What are my chance getting into Kenyon?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Kenyon College
1

Hi guys! Recently a college admission officer came to visit my school and talked about Kenyon. I became really interested and is now on my top college lists. Although, I don’t think my application will be good enough. Can anyone give me suggestions on areas to improve since I know Kenyon is a really good school. Thank you!

Current Junior.

GPA: probably going to graduate with a 3.8/3.9 unweighted (4.5 weighted)

act: idk yet but i’m aiming for a 30 sine my pACT score was really low

Freshman Year:

All honors classes
Semester one: All A’s & one B+
Semester two: All A’s

Sophomore Year:

All Honors Classes & AP Psych
Semester one: All A’s & two B’s (one in AP class, one in Honors)
Semester two: undecided but so far all A’s

Junior & Senior Year:

Full IB Diploma
Classes:
IB History HL
IB English HL
IB Biology HL
IB Music HL
IB Math SL
IB Spanish Ab Intio
Theory of Knowledge

AP Classes & Score : Ap Psych (5)
-this is probably the only ap class i will take because i am doing full ib.

Extracurriculars So Far:

Tutoring (9,10,11)
Spring Play (9 ,10, planning 11)
Speech team (10,11)
Volunteer & Service projects (9,10, 11) ex: library volunteering, peer tutoring, my city’s seasonly service projects
Asian Club Vice President (9,10,11)
Korean Club secretary and member (10,11)
Private Violin Lessons (10,11)
Poetry Blog & social media (10,11)
School’s orchestra (2nd violin 9, 1st violin 10 &11)
& in other clubs

awards so far:
school’s 1st honors for getting an GPA of 4.0 and above (all 3 semesters so far)

work experience:
been working / helping out in my parent’s restaurant since winter of freshman year

Race: Asian
Gender: Female
First generation: yes
School: competitive private
In U. S.
State: Ohio

2

Your grades are great, keep it up! I don’t know why you think you aren’t good enough b/c you look strong to me.

You look a bit overloaded in EC’s, however. Just my opinion, so take it for what it’s worth. It’s my understanding that schools would much rather see a deep-dive into what makes you “you” more than a laundry list. For example, my S19 is a varsity athlete, so that takes up the vast majority of his time. However, he has also volunteer coached youth baseball since he was 12 yrs old. His one summer as a youth literacy volunteer only gets a brief mention, but he goes into detail about his coaching and playing experiences. He doesn’t even mention his trumpet playing at all b/c he quit to concentrate on baseball.

Test scores are a weird thing. I’ve seen kids w/ low scores get in and kids with high scores get rejected. It all depends on the holistic look. I would feel good about a score 30 or above, but if you have something about you that makes you unique such as a special talent then you may get accepted with a lower score. Nice thing about Kenyon is they Super Score the ACT so you can concentrate on one section at a time if you can afford to take it multiple times. My S19 scored a 25 as a Frosh & now as a Senior is only one Superscore away from his end goal!!

Also don’t forget about the SAT. Some people like one test over the other & most schools will take either.

Another point about the PreACT: take your score w/ a grain of salt. My son is one of the best students in his school & has a good ACT score, he didn’t do well on the PreACT. Conversely, teammates of his who he knows aren’t all that bright got really great PreACT scores and not very good real ACT scores. You just never know until you take it for real.

An excellent resource (and free!!) for you is College Board’s website bigfuture.org. It will help you search for schools within parameters you choose to find the perfect fit. Good Luck!!!

3

You seem like a great candidate — you really just need to focus on those test scores.

If you like Kenyon, you might like some other midwestern LACs that are a bit easier to get into. Lawrence and Earlham come to mind.

4

Wooster is only an hour from Kenyon & is a great school as well.

5

thank you for the feedback!

6

thank you!

7

bump