Knox College

Knox College is an independent-minded, uncannily smart four-year residential college. We're home to transformative teachers, classes, and learning opportunities, plus 1,200 brilliantly original human beings from everywhere on the planet. We believe that every experience is an education, that every new venture, every fantastic idea, every great journey, is human-powered. We also believe you learn the most from the people least like you. Knox is one of the 25 most diverse liberal arts colleges in America, with a campus community of 1,200 students from 45 states and 49 countries, including a wide array of races, ethnicities, ages, cultures, backgrounds, genders and gender identities, sexual orientations, and beliefs.

A Knox education is not something you sit and watch—it's something you do. Our students test their knowledge by applying theory to practice both in and out of the classroom. That can take the form of advanced research and creative work, internships, off-campus (sometimes way off-campus) programs, community service, or some combination of your own devising. We help make these experiences possible with a $2,000 Power of Experience Grant available to all incoming students during their junior and senior years.

These experiences, combined with opportunities to live and learn with students from different backgrounds, empower students to find success after Knox. Our students become engaged, innovative, and productive global citizens, ready to lead lives of purpose. They run Fortune 500 companies and grassroots nonprofits, they conduct major research at sites around the world, they found startups and music festivals, they see a human need and they meet it.

Our future is also rooted in our past. The commitment to put learning to use to accomplish both personal and social goals dates back to the founding of the College in 1837. We take particular pride in the College's early commitment to increase access to all qualified students of varied backgrounds, races, and conditions, regardless of financial means.

Today, we continue to expand that historic mission and the tradition of active liberal arts learning. We provide an environment where students and dedicated faculty work closely together and where teaching is characterized by inviting and expecting students to pursue fundamental questions in order to reach their own reflective but independent judgments. Our aim is to foster a lifelong love of learning and a sense of competence, confidence, and proportion that will enable us to live with purpose and to contribute to the well-being of others.

Knox has an extraordinarily diverse, open-minded, and engaged student body. When we were founded, we were one of the first colleges in America to admit women and students of color. Today, we're more diverse in more ways than nearly any other college campus in the country. We learn from each other's experiences and perspectives, and it prepares us to be successful in a global, multicultural world—yet our community is still small enough that students develop meaningful relationships with professors and lifelong friendships with their classmates.

Student Organizations: The one quality that binds our 100+ student organizations is that they are all student-driven. Students create and run organizations in response to interests and needs. Some clubs focus on academic disciplines such as chemistry or physics. Others, such as Common Ground, Model United Nations, and Allied Blacks for Liberty and Equality focus on identity, culture, and politics. And, our successful club-level Ultimate Frisbee team and our music, dance, and performance ensembles provide an athletic and creative energy that characterizes Knox.

Intramural Clubs: More than half of our students participate in some kind of organized athletic activity, from club sports (water polo, ultimate frisbee, cricket); to intramurals (basketball, indoor soccer, softball, volleyball); to fitness classes organized and taught by students (a few recent examples: Balinese dancing, yoga).

Student Governance: Our student government actually governs. The Student Senate helps determine how funds from student activity fees are spent, makes student appointments to faculty committees, and serves as a forum for the debate of important issues on campus. Our students shape the future of Knox; their work is a lasting legacy.

Civic Engagement: We pride ourselves on being deeply engaged in the life of a strong, sustainable community—whether that community is local or global. Our students contribute tens of thousands of hours of service every year through established partnerships, special programs, and our KnoxCorps program. Knox was the first college or university in the country to offer an official Peace Corps Preparatory Program; we rank among the top producers of Peace Corps volunteers.

Students have been known to thank the "college admission gods" for their good fortune in being part of the Knox community. Students are quick to assure that "you'll meet a lot of people very fast, and by the end of your first term, you'll already be good friends with a pretty big portion of the student body." Camaraderie also develops quickly as a result of the Pumphandle, an event prior to the start of fall courses where each student shakes hands with every other student. Students find that their peers are a "highly diverse combination of creative, intellectual minds." As one student says, "Everyone at Knox is a little eccentric; we embrace each other's differences." In fact, students take pride in their "Knoxwardness" and advise that the best way to "fit in [is] by being themselves."

Students share that "when we want to do something fun, we typically organize it ourselves." Students can join any of the over 80 student-led clubs and student organizations on campus, and they delight in "artistic expression, be it poetry, visual art, performance art, music." Students also enjoy Thursday night jazz on campus, as well as a lively athletics scene. Some 70% of students participate in a varsity, club, or intramural sport. Fun on campus also comes courtesy of the Union Board, which "brings films, entertainers, concerts, and other groups to campus, including Second City," and sponsors movie nights that feature a 24-foot inflatable screen. Knox does have a Greek scene with four sororities and five fraternities. Students "go to parties, play games, dance, etc., just like any other college campus. The difference is our fraternity parties are open to the entire campus and do not serve alcohol." Fraternity parties are known as "places where you generally know everyone there, you have a good time, and no one steals your coat or purse." Students agree that their favorite on-campus event is Flunk Day, a 100-year-old tradition that takes place on a secret date each year. Recent Flunk Days have included obstacle courses, carnival games, rides, and live performances. One student describes it as "a day every spring when classes are canceled, and the entire campus goes out on the lawn and plays games, eats great food, and enjoys free entertainment."