Kenyon named 'New Ivy' in Kaplan/Newsweek 2007 college guide

GAMBIER, Ohio (August 14, 2006)

Kenyon College is named in the August 21 issue of Newsweek as one of "America's 25 New Elite Ivies," colleges and universities that are successfully challenging perennial undergraduate powerhouses, in the Ivy League and elsewhere, at attracting top applicants. In the list of "New Ivies" identified in the magazine and in the 2007 Kaplan/Newsweek How to Get into College Guide, Kenyon is the only school in Ohio and one of only four in the Midwest.

The Kaplan/Newsweek guide, which has been published annually since 1996, will also be available on August 21. It introduces the list of "New Ivies," colleges whose first-rate academic programs, combined with a population boom in students, have fueled their rise in stature and favor among the nation's top students, administrators, and faculty. Kenyon and the other schools were selected based on admissions statistics, as well as interviews with administrators, students, faculty, and alumni.

The publication provides prospective students and their parents guidance through the process of selecting and applying to a college. This year's guide also addresses new issues, such as the gap-year phenomenon, the advent of social-networking Web sites, and the 2006 controversy over SAT mis-scoring.

According to the Kaplan/Newsweek profile, "Kenyon 'has shifted from a backup school to a first choice,' says Jennifer Delahunty Britz, dean of admissions and financial aid. 'We tend to get very intellectually diverse kids-students who want to major in biology and English,' she says. Although the school is intellectually rigorous, students say its atmosphere encourages collaboration rather than competitiveness. 'We may have the most contented students and faculty in the world,' says Britz. The student-faculty ratio is just 9 to 1, and the average class has only 14 students. Many faculty members live within a bike ride of campus, which further encourages a sense of community... Students can stay fit in a new $70 million athletic and community center that opened in January 2006." Founded in 1824, Kenyon is the oldest private college in Ohio. The coeducational liberal arts institution has approximately 1,600 students and offers a challenging curriculum that embraces the traditional humanities, arts, and sciences along with interdisciplinary programs and study-abroad opportunities. Extracurricular life includes a wide range of clubs as well as varsity, club, and intramural sports. Kenyon is often called a writer's college, and former students include Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand and E. L. Doctorow. The college is also renowned for its literary journal, The Kenyon Review.