Kenyon College

About Me

Intro

So, yeah. I look like Hogwarts. As you can imagine, the general consensus is that I'm haunted.

Also, people tell me I have a certain je ne sais quoi. I don't speak French, so I don't know what it is. But when they visit me, they magically know it's where they're meant to be. I guess they like ghosts…or maybe it's just my stunning good looks. Forbes named me the most beautiful campus in the world, after all. Just drive up The Hill and come check me out for yourself.

The exterior of my buildings is where the resemblance to Hogwarts ends. I'm small, personal, and balanced—no moving staircases or forbidden corridors here. Nothing that will make you late to class. In fact, I have a "Middle Path" running through me that will take you past any building you need to get to. I'm also adorned with stained glass windows of scenes from famous works of literature.

Needless to say, English and writing are two of my favorite subjects. Stained glass ain't cheap.

Despite being nestled in the middle of cornfields, I know how to have a good time. I host dance shows, concerts, mummy exhibits, and I even screen movies right here on campus. Moving pictures and mummies…I know, I'm getting a little Hogwarts-y again. I can't help it.

Name

Kenyon Lords and Ladies

Hometown

Gambier, Ohio, a.k.a. "The Hill," a.k.a. "the middle of a bunch of cornfields." Just in case you mistake me for a similarly pronounced African country, I have shirts in my bookstore that say, "Kenyon is not near Uganda."

Birthdate

1824. I'm the oldest private college in Ohio, but that's never stopped me from showing up on those "Top Party School" lists.

Body Type

1,705 students and they're all undergraduates. Heck, I don't even have any teaching assistants. We are pure, 100% undergraduates, all focused on the finer points of a liberal arts education.

I may be teeny-tiny, but don't overlook me. I'm far from unremarkable. I have some of the most gorgeous historical architecture nationwide. Old Kenyon (the dorm) is thought to be the oldest Gothic Revival building in America. Ransom Hall is another beauty that has sculpted crows on the roof in honor of its namesake, poet John Crowe Ransom.

I know crows aren't usually thought of as the most elegant creatures, but they seem to fit quite nicely.

One of the most iconic features of Kenyon is Middle Path, which is a gravel path running end-to-end along the campus, symbolic of the Ancient Greek phrase via media (the "middle road"). Down the hill and off a ways, you'll find our 480-acre nature preserve and six miles of hiking trails along the ever-brown but much-beloved Kokosing River.

Current Living Situation

I'm 100% on-campus, 100% of the time. Well, except for juniors—50% of them study abroad and then come back, so they're often mistaken for freshmen again.

First-years live on the northern end of campus, which makes for a long, cold walk to February frat parties on the other end of Middle Path. Freshman dorms are mostly brick affairs. I know this is kind of a disheartening look, but they're charming on the inside. Also, fun fact: until this decade, Caples (sophomores and up) had been the tallest building in Knox County.

Upperclassmen get to vie for better housing in a lottery system that's been described as a "blood bath." Truly. You'll need to get out your boxing gloves to get a good spot. Housing opportunities come in co-ed and single-sex floors, themed housing (think "creative writing" or "Buddhist"), or a program house (such as environmental center or women's center).

Relationship Status

I'm part of the Five Colleges of Ohio, a consortium of selective liberal arts colleges including Denison, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, and Wooster. Basically, my peeriest peers are here in Ohio. We get all chummy with things, like our integrated library system (CONSORT), and we collaborate all the time.

Amongst them, my main athletic rival is Denison's "Big Red" down the road, but my true, most deeply felt rivalry is with Oberlin, who I fight on the academic level. Don't worry, I'm not obsessed or anything. I barely ever check my standings against them in US News and World Report.

Religion

The first of Kenyon's goodly race
Was that great man, Philander Chase;
He climbed the hill and said a prayer,
And founded Kenyon College there.

So goes the first of many school songs that incoming freshmen learn and sing to a teeming audience at Kenyon's traditional Freshman Sing.

Philander, my phabulous phounder, was Episcopal and founded me alongside a seminary. I'm nonsectarian now, but you can still see my Episcopal roots in the Kenyon crest, which looks markedly similar to the Episcopal crest.

The Church of the Holy Spirit (now non-denominational), holds candlelight celebrations during the holidays. Other than that, it's just a pretty building towards the center of town. Oddly enough, it's right next to something known as the "Gates of Hell." These are really just my Southern gates, but a psychic claimed to feel an evil energy around them several years ago. So now, they apparently lead to the underworld. Score.

Politics

I am definitely liberal, but there's a nice balance on campus between too left and too right. I mean, that's part of what Middle Path represents, after all—taking the middle way.

You should apply to me if...

you love reading, want to go to a place with tradition and a collection of fine art, and enjoy the feeling of gravel in your Birkenstocks as you walk to class (thank you, Middle Path).