Kenyon College

Gambier, OH · founded 1824 · 1,800 students · liberal arts college · NCAC (North Coast Athletic Conference)

Known for: A picturesque, highly selective liberal arts college renowned for its exceptional English and creative writing programs, tight-knit intellectual community, and beautiful Gothic-style campus in rural Ohio.

Rankings

U.S. News liberal arts: #27
Forbes: #99

Top programmes

English
Creative Writing
Political Science
History
Psychology
Drama

Notable alumni

Rutherford B. Hayes — 19th President of the United States
Allison Janney — Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning actress known for 'The West Wing' and 'I, Tonya'
John Green — Bestselling author of 'The Fault in Our Stars' and 'Looking for Alaska'
Laura Hillenbrand — Author of 'Seabiscuit' and 'Unbroken'
Paul Newman — Academy Award-winning actor, philanthropist, and entrepreneur
William Least Heat-Moon — Author of the travelogue 'Blue Highways'
Jonathan Franzen — National Book Award-winning novelist ('The Corrections', 'Freedom')

Traditions

Philomathesian and Nu Pi Kappa literary society competitions
The 'First-Year Sing' during orientation
The 'Summer Sendoff' concert
The 'Kenyon Review' literary magazine

If Kenyon College were…

As a food: Beef Wellington at an English country estate — Traditional, labor-intensive, requires patience and classical technique, best enjoyed in intimate company with good conversation. The refined, old-world preparation and emphasis on craft over flash mirror Kenyon's litera
As an athlete: Roger Federer — Elegant, classical technique, intensely focused, operates at the highest level within a small, refined world. Federer's graceful precision and gentleman-scholar demeanor capture Kenyon's literary excellence and understat
As a person alive today: Zadie Smith — Brilliant literary novelist, Oxford-educated, operates at the pinnacle of contemporary letters while maintaining intellectual seriousness and craft obsession. Smith's combination of erudition and narrative ambition embod
As a historical figure: Robert Frost — Poet who combined classical form with American vernacular, taught at small colleges, and believed in the transformative power of close reading and mentorship. Frost's rural New England sensibility and devotion to craft m
As a movie or TV show: Dead Poets Society — Intimate boarding school setting where passionate teachers inspire students to find their voices through close reading of classic texts. The Gothic architecture, intense student-faculty bonds, and reverence for literary
As a US president: John Quincy Adams — Erudite, classically educated, more comfortable with books than retail politics, deeply principled but not particularly popular. Adams's intellectual seriousness and preference for the written word over glad-handing capt
As a city: Oxford, England — Small, insular, Gothic-architecture-filled university town where everyone knows everyone, literary tradition saturates every stone, and the outside world feels both distant and irrelevant. Centuries of intellectual conti
As an element: Silver — Precious, lustrous, excellent conductor but tarnishes without care, historically valued for refined uses rather than industrial bulk. Silver's traditional prestige and need for careful polishing mirror Kenyon's literary
As a car: Volvo 240 DL Wagon — Literary liberal arts college in rural Ohio where everyone knows each other and half the campus writes for the Kenyon Review—understated, intellectual, built to last, the kind of car driven by poets who winter in New Eng

Campus life

Kenyon is known for its strong sense of community, intense intellectual engagement, and traditional, almost cloistered, campus life. Social life revolves heavily around campus, with a vibrant literary and arts scene, and traditions that foster close bonds among students.