Kenyon College

In the 2027 U.S. News National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking, Kenyon College placed 41st, remaining selective while experiencing a slide from its 26th-place position in 2018. For families evaluating admission chances, the college accepted 31% of applicants in 2025. This admit rate was higher than 47% of peer private liberal arts colleges, placing Kenyon near the middle of its competitive cohort. However, the college faces strong competition when attempting to convert admitted applicants into enrolled students. In 2025, its yield rate stood at 18.3%, meaning less than one in five admitted students chose to matriculate. This yield was higher than 30% of peer schools, reflecting that admitted applicants frequently hold multiple compelling offers elsewhere. For prospective applicants, these figures indicate that while Kenyon maintains selective admission standards, qualified candidates who clearly demonstrate their alignment with the college may find favorable odds during the evaluation process.

Enrolled students at Kenyon College demonstrate strong academic credentials, placing standardized test marks in a competitive tier among peer liberal arts institutions. In 2025, the college recorded a median SAT score of 1420, which stood higher than 66% of peer schools in its comparison group of similarly ranked private liberal arts colleges. Applicants who submitted ACT scores showed similarly rigorous preparation, with the interquartile composite range spanning from 31 to 33. Both SAT Reading and Math section scores for the middle half of students reached well into the upper hundreds, indicating that successful candidates typically demonstrate solid mastery across quantitative and verbal disciplines. While a large majority of students enrolled without submitting standardized examination results, those who did presented high scores. For prospective applicants setting target benchmarks, these score distributions indicate that competitive test submissions need to align closely with the upper percentile ranges of national test takers to match the academic profile of the enrolled cohort.

Kenyon College is exclusively an undergraduate institution, awarding 508 bachelor's degrees in 2025 with no graduate programs. Academic interests are moderately dispersed, with the top three majors accounting for 32.3% of all graduating seniors. The college's most popular disciplines are English Language and Literature, General, followed by Psychology, General, and Political Science and Government, General. While traditional humanities and social sciences draw the highest numbers of graduates, quantitative disciplines attract a notable share of global talent; for instance, international students made up a majority of Mathematics graduates and one-quarter of Economics majors. In the 2027 U.S. News undergraduate major rankings, Economics ranked 140th. Career outcomes demonstrate that technical and policy-oriented fields lead early compensation. Based on 2023 earnings data one year after graduation, Economics graduates led all programs with median earnings of $68,976, followed by Political Science and Government at $56,353. For prospective students, Kenyon provides strong traditional liberal arts programs, though starting salaries vary considerably depending on whether graduates complete social science or humanities tracks.

Kenyon College enrolled a total undergraduate student body of 2,249 students in 2025. The campus remains predominantly White, but it includes consistent representation from international and minority groups. In the incoming first-year class of 439 students, White students formed the largest group, followed by 47 international students, who represented about a tenth of new arrivals. Asian students in the freshman cohort numbered 15, accounting for just over three percent of the class. Among continuing undergraduates, international students totaled 163 and Asian students totaled 60, reflecting similar demographic proportions across upper-level cohorts. Female students maintain a clear majority across the student body, comprising just over 55% of the entering class and a similar share of continuing students. For prospective students evaluating the campus environment, Kenyon offers an intimate residential community where international and domestic minority students form visible cohorts, even as the overall population remains primarily domestic and White.

Kenyon College serves an exclusively undergraduate student body concentrated almost entirely in the traditional college-age bracket. In 2025, undergraduates aged 18 to 19 formed the single largest group, representing 52.1% of the student population with 1,116 students. Those aged 20 to 21 accounted for another 34.7%, while a smaller share was under 18. Furthermore, Kenyon enrolled zero graduate students. For prospective applicants, this structure means campus facilities, academic advising, and student activities are directed entirely toward four-year bachelor's degree candidates rather than divided with master's or doctoral programs.

International enrollment at Kenyon College has expanded over the past decade, existing entirely at the undergraduate level as the institution enrolls no graduate students. In 2025, Kenyon enrolled 214 international undergraduates, representing 9.5% of total undergraduate enrollment. This proportion places Kenyon higher than 47% of peer private liberal arts colleges. Among bachelor's degree recipients in 2025, international students accounted for 14.2% of all graduates. These students concentrated heavily in quantitative disciplines rather than humanities. For instance, international students earned a majority of degrees in Mathematics and one-quarter of degrees in Economics, while accounting for small single-digit percentages in English and Psychology. For international applicants, Kenyon offers an active global presence in an undergraduate-only environment, where global peers are especially visible in quantitative fields.

Families exploring liberal arts and university choices in Ohio have several distinct options near Kenyon College. Located about 22 kilometers away, Denison University is a nearby liberal arts college ranked 31st in the 2027 U.S. News liberal arts rankings. Further north, The College of Wooster sits approximately 39 kilometers away and holds the 91st spot among national liberal arts colleges. For students considering a large public research institution, Ohio State University-Main Campus is situated 41 kilometers away in Columbus and ranked 44th among national universities. Another historic option is Oberlin College, located 64 kilometers from Kenyon and ranked 59th among national liberal arts colleges. These institutions provide useful regional comparisons within an hour's drive.

Campus safety at Kenyon College has shown consistent improvement over the past decade. The crime rate per 1,000 students declined to 28 in 2025, down from earlier highs. The vast majority of reported incidents on campus stem from internal behavioral policy enforcement rather than violent crimes. Over the three-year period from 2023 to 2025, disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations represented the largest category by far, totaling 241 incidents. Disciplinary referrals for drug law violations constituted the second most common category, with 137 incidents recorded over those same years. Serious offenses occurred at substantially lower levels, with fewer than twenty reports each of stalking, fondling, and rape across the entire three-year window, alongside 12 liquor law arrests. For families assessing campus safety, these statistics demonstrate that security concerns at Kenyon are overwhelmingly centered on student substance use and institutional code-of-conduct enforcement within a quiet rural campus setting.