With respect to Kenyon College and wealthy families, it was the result of a study by–if I recall correctly–either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal that determined that Kenyon College had a higher percentage of students from the top 1% regarding wealth or income (I forget) than all but a very, very, very few schools.
In recent years, however, Kenyon College experienced a serious downturn in numbers of applications received due to well known (highly publicized due to related tragedies) & admitted (by faculty & administration) excessive drinking of alcohol by students.
Lower number of apps resulted in easier admissions.
Kenyon College is beautiful & has an excellent reputation built up over several decades. But it is small (1,660 students), remote, and cold for much of the school year. As noted in the Fiske Guide To Colleges 2020: “It can be tough at times dealing with the location…”
P.S. @NVmom2021: My take on the Kenyon College parent comments in this thread is that Kenyon College was chosen primarily due to academic merit scholarship financial aid awards.
Good school, beautiful campus, but small & isolated. Lots of drinking.
Middlebury College probably has the most political activism on campus. Reports that there is a significant divide between athletes & non-athletes. Gorgeous campus in a beautiful setting. Largest enrollment among your listed schools. Plus, it is in Vermont. And that is a good thing.
Bowdoin College is great. It is what many think a New England LAC should be. Lobster.
Colby College has a new athletic facility that should greatly enhance student life.
Hamilton & Bates are academically oriented. And friendly–as are all of these schools.
Consider the University of Vermont Honors College. Merit scholarships are available. Arguably the best location in the country for an outdoorsy student. Burlington, Vermont is adjacent to Lake Champlain.
Your take is not entirely accurate. My daughter received more merit from Grinnell and Oberlin, but Kenyon offered a more generous need-based grant, which made the overall package a little more attractive. She received a comparable package from St. Olaf and got into a campus honors program at our state flagship, which would have been cheaper, but she really wanted a LAC. Eventually it came down to the combination of financial aid AND fit (she liked the theater department at Kenyon and the opportunity to take film classes as a theater major; she is also interested in creative writing).
As for excessive drinking, I don’t think Kenyon is particularly notorious for that, but I saw an earlier thread about this issue and I am not inclined to resume this discussion.
As for the weather, I may be wrong but I doubt that Central Ohio is colder than Maine.
The OP wanted to hear from current parents/students, this is why I offered my perspective. The question was about the vibe, not about statistics. I brought up the financial aid issue to make clear that Kenyon has plenty of middle class students, too.
I’m not sure where Publisher got the impression that my daughter picked Kenyon for the money, either. My daughter fell in love with Kenyon over her two visits. Such a strange comment. If anyone is interested in some current statistics about Kenyon, you should check out their Kenyon in Numbers webpage: https://www.kenyon.edu/kenyon-in-numbers/. I’m happy to answer any other questions about vibe from a theater nerd/creative writing perspective.
Kenyon does not appear on either of the below Princeton Review survey-based rankings pertaining to high alcohol consumption. Note that Colby and Bowdoin do appear, however:
Residents of Gambier, Ohio experience an average temperature 13.6 degrees higher than those of Waterville, Maine on January mornings (data from Sperling’s).
Of course, nothing wrong with it, especially since my daughter didn’t have any strong preference for another school. But there’s no need to reduce our decision to money alone–it’s a complex set of factors, including academic fit (the wealth of playwriting/screenwriting offerings, unusual for an undergraduate institution, was another big plus), distance from home and yes, weather (compared to Minnesota, for example). And no need to portray Kenyon as a school desperate for students and giving out aid right and left. 25% is not so much actually, compared to many other schools (that was actually the point the financial aid officer was making). As I said, she got higher merit from other schools, but Kenyon calculated our financial need differently, which resulted in a somewhat better package. Again, I was emphasizing the financial aid aspect primarily to dispel Kenyon’s reputation as a school for wealthy kids. I think I’ve said enough and will be happy to answer specific questions about the school, especially after my daughter has spent more time there.
We looked at all of these with my son last year except Hamilton so i can just give you my impression:
Kenyon - loved the town and how it blends well into the campus. Very quaint! The students that we met were much more artsy/musical/alternative than my son - if your daughter likes Harry Potter, i felt like they were really into quiditch there!
Colby - My son ended up going here - he liked the small college feel, it’s not far from beach or mountains. It is really separate from Waterville, and while i don’t love the town, it does seem to have everything you need. He is happy to have a car this year as a sophomore. He has really been happy with the classes and we as parents are impressed with how they have managed covid. All my son’s classes are in person.
Middlebury - We also liked this school! It felt even more remote than Colby but the town is cuter and there is a small ski hill nearby which I found appealing. The buildings were all grey stone and had a nice view of the mountains. You felt nestled in mountains.
Bates - We did not love the campus. I honestly felt that if we were sending my son all the way from Tennessee, I wanted a more appealing campus, it looked generic to me, and I did not love the town. But the students seemed happy and very community oriented.
Bowdoin - This was the school i wanted to love and didn’t, but we had a weird admissions presentation and irritating people in the crowd who monopolized the discussion and so we left with that unfortunate bias. But if I put that aside - the town has an upscale feel, sort of mostly along a busy street adjacent to the college, and the campus was nice, sort of eclectic. Everything felt more affluent compared to Bates and Colby - so you may or may not like the vibe.
Hamilton - did not go to Hamilton, but lots of people like the school and I have heard people compare it to Colby in some ways but i have no first hand info, sorry.
The schools are honestly more similar than different. They all give just about the same talk about the benefits of a small liberal arts college. If you cherish mountains, i would lean Midd, if you the mountains and the ocean - i would tilt colby. If you think you want to get to a city more quickly - Bowdoin, And if you like the strong sense of getting involved with the local community - Bates. And if you like the arts - music/orchestra/theater - Kenyon. All would be great academically I imagine. Check out core curriculum requirements at each - something we did not pay attention to, and there are quite a few at Colby just fyi!
@NVmom2021 Kenyon and Hamilton were top choices for my son. We visited both Kenyon and Hamilton and spent the night in Gambier and Clinton respectively.
Gambier is more or less incorporated into Kenyon’s campus and though it’s loaded with charm, it doesn’t offer much in the way of services. The campus itself is beautiful. We were there in July and the Middle Path was lit with fireflies.
Clinton is a country town (also full of charm) not too far from the Hamilton campus. It’s within walking distance, but I think it would be a bit of a schlepp in winter. The Hamilton campus is also beautiful. It’s access to the Adirondacks, made it seem (to me) more spacious than Kenyon’s.
My son was looking for a combination of strong art studio and art history departments plus an outdoorsy, nature driven environment. He ended up at Williams but I’m sure could have been happy at Kenyon or Hamilton as well.
