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Inside Scoop

Quick Stats

School Slang
  • Allstu: An email sent to the entire student body
  • The Atrium: The lobby of the library
  • AVI: AVI Foodsystems, the campus’s food provider
  • The Bank Box: A Black Box Theater located next to the post office
  • Beta Rock: A South Quad boulder held sacred by the fraternity of Beta Theta Pi
  • BFEC: The Brown Family Environmental Center
  • The Bullseyes: Two rooms with big, round windows at the top of Old Kenyon that function as party spots for frats
  • The Deuce: Large triple in Hanna used by the D-Phis for Wednesday night parties
  • Division: Wings of the historic dorms allotted to fraternity members
  • DormCest/HallCest: Hooking up with someone else in your dorm or on your hall floor
  • Gates of Hell: The two stone pillars that mark the entrance to South Campus
  • The Grill: The Gambier Grill, the local bar and takeout restaurant
  • The Hill: The general Kenyon area, which is set up on a hill
  • The Horn: The Horn Gallery, a performance space
  • Hot Rods: An all-night sandwich chain run out of gas stations
  • Hunan: Hunan Garden, a Chinese restaurant in Mount Vernon
  • Middle Path: The path that runs the length of campus
  • Milk Cartons: Off-campus houses that look like milk cartons
  • New Aps: The new apartments
  • Philo: Philomathesian Hall, on the second floor of Ascension
  • Phling: Philander's Phling, a campus-wide formal held every February in Peirce
  • Pink House: A pink house where the Phi-Kaps hold their parties
  • Pizza Huts: Off-campus houses that look like Pizza Huts
  • The Pub: Philander's Pub, which serves pizza and is located in the basement of Peirce
  • Sexile: Temporarily kicking out your roommate to hook up with someone
  • Shock Your Mama: An annual near-naked party thrown by the swimmers
  • The Verne: Mount Vernon, the neighboring town
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School
  • A good night’s sleep is only for weekends and breaks.
  • At a school this small, there is no such thing as a secret.
  • Getting a bat out of a dorm room is more difficult than one would guess.
  • Hipsters rule the campus.
  • It is more difficult to find an open computer during finals than it is to pass the actual tests.
  • Kenyon truly is isolated from the rest of the world.
  • Making out in public is not cool, even if you are drunk.
  • No matter how big your high school was, 1,600 people is simply not a lot of people.
  • Ramen noodles can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  • That a slightly skuzzy Chinese restaurant could become the be-all and end-all of weekend dining.
  • There truly are a lot of cornfields around here.
  • Writing is a necessary component of every conceivable academic subject.
Tips to Succeed
  • Don’t let your drinking interfere with your life.
  • Don’t pre-judge people in frats and sororities; most of them are very nice.
  • Don’t talk too loudly about people in the library—they or their best friend are probably sitting right behind you.
  • Getting off campus once in a while is good for your sanity.
  • Make good friends, but keep your independence.
  • Rushing a fraternity or sorority does not make you obligated to join it.
  • Show up to classes; your professor will notice when you are not there.
  • Starting things off right does wonders for your GPA.
  • Sucking up to profs will greatly help your chances of getting into a particular class.
  • Watch yourself—it is easy to get a reputation at a school this small.
See how you stack up against students who were accepted to this school . . .And calculate your chances!Register to get started

Kenyon Student ReviewsWhat's This?

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Inside Scoop at Kenyon College

JohannasMirror

English '15

5.0
A+

Kenyon Rules

Kenyon has a lot of varied opportunities for fun. It is a true liberal arts school with everything from Phriday Physics Pizza and art gallery openings, to swing dancing and bi-weekly games of The Settlers of Catan. You can find your people here, no matter what your interests. For a small college in a rural location, there is a surprising variety of fun things to do!

Jan 11, 2012

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Inside Scoop at Kenyon College

mershonjapes

Molecular Biology '14

5.0
A+

Academics, Small Size, Rural Atmosphere

The size and makeup of the school are extremely unique and friendly.

Sep 01, 2011

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Inside Scoop at Kenyon College

theta12

English '12

5.0
A+

KAC

Kenyon's Athletic Center, the KAC, is exceptional. It is humongous, with a pool, squash courts, tennis courts, track, weight room, movie theater, basketball court, and more. The best part about it is that it's open to all students, not just varsity athletes.

Aug 10, 2011

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User rating for Kenyon College - Inside Scoop is 4.6 out of 5 based on 6 user reviews.

Facts

Traditions
  • Frat Tables in Peirce: Peirce Dining Hall can often serve as a microcosm of Kenyon social interaction. The tables are long enough for people to sit with their extended groups of friends, and fraternities have their own unofficially designated table. The Dekes sit near the entrance, Delts near the conveyor belt, and Betas sit on the heater. There is no real threat for crossing these undeclared boundaries, but a sign of true assimilation to Kenyon is learning which tables in Peirce belong to whom.
  • Freshman Sing: Freshman Sing functions as the unveiling of the freshman class to the rest of the school. On their third day of freshman orientation, the entire freshman class lines up on the steps of Rosse Hall and belts out four Kenyon anthems to everyone standing below. Once they have completed these first four songs and earned the respect of the rest of the school, everyone joins in for a final anthem, and they officially enter the Kenyon community. Freshman Sing can also be used as a preliminary way to scout out the hot frosh.
  • Friday Afternoon Drinking Club : The Friday Afternoon Drinking Club, or FADC, is not at all school sponsored, but it still draws a fairly large crowd. Held in various locations around campus every Friday at 5 p.m., it has become a mainstay for campus drunks. If you want to kick off the weekend early or at least come drunk to dinner, two dollars will get you all that you need at FADC.
  • The Gates of Hell: The cornerstone of all Kenyon superstition is the two stone pillars, with a post in the middle, that mark the entrance to South Campus. They were nicknamed because they lead to all of the school’s academic buildings, and because they are rumored to be the actual gates to hell. The traditions around them are endless. Some people refuse to walk through the gates at all. Some people never touch the post; some people always touch the post; and some people urinate on the post. There are those that obey the laws of traffic, always going through the righthand “lane,” and others that laugh at all these silly traditions.
  • Ghost Stories With Professor Shutt: Humanities professor and campus legend Tim Shutt gathers students around a bonfire every Halloween for a terrifying trek through Kenyon’s supposed haunted history. Going year-by-year and dorm-by-dorm, Shutt goes through every death and murder that has ever happened in Kenyon’s history, and then tells how the victim presently haunts the school. Even those with the strongest of constitutions have been known to sleep with the lights on after this event.
  • Philander's Phling: Kenyon is a school with a lot of formal traditions, and a generally informal attitude toward dress and decorum. The formal and informal meet at Philander's Phling, which is an annual winter formal thrown by the school. The ball is held every February, and is one of the most anticipated events of the year. It is also the only time that students really need to worry about looking like Lords and Ladies (but not about acting like them).
  • Summer Send-off: The school throws Summer Send-off in early May as a sort of last hurrah before finals begin. The day starts with games and barbecues in the South Quad, and ends with a concert by a fairly big-name band. Students begin their drinking very early in the day and often don’t stop. This is the one day where a person can drink before lunch without getting dirty looks. Whether or not you partake in the debauchery, this is the only day where the entire campus appears truly united.
  • Vendors on Middle Path: When the weather is nice, and sometimes when it’s not, area merchants will set up stands on Middle Path and nearby Farr Hall for student shoppers. Middle Path usually features Amish goods, such as scarves and baskets, as well as fresh local produce. Farr Hall, which is next to the bookstore, usually features slightly more commercial vendors, usually with a hippie twist. There is one man who frequently comes by to sell jewelry and incense, and occasionally used records.
Urban Legends
  • Paul Newman donated the $60 million for the athletics facility.
  • Playboy once voted Kenyon the most promiscuous school in the country.
  • The basement of Sam Mather Hall contains the actual gate to hell.
  • When the church caught fire, the flames burned downward.

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Most Recent Student Author View all

Name
Alexandra Patterson
Hometown
Bowling Green, KY
Major
English
Grad Year
2012

College Prowler is seeking talented student authors to assist with writing and updating the College Prowler guides to their schools. This is a great opportunity for a student to gain experience and tremendous exposure, utilize new media techniques, and share advice with high school students about what life is really like at your college.

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How do we get our information? Find out here or report an error here. The statistics on our site are from the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS database.
We update this information twice annually, most recently in May 2012, but it may not be the most recent information available for a particular school.
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