I am also a resident and grew up about thirty minutes from Oberlin. All three are excellent schools, and if they were located in the mid atlantic or coastal California would be much more well known, imho. Several students from my daughter’s all girls high school apply to and attend all three every year. Fewer students from my son’s all boys high school do the same. Oberlin remains the grande dame among Ohio schools, and when dealing with older folks, especially those not immersed in the minutae of high education, Oberlin’s reputation is better than either Denison or Kenyon. Among younger folks, and speaking specifically of those in my kids’ cohort, it appears that Denison and particularly Kenyon have passed Oberlin in desireability. I know that some disagree, but Oberlin’s well earned reputation for fringe politics hurts it in a place like Ohio. As @Ohiomomof2 mentioned, Ohio is neither a red nor blue state, and people here are not as accepting of the hoax hate crimes, embarrassing professors, silly protests, etc that a place like Oberlin generates. On the other hand, Oberlin is unique in that it has the conservatory, which is truly world class. While Both Kenyon and Denison have their academic strengths, neither has anything approaching the heft of the conservatory.
As far as vibe, we visited both Kenyon and Denison with our daughter, and she has participated in theater in and around Oberlin for years. I would agree with @toowonderful that Oberlin and Kenyon are basically coastal schools in their outlook which happen to be located in fly over country. While all three schools draw nationally, there will be more Ohio and midwestern kids at Denison than Kenyon, and probably more at Kenyon than Oberlin. They are LACs, and all three are in quaint or bucolic little towns (depending on your perspective). I personally preferred Kenyon’s campus, but all three are beautiful in their own right. Oberlin a bit more eclectic and very much a part of the town. The others less so. All are within an hour of a major city, Cleveland in Oberlin’s case, Columbus for the other two.
As intimated above, Oberlin is pretty muscular in its politics, and someone who is not fully on board with current progressive thought may have issues. My sense, based on our visits and the kids I know at each school, is that the majority of students at Kenyon and Denison are less concerned with global progressive political causes. That may or may not be a bad thing, based on your kid’s perspective. Very arts heavy, no kind of athletics scene at all. Back in the day, the very few Oberlin fans, when they were losing a football or basketball game (which happens pretty often) would chant “That’s all right, that’s ok, you will all work for us one day.” I think that pretty well sums up Oberlin.
My sense of Kenyon was that it was a bit quirky/wierd/nerdy. It kind of reminded me of something my daughter’s tour guide said at Wesleyan; “here, all the stuff I was into in high school is cool”. There are a fair few artsy kids, some straight up geeks, some athletes, etc. That would track with the type of kids I know who are attending - mostly “good students” who don’t take themselves too seriously and were immersed in a particular extra curricular. Bigger sports scene than either of the other two. There are frats and sororities, but greek life is a minority choice among students if I recollect correctly.
Honestly I found Denison to be kind of middle of the road. It has somewhat of a larger greek presence than Kenyon, but I don’t think it is still the “party school” it is sometimes accused of being. I really thought it was a place for normal kids who want to get a great education and have a bit of fun while doing so. I would also agree @ohiomomof2 that Denison is in the midst of really making a push to attract more top students and there are some attractive merit options out there.
Personally, I think they are the three best schools in the state by a pretty wide margin. And yes, I know that OSU is becoming a tougher and tougher admit. Which is amazing to me since it doesn’t seem all that long ago that it was essentially open admission.
And the pronoun thing is a thing. Both my daughter and wife are involved in the arts, and it has been a thing in that community for awhile. Drives my wife nuts. While she wants to be accepting and not offend anyone, her first degree was in english and she really has a hard time with the bending of grammer rules to make “they” (a choice for many people who identify as gender fluid) a singular pronoun. That said @homerdog, I think your son’s insight is well grounded. At some schools, those types of issues are top of mind, at others they likely will not be. It’s not a bad little verbal cue.
