Hello! Is there any chance someone has triplet sons who went to Lafayette College, Kenyon College, and Denison University and would like to share the different experiences they each had? Trying to decide between the three, would love input even if you don’t have a kid at each! Thank you!
My D graduated from Lafayette a few years ago and had a fantastic experience there. She got a a great education (including lots of research with professors), found wonderful friends, and got into a top grad school in the field she decided to pursue. I think Lafayette found that balance where students are academically challenged but still can find time for ECs, research, friends etc. Feel free to ask any particular questions you feel a parent can answer. I have no first-hand knowledge of the other schools but they have strong reputations.
Can he visit the schools during accepted student day? I do think that especially for LACs it is important to find the school that is the right fit.
Congrats to your S on his wonderful options.
Thank you! Over spring break he visited all three. And you’re right, that was super helpful!
My daughter is a very happy sophomore at Kenyon. Rigorous courses, great professors, wonderful friends, opportunities to pursue her passions in theater, music and dance. Lots to do on campus. I don’t have first-hand experience with the other two schools but heard great things about them. Kenyon may be a little more alternative/less preppy than the other two, but this is based on hearsay. I may be wrong. Maybe looking at the specific programs your son is interested in will help make the decision?
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Sort of like the recent Dickinson or Denison thread – these are all great choices, and lots of overlap, though some key differences.
Lafayette has engineering, so if that’s of interest, that makes it a clear favorite. Lafayette and Denison are more similar in size of student body – Lafayette around 2500 and Denison around 2300, while Kenyon is around 1800. Perhaps look at gen eds, minors/concentrations etc. of interest, career development offices.
Of course, I’ve written extensively about how wonderful Denison was for my kid. But all great choices here!
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Where are you located?
We’re in the SF Bay Area. My daughter is a junior at Kenyon, so we have experience there. And in some ways that’s more complicated because my son has visited her, hung out with her friends, heard her stories, etc. so it’s kind of hard to compare the 3 schools equally.
Great options. I think there can (note deliberate choice of word!) be a somewhat livelier social scene at Laf and Denison if that’s of interest. It may be related to size and in Laf’s case, D1 sports.
But if he’s visited, he’s probably figured out how much of that vibe there is and if he wants it.
No bad choice here.
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It’s probably fair to say that Kenyon is likely the most academically rigorous of the three but your daughter can tell you more about Kenyon than any of us. If a balance of sportiness and rigor matters to him, maybe Lafayette is a good choice. But Denison seems to be up and coming and might have a somewhat more relaxed vibe than the other two.
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We don’t have triplets, but of our sons’ two best friends, one is at Lafayette and the other at Denison. They both like each school. The only negatives we hear about Denison are that there is not much going on in the town and a lack of food choices.
Lafayette is a popular school in our area in suburban New Jersey. Whether current students, recent grads, or long-time alumni, we only hear positive feedback. We visited probably a dozen LACs in our search with our son, including Lafayette. In looking at our notes from our tour, we wrote: good mix of kids. Collaborative, not cutthroat, greek but not like Bucknell or Lehigh, research opportunities, and the quad looked like it came off of a movie set.
I agree with some of the earlier comments that you have three great choices.
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In that case, make transportation easy by going with Denison! Both kids can fly into Columbus together, and then have separate college experiences! I’m kidding, but Denison’s accessibility to Columbus is a positive – 25 min to airport, strong connections for internships etc. I also think Denison’s career development services make it stand out --impressive depth and breadth of programming and resources, to reach students as early as possible. Lastly, it is very much a community that embraces discourse across differences. There is no single type of Denison student, apart from the characteristics of being active and engaged (despite some lingering perceptions about what it “used” to be). Students aren’t siloed into a single category, but instead cross them – the athlete/artist, activist/sorority etc.
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FWIW my D found Lafayette to be academically rigorous particularly in the STEM courses.
I think a student can find a strong level of academic rigor at any of these schools.
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