<p>Same state; different place. We visited Oberlin with D recently. D loved it. Very liberal, which suits our family. She's not a jock but is a cellist (since 5th grade). She was very impressed with the little town of Oberlin, and it is within an hour's drive of a big city.</p>
<p>We are not from Ohio, so the Oberlin visit was kind of our first foray into the state. I heard about Kenyon because of E.L. Doctorow who is supposed to be an alum (loved his novel "Ragtime"). We're reluctant to make the trip back to Ohio to Kenyon without more info, preferably insider stuff. </p>
<p>So what's Kenyon like? USN&WR has Oberlin ranked higher, although I've heard Kenyon is a good school. What's the culture on campus? Liberal? Centrist? Conservative? Is McCain or Obama more popular on campus? Is it activist? Are the FBI and CIA big recruiters at Kenyon? Racist? Sexist? Homophobic? is there more or less racial diversity than Oberlin? Is Greek Life big on campus? </p>
<p>What's the inside story? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Kenyon is not very far from Oberlin, you should have made the trip down. I would read a few college guide books, they will give you most of this information and are fairly accurate. The rest of it can be found on previous threads here.</p>
<p>Basically Kenyon is pretty liberal but not quite to the Oberlin extreme. The CIA did recruit some Kenyon students a few years ago, I'm not sure if they still come to campus. From what I gathered at the meeting they wanted foreign language experts, especially Mandarin and Arabic. Kenyon has an extremely devoted and talented group of Chinese language students.</p>
<p>I wasn't very impressed with Kenyon's website. What's up with that? The school does not present itself very well online. I was unable to get a sense of the place from the web site. Oberlin's web site is much better. You know their values. Dickinson's is very good. Ditto Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Kenyon doesn't need a fancy website as the viewbook is awesome :-P Honestly the site was recently changed and now looks and functions worse than ever (was last updated in 2004 or so). I have no clue who is in charge but they need to surf the web a bit more for examples next time.</p>
<p>Oberlin was my first year Kenyon student's top choice UNTIL...</p>
<p>we went to revisit campus for the second time for an interview. It was an unbelievably cold experience. Aside from the fact that her interviewer was so impressed with the candidate before her that he talked to my daughter about HER instead of my daughter, and then sent her a note with her name and address both wrong, there was nothing warm and fuzzy about the experience.</p>
<p>They did not make us feel as though they cared whether or not we liked Oberlin or how D would fit in. It was more like take it or leave it. She was also given the impression that unless she was in the Conservatory, which she had looked at and then decided against, there would be few structured music opportunities for her.</p>
<p>Kenyon, on the other hand, was overwhelmingly personal. We first met an admissions counselor at a college fair, who then REMEMBERED my D when she visited the high school. Although we showed up for her interview a week early (my fault) they welcomed her with open arms into the office. All in all, they wanted to get to know her; they wanted to ensure that kenyon was a good fit for her.</p>
<p>( Long story cut to the chase) Now there as a first year, I think the big difference between the two schools is the people. Every phone call starts with some statement about how awesome the people at Kenyon are. It is not as politically active; it is definitely isolated, but there is something about the place that is supportive and academically motivating.</p>
<p>^^ Wow. I haven’t applied yet, but Oberlin is staying on my list despite the lack of linguistics BECAUSE I received such a warm welcome in admissions.</p>
<p>Keilexandra, one of my friends at Oberlin is a rising junior majoring in linguistics. If you want to get in touch with her, let me know and I’ll PM you her e-mail address :)</p>
<p>Mallomar: It’s always possible at any college to get stuck with a new, inexperienced or just lousy interviewer. You just happened to draw the short straw of interviewers on duty the day you and your daughter visited Oberlin. My D’s experience at Oberlin was the exact opposite. The interviewer she didn’t like was from Brown. The interviewer came to our house and said some clumsy things (I’m being kind). Brown was my D’s first choice. It remained her first choice despite the interviewer, but she now wonders if she did not get in to Brown because of this person. Either way, it was just her bad luck to draw that particular interviewer.</p>