Kenyon College

Historic Campus

The oldest private college in Ohio, Kenyon looks the part. The main campus breaths history and the buildings feel like they would be at home in any of the historic campuses of New England. The dining hall at Kenyon is awe inspiring and reminiscent of the Great Hall of Harry Potter fame. Students who appreciate a small town, historic, classic college experience will fall in love with Kenyon and will enjoy living on campus for all four years of their time there. At most colleges the newer dorms are in high demand, but upperclassmen at Kenyon hope for a good enough housing lottery number to score a room in the historic dormitories right at the heart of campus.

Modern Appeal

The college has modern conveniences in addition to historic buildings. Thanks to a generous donation, an entire new quad is being erected. The first building, a new library, is already completed and, while the exterior fits the historic aesthetic of the college, the interior offers every amenity for the modern student. New class buildings will be completed in the next few years and Kenyon looks forward to a bright academic future.

Great Education

Kenyon is best known for its English department. In fact, Kenyon has long been known as the writer’s college. Their graduating classes for years have been filled with illustrious names that you see on bookshelves and on bestseller lists. While Kenyon maintains its excellence in the written word, they are also strengthening their STEM offerings. Students who attend Kenyon for STEM degrees have wonderful research opportunities as there are no graduate students with whom to compete for grant funding. The modern science and tech buildings bring Kenyon into the future.

Strong Candidates

Students wanting to attend Kenyon need to be strong candidates. While the school is currently test optional and has hinted that it may stay that way, the average candidate who submits test scores tends to hover in the 29-33 range on the ACT. Kenyon has only a 34 percent acceptance rate and cannot easily increase class size since all students must live on campus. The admissions office stresses the importance of good quality letters of recommendation to improve admission chances.

If you’re looking for a good writing degree, earned on a charming campus and would like to experience the closeness of a small community, the drive to Kenyon is more than worth it.

Coming soon:

Ohio has over 60 colleges and universities which can make choosing where to apply an overwhelming decision. In an effort to provide the most up to date and reliable information to our students, members of the BWS team will soon be touring many Ohio colleges. We will be asking questions like, “what kind of student would succeed here?” and “what makes this institution stand out from those around it?” Those questions and more will be answered in our upcoming blog posts. Check back regularly as you create your college list to read about colleges and institutions that you might not have otherwise thought of. As always, if you need help with any part of the process, get in touch: we’re happy to help.

When Should You Take the SAT and ACT?

If you are planning on trying to earn a National Merit Scholarship and apply to highly selective colleges and universities, the following general test schedule might be a good fit for you:

  • Take the SAT in August or October of your Junior year–this will help you be well-prepared for the PSAT in October of your Junior year. Since you have one chance to do well on the PSAT for National Merit Scholarship consideration, a “dress rehearsal” with the SAT will be extremely helpful. You may also want to try taking the PSAT as a sophomore for additional practice.
  • Take the ACT in December of your Junior year. This test date has a Test Information Release available so that you can analyze your test questions and answers.
  • Evaluate your PSAT scores and December ACT scores so that you can determine if the SAT, ACT or both tests would be the best fit.
  • Take the ACT, SAT, or both in the spring of your Junior year. Most students improve the second time they take the test, so it is a no-brainer to try the tests at least a couple of times. Consider taking the March or May SAT because of the Question and Answer Service; you can get a copy of your test booklet and answers. Also consider the April or June ACT, since those dates offer the Test Information Release.
  • Take the ACT or SAT again in the summer if needed. If your scores are not quite where you want them to be, try the July or September ACT, or the August or October SAT. Keep in mind that many schools superscore (take the best score from each test section), so you may want to try to improve your weaker test sections. Ideally, if you can have your testing complete by the time you start applying to colleges, you will be much less stressed.

Please keep in mind that the above timeline is a general suggestion, and many other factors should influence when you take the tests. Here are some other things to consider:

  • Does your state offer in-school ACT or SAT tests? If so, you may want to focus on being well-prepared for those test dates. You will get to take the test during the school day in familiar surroundings, possibly giving you an enhanced opportunity to perform well.
  • Is a certain time of year less busy for you because of decreased extracurricular commitments? If you are a fall athlete, perhaps you should focus your preparation on the winter tests. If you have a busy spring, try to get your testing done in the winter.
  • Are you being recruited for sports? Coaches often like to have your test scores as early as possible. You may want to move your testing timeline up a bit if recruiters would prefer that you do so.
  • Are you only applying regular decision? Many students want to weigh different financial aid offers and want more time to consider possible schools. If so, you do not need to have your testing complete until December or January of your senior year.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have questions about the best test-taking timeline for your particular situation, please reach out to us and we would be happy to help.

Thinking Strategically about Early Applications to College

Many students believe that when you apply early to a university, you must limit your application to a single college. When, you look more closely at the application requirements, you will find that you can apply more strategically. Highly selective schools in the United States–like Harvard, MIT, and Yale–have restrictive early action. For example, Harvard describes its Early Action program like this:

“If you apply to Harvard under our Restrictive Early Action program, you may also apply early to non-binding public or foreign colleges/universities (no Early Decision programs), but you may not apply early (in any form) to U.S. private colleges/universities.”

Note that the restriction applies only to U.S. private universities. So, where else could an ambitious student apply?

—International Universities. Schools in Canada, like the University of Toronto or McGill, would be excellent candidates. Schools in the United Kingdom, like Oxford and Cambridge, could also be great possibilities. Given the weight that international schools put on academic qualifications, these schools could be good options for students whose academic qualifications are stellar but whose extracurricular qualifications are not as comparatively strong.

—Elite State Universities in the United States. Schools like the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin would allow early applications that are non-binding.

So, instead of simply applying to one selective private school with an early application, you may want to also apply early to an international university or a couple of state universities. Doing so will likely ensure that you have more options for college admissions come December instead of having all of your eggs in one basket with a single elite private university.

Mini Blog FAQ: Why Do I Have to Take the ACT?

The ACT is a test that is currently used by colleges and universities across the United States to judge students’ college readiness. It is one of many criteria used by admissions officers to decide who will be admitted. It is also a graduation requirement in some states and school districts. The SAT is a similar test that is used in a similar way. Colleges and universities that require an admissions test will accept either the ACT or the SAT so students can choose which one is the better fit for their skills.

Read more on figuring out which test is a better fit for you.

Early Action? Early Decision? Early Confusion?


Early decision and early action deadlines are creeping up on students right about now at the beginning of November. While some students may have decided to apply early some time ago, many of their friends may be left in a panic as they watch the deadlines go by thinking “what does this mean?”. “Should I apply early?” Many students experience FOMO (fear of missing out) as they realize a bit belatedly that many of their peers are wrapping up applications just as others are only getting started. What is early action? What is early decision? Who are they right for? Below are the basics that students need to know in order to make informed decisions about early applications.

Early Action:

Early action is a pretty good bet for most students. Applying early action means that students apply sooner (generally early fall of senior year) and then they get their decision early. Students can apply early action at as many of their colleges as have an early action program. Early action applications come with no commitment and are a good way to get the applications out of the way sooner so that students can focus on and enjoy senior year. Early action also allows for students to have more time to make their decision once they get acceptances and it takes the burden off students’ shoulders much sooner.

Early Decision:

Early decision applications are a much bigger deal than early action. Not many schools offer early decision; those that do tend to be highly selective institutions. Many students, therefore, may not even have the option of applying early decision. The key thing to remember is that early decision applications are legally binding. Students are required to attend the school and withdraw applications from all other schools if accepted into their early decision school. This means that students who apply early decision are committing to attending before they see what financial aid the school will offer them. Students should not apply early decision unless they are sure that the school is the right fit and they are committed to paying the full price for the school. At most schools, applying early decision does increase your chances of being admitted and, similar to early action, gets the work and the decision out of the way much sooner which is attractive to most students.

In Conclusion:

If you’re in your senior year and you haven’t yet submitted any applications, it’s okay! You still have time for those regular decision applications, so don’t rush to apply early if it means submitting subpar work. Generally, schools accept regular decision applications until the beginning of January, but make sure you check with your schools to find out their specific deadlines. Try to have your applications in as soon as you can; don’t wait until the last moment. The sooner you get accepted the sooner your school can put together your financial aid package. Most schools have a limited amount of aid to give out, so you don’t want to be last in line. If you need any help with your applications or essays reach out to us and let us assist!

How to Make the Most of Online College Tours



In 2020 many colleges started to seriously develop virtual campus tours to try to fill in the gaps left by restrictions on face to face meetings. While some colleges had previously had brief video tours, they did not do a good job at helping students really get a good feel for the campus. With almost all perspective students touring virtually, though, colleges felt the need to improve their offerings. Students who don’t wish to travel far to campus, or who don’t feel it is safe to meet in person, can now get close to the full tour experience through their computer screens. These virtual experiences can be made almost as beneficial as in-person tours with a few simple tips. 

  • Sign up for official tour and make sure you have the necessary software

Don’t just hop on the college website one day and watch a five minute video tour shot with a drone over the campus! Get in touch with the admissions office and ask about a guided tour where you can video chat with a guide as you work your way through a comprehensive tour. A complete campus tour should take at least an hour for even the smallest campuses. Having a live guide to talk to and ask questions of is the best way to mimic an on campus tour. In order to make the tour go smoothly, make sure you have the program you need in advance! Maybe you’ll be meeting with the guide through Zoom, but maybe it’s on some other platform you have never used before. Get it up and running in the days before your appointment to avoid missing your tour.

  • Do research before the tour

Make sure you know something about the college you’re touring. Do they offer the programs you want? Are they in an area you would enjoy living? Are you reasonably close to their admissions criteria? Don’t waste your time doing 100 tours of colleges that won’t be a good fit. Just because you can tour from your couch doesn’t mean you should!

  • Have questions ready

You’ll get the most out of a college tour that is tailored to you, but unfortunately, the tour guide won’t really know you. You have to help them tailor the information that they present. Do this by asking questions. Have some questions ready prior to your scheduled start time and ask others that you think of as the tour progresses.

  • Take notes!

After a handful of tours all colleges kind of look the same, especially on a screen. Which one was the one with the great professor I talked to? Which one had that horrible library with no tables? Write down your thoughts during the tour. Since you’ll be sitting in your home instead of out walking around it should be easy to keep organized notes!

  • Follow up with the admissions counselor afterword

Make sure to send a thank you email with any follow up questions after the tour. This is especially important if there were many people on your tour. You want your counselor to remember you!

  • Visit in person after admission

Once you’re admitted, make sure you do a real visit prior to committing. Some things can only be experienced in person and you shouldn’t commit to going to a school for four years without having ever set foot on campus!

How to Start the College Process: Three Tours

A lot of students start junior year not entirely sure what they want in a college. By the time they reach the start of senior year, they need to know. The summer before senior year and that school year itself will be full of college applications, essays, letters of recommendation, and financial aid paper work. To make this process go more smoothly, students should try to have their list of colleges just about ready before senior year starts. This means that the summer prior to 11th grade and junior year itself are the time for figuring out what a student wants in a college and writing a list of places to apply to. While some students have had their dream school picked out for years, others approach the process with a completely blank slate. If this is you, you might be overwhelmed, wondering how to narrow down the thousands of available options.

A great place to start is on any college campus. An even better place to start would be on three college campuses. You can make life easy on yourself by touring three campuses close to where you live. There is no need to travel far, you’re just looking for things you like and things you don’t like. Indeed, knowing what you don’t want is just as helpful as knowing what you do want!

So which colleges should you start with? You should aim for three distinctly different options: one large, one mid-sized, one small. At least one of the three should be private and at least one public. One could be a city campus with others being in small towns or rural areas. In short, you should try to see as much diversity in options as possible.

When planning these visits make sure to sign up to take the official tour. This will give you a chance to see classrooms, dorms, and cafeterias as well as to ask questions about majors, campus culture, and graduation rates. You should take careful notes on what you like- if you don’t write it down, you’ll likely forget it!

After the three colleges tours are done sit down a write a list of “must haves” for a college. Are small class sizes a “must” or a “never”? What major or majors must be available to you? Must the campus be bustling or quiet, city or country? Once you get all of your “musts” on a list start doing research on schools in your desired geographic area. You’ll find that it’s much easier to narrow down your possibilities now that you know what you want!

If you want help with this process reach out and let us know- we’d love to work with you as you get ready for college!
Michal Strawn

Latest Changes to the ACT, SAT, and Test Optional Colleges

With so much in the news about changes to college testing and admissions, I have heard the same questions from many clients. I wanted to pass along the very latest and best information that I have about the SAT, ACT, and test optional policies.

How have the ACT and SAT changed their upcoming dates?

• ACT just announced that they will have test dates on June 13th and July 18th. If there is a need to move the test date because of local health conditions, the June test would be moved to June 20th and the July test would be moved to July 25th. Despite much speculation that the summer ACT tests would be cancelled, they are on track to go ahead.

• SAT announced that they are cancelling the upcoming June SAT date, but will have a total of 5 national test dates for the fall with sufficient capacity to test all students who wish to do so. There will be an SAT each month starting in August. Additionally, the in-school SAT that was cancelled in the spring will be offered in the fall.

What if the country is still locked down in the fall and it is unsafe to take the SAT and ACT in person?

• Both SAT and ACT will make online, at-home versions of their tests available this fall should it be necessary. At-home tests have already been made for the GRE, GMAT, SSAT, LSAT, and AP exams. Should they make the online tests available, I believe they would simply keep the test as it is in its current format, but have virtual proctoring, test session recording through a computer’s camera, and browser lockdown to prevent cheating. More details about the precise format of the online tests will be forthcoming.

I have heard that many colleges are going “test optional,” and that my child now has the option to not submit SAT and ACT scores. Does this mean I don’t need to have my child take the SAT and ACT?

• “Test optional” does not mean “test blind”—if you can take the ACT and SAT to improve your application, it is definitely in your interest to do so even for test optional schools. Only 21% of all the 5,300 U.S. colleges/universities are test optional, and only 10% of the top 20 nationally-ranked universities (U.S. News & World Report ranking) are test optional.

• Only two schools in the United States, Hampshire College and Northern Illinois University are test-blind—they will not consider ACT and SAT test scores in any way. All other colleges in the country will consider test scores when making admissions decisions.

• The University of Chicago, the most highly-ranked test optional University, actually saw its admissions rate decline to 6% and its average SAT scores improve after going test optional. Their admissions website encourages “students to take standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, and to share your scores with us if you think that they are reflective of your ability and potential.” Only about 10-15% of University of Chicago applicants choose to not submit their test scores. https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/first-year-applicants

• For the University of California system, temporarily being test optional this year “does not lower the bar for admission, but accommodates the real barriers students have faced as tests have been cancelled and classes have moved to Pass/No Pass grading. Admissions to UC campuses is highly sought after and will continue to be just as competitive.” Submitting test scores can support students’ “statewide UC eligibility, application for certain scholarships, and help them fulfill some University graduation requirements.” https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/response-covid-19.html

• If you are able to take the SAT and ACT, do so early and often.

o Grades may hold less weight in admissions decisions than in previous years since many high schools are instituting “pass/fail” or no grading for the 2020 spring semester.

o Students who would traditionally have impressive extracurricular accomplishments from the spring and summer will not be able to showcase their talents as they normally would.

o Students may be unable to make college visits to demonstrate interest in schools, and do in-person interviews.

o Accurate letters of recommendation may be more difficult to obtain since letter writers may not have the same level of personal contact with students that they normally would.

o As always, the more objective information you can provide to a college about your solid academic qualifications, the better your chances of admission. Taking the SAT and ACT is one of the easiest ways to make this happen.

–Brian Stewart

What Colleges Want in an Essay

The common app will be open for submissions in just a few weeks. Many students’ goal is to be relatively done with applications on August 1st when it opens. This allows students to have a (fairly) stress free senior year without worrying about applications on top of classes, sports, and work. To aid with this, the common app publishes their essay topics well in advance so that students can take advantage of the summer months and knock out the bulk of their essays. Here are the seven prompts for this year:

    1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
    2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
    3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
    4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
    5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
    6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
    7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Students often see these prompts and agonize how to pick one. This approach is entirely backwards! Instead of picking the prompt first, notice how incredibly broad they are! Figure out what you want to talk about and then find a prompt that fits it! In order to find what you would like to write about ask yourself some questions:

  1. What experiences have I had that are unique?
  2. What makes me different from my peers?
  3. When was a time that I worked hard to overcome a challenge?
  4. How would I describe myself in just a few words.

You should not be asking “what do colleges want to see?” This attitude of pandering to the colleges is bad for a number of reasons:

First, it will drive you crazy trying to figure what colleges want, which will result in poor or generic writing. Every sentence and word will sound like a humble brag as you try to spin a story that you think they will find amazing. While you want to show yourself in a good light, remember that no one is perfect! Pick something to write about that you’re confident in and that will shine through.

Second, every college is looking for something slightly different every year. One year at one school your experience as an oboe player in the national youth symphony may make you a top candidate. At another school or another year, they may have 5 wonderful oboe players on campus already. What colleges are “looking for” is often different year to year and campus to campus as colleges try to create a diverse student body. Every admissions department is different and puts emphasis on different things in their selection process.

Third, this may be the most important one. If you pretend to be someone you aren’t to get into a college there is a good chance the real you won’t be happy when you get there. Remember, colleges want to get you know you to see if you would be a good fit, not just academically, but personally. Think about it as a relationship: if you lie about who you are to the person you’re dating is your relationship going to be in good shape when you finally have to be yourself? This essay and your application are kind of like a first date- it’s not a good idea to air all your dirty laundry, but if you don’t act like yourself, there is a good chance you won’t be happy in the relationship down the road.

 

Put all of this together and the best advice a student can hear is this: be yourself. In your essay, try to be true to who you are. Ask your parents and friends what they think the best thing about you is. Do some self-reflection. You can’t control what the colleges want, what they think, or who they choose. You can control the portrait you paint of yourself. Make it a good one- put yourself in a flattering light, get the right angle, tell the right story, but leave the puppy filter and the photoshop for another day.