fairly easily. At Kenyon, any getaway would have to be planned way in advance due to cost-prohibitive flights and requires 5-6 hours travel time door to door on either her part or my part. If only she could ignore the rankings. Like someone said, the difference in ranking isn’t that great. I will definitely take a look though at the schools’ websites to look at the courses and various departments. It’s interesting to note that Kenyon seems to be more liberal arts focused, whereas Lafayette has a pre-professional feel. Personally, I think pre-professional makes better sense for her since she’s not someone who will be teaching at the college or above level or doing research. I appreciate everyone’s input…there were things that I hadn’t even considered.
“My daughter is somewhat an anxious person in general and doesn’t like to be in a pressure cooker environment, so I fear that she might be overwhelmed at either place since she doesn’t adapt to change easily.”
Another reason not to transfer to a more selective school. Stress and workload will most likely only be greater not that either Lafayette or Kenyon fault short in academic rigor.
With all due respect, I get the sense you are trying to drive the process more than you should be with a bias towards Lafayette and closer to home. Feel free to look at the websites for courses but its something she should be doing. Your daughter is the one who will need to live with her choice for 4 years (can’t assume a transfer) so she needs to own and feel comfortable with the decision. When she hits bumps in the road during college, its better to know it was her own decision rather than one she might feel coerced into choosing.
I will say that my S is also anxious and it helped a great deal for me to be able to make a couple of quick trips during the start of freshman year (he was not at Laf but another school that was even an easier trip for us). Of course, once he settled in with his group of friends after a month or six weeks, he didn’t want me there anymore. But still as I noted, there are many reasons why is nice to be in a driveable distance. Location is one of many, many considerations that go into choosing a school.
On the most recent Forbes list of top US colleges, Kenyon is ranked #48 and Lafayette #53. Out of 4,000 US colleges that difference is statistically insignificant. Smith, CMU, F&M and Johns Hopkins were all ranked lower than Lafayette by Forbes.
Has she visited Lafayette and/or Kenyon? Time is short at this point - is there any chance that a last minute heroic road trip could happen this coming weekend if she hasn’t visited and would like to check them out?
If not, scrutinize social media, youtube videos about campus life, the niche site, rate my professors dot com for her prospective majors, etc.
Is she more preppy or hipster? Does she enjoy writing? Does she like sports? Is she interested in a party scene?
My impression is that Kenyon is very cooperative and community-oriented. Somebody on CC said, “the Kenyon campus is relatively remote and feels like the greatest summer camp ever devised.” I have also read that there were lots of happy introverts and quirky hipster kids there.
Again, from what I’ve read (I have yet to visit either campus), Lafayette sounds a bit more pragmatic in its vibe and a bit more preppy/sporty. Less of an idealistic bubble than Kenyon.
Either place will offer a great education and lots of personalized attention from professors. She should feel very proud of her acceptances - admission is quite competitive! Who cares what people at her school think?
Finally, is cost an issue? Did she get merit money at either place?
Believe it or not, I have not given her my opinion since I want the decision to be solely hers. She visited both schools for admit day (overnight). The weather at Kenyon was cold and grey with heavy rain. The weather at Lafayette a week later was gorgeous and sunny, with students hanging out on the quad playing music and sunbathing. She made a few connections with a couple of other admitted students at Lafayette (they broke the kids into groups of 10 and did intros and had discussions during the event), so she had a better visit overall at Lafayette. She feels that Kenyon is better for her academic interests though, but I agree that Kenyon might be more overwhelming for her in terms of workload and pressure. I suppose I could go on all night about the pros and cons of each school. I just wish there was something magic I could say to her that will give her that eureka moment which enables her to make a clearheaded decision. I suppose that’s not happening.