Kenyon welcomes the Class of 2012

The 463 members of the Class of 2012 were selected from a pool of 4,509 applicants. The impressively talented class is the most diverse ever admitted to Kenyon. American students of color constitute 17 percent of the class, while 10 percent of the class is made up of first-generation students whose parents did not attend a four-year college.

"This is not diversity for the sake of diversity," says Dean of Admissions Jennifer Delahunty. "It's a very deliberate and intentional effort to create a more challenging and interesting learning environment."

Members of the class also include 8 Davis Scholars, who are highly talented students from the United World Colleges, representing such countries as Bhutan, Estonia, Germany, Honduras, Singapore, and Zimbabwe.

Academic indicators for this class are also high, with an average combined SAT score (critical reading and math) of 1333 and average ACT score of 29.6. Thirty-five percent of the incoming class had a high-school grade-point average of 4.0 or higher, with the average GPA at 3.85.

Beyond the numbers, the Class of 2012 brings a multitude of experiences, strengths, and passions to the Kenyon community. Members of the class include:

• a student who in middle school founded a still-existent nonprofit organization called "Kids Acting Against Cancer," with all raised funds going to cancer research
• a student who spent half of last year at a culinary school in Italy and the other half in Thailand, where he volunteered as an English teacher and worked on a farm
• a student, born deaf and one of the first toddlers in the U.S. to have cochlear implants, who started a mentorship program for kids with hearing loss who have had the implants
• two students who were class presidents for four years straight in high school
• a football player who plays jazz piano
• a student who worked last summer in England at a farm for autistic adults, then went to Thailand as a volunteer for her senior project
• two students who have spent the last year hiking and maintaining the Appalachian Trail

The class is not only adventurous and enterprising, they are also, in the words of one admissions director, "the sweetest, nicest group of students I've ever met." The Kenyon community eagerly looks forward to welcoming them.