<p>Ok, I really need some help/advice here: </p>
<p>I got accepted to Kenyon and waiting on Haverford. I thought that I really wanted Haverford, but now I'm not sure. Can anyone give me some advice? Any information you have about cirriculum requirements, how easy it is to double major, and campus culture would be incredible!</p>
<p>I'm a member of the honor council at my school, and I had the opportunity to talk with the guys who are president of the honor council at haverford. what I found out turned me off to the school in a big way. in all other respects, it's a great school, but I think you might benefit from hearing what I did.</p>
<p>as you probably know (from filling out the application) the honor code at haverford permeates not only academic but social life at the school. i think that an open environment, where students and faculty trust eachother is essential to a positive college experience, but I believe that haverford's honor code is ridiculous. in fact, I looked at their case studies, and 90% of the cases where they found the student guilty had nothing to do with honesty, integrity, or any of the other values that an honor code is supposed to uphold. for example, a student was found guilty of an honor code violation for not attending class. when he was questioned about it the student said that he didn't see a problem with his not going to class, since he still had good grades in the classes (he took the tests etc.). the honor council believed he had been dishonest because he had not taken a strenuous enough course-load, and therefore "separated him from the community." was the student lazy? sure. but dishonest? I don't think so. in another situation, several students were punished for dressing as members of a pop group (that happened to be of a different race) on halloween. it offended several people, so the honor council determined that the students had been disrespectul...yadda yadda yadda. </p>
<p>Most people want college to be a time where they can explore and figure out what they're interested in. And when you do this, you're bound to make a few mistakes. I was a little weirded out by the lengths that Haverford goes to to punish students for these mistakes. An apology is appropriate, but separation from the community is just too much. Students at Haverford may have a different take on it, but I perceive it to be a kind of attitude that dampens creativity.</p>
<p>I'll be honest too the Honour Code at Haverford is a little off from what I know about it myself. </p>
<p>Also, Haverford is about 500-600 people smaller than Kenyon. Then again Kenyon being in the middle of nowhere kinda negates that fact. </p>
<p>One nice thing of Haverford is that you can cross-list at UPenn and Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr, but then again that is maybe only one or two classes a year, but still I thought it was neat.</p>
<p>The Main Line district of Philly is way nicer than C-Bus, but then again alot more expensive.</p>
<p>The Honor Code at Haverford is not for everyone and that is why admissions goes to such great lengths to describe it to applicants. I have to clarify some of the many gross mis-characterizations from caroline however. Haverford students are some of the smartest and most talented kids around and have many options for college. If the Code was so bad, why is freshman retention 98-99% and the graduation rate comparable to other top LACs? The Princeton Review considers it in the top 10 best places for an undergraduate education and top 10 for happy students. Remember that the honor code and trials are student run with random students picked for trials. Again, these kids are probably similar to you and if something seems obviously bad to you, don't you think they will think it too? No one is going to suspend a student for not going to class, taking a light course load and getting good grades- that's plain stupid. There was probably a lot more going on with that case which was not mentioned in theprior post. And about the Halloween incident, you are really over simplifying it as I was there when it happened (the abstract itself was 35 pages long!). The guys did more than "dress up" as singers, Honor council also tried mediated dialogue between the parties to prevent a trial and separation from the campus wasn't even a consideration. Atmost, the Council recommended that these guys conduct a small research project on the history of black-face and race relations in America tobe distributed to the student body. There was also much debate on campus and within the trial itself about the extent of "freedom of speech" and how the social aspects of the code relate. </p>
<p>Instead of dissing another college (with spurious conjecture), why not write about what is good about your college and leave it at that?</p>
<p>Notable differences are...
-Location. Posh Philly suburb vs. middle of nowhere<br>
-Reputation. While both are prestigious, I would say that Haverford has more name recognition + prestige (people refer to it as an elite LAC).<br>
-Student body. Haverford is smaller. However, I get the sense that personality wise, the student bodies are similar.
-The honor code at Haverford. </p>
<p>I really don't know too much about Haverford (despite living so close to it) so I can't give you the most informed answer. However, I feel like you
would get a top notch education at either school. </p>
<p>EDIT: Ok, I realized you asked for specific differences after I posted... Whoops. There are no required classes at Kenyon, but you must fulfill distribution requirements and a language requirement. The language requirement is equivalent to four years of high school language training and is relatively easy to place out of (540 on a language SAT II). I don't know too much about double majoring, so I can't comment on that. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I'm sorry if I offended you, bashing Haverford wasn't in any way an intention of mine. I think it's a great school, and overall I've had a really positive experience with the people I've met who go there etc. And as someone who doesn't go to Haverford, I obviously have a very limited knowledge of the goings on there. But because the person who asked the initial question is also an outsider, I thought it might be helpful if I provided my honest opinion. I didn't mean to misrepresent any of the honor council cases, that's only how they were explained to me (or at least how I perceived them).</p>