The Kokosing is a small river, barely a stream after a storm, which meanders its way through the gently undulating hills and farmland of central Ohio. Kenyon College is nestled among the trees atop a hill near the Kokosing. Kenyon is a private, selective, liberal arts college of about 1600 undergraduate students founded by an Episcopal bishop named Philander (yes, Philander) Chase in 1824. During the 2011-12 academic year, Scott Carnicom completed an American Council on Education Fellowship at Kenyon under the guidance of S. Georgia Nugent, president of the institution. During his year at Kenyon, Carnicom served in an anthropological role, observing the culture of the community and the leadership of Kenyon's senior staff. From this vantage point, he immersed himself in the life of the college and became a participant observer able to compare Kenyon with his home institution, Middle Tennessee State University, where he served as associate dean of the Honors College from 2006 to 2014. One reason Carnicom chose Kenyon was that in honors it is often said that students are provided a liberal arts education but with the resources and price tag of a public institution. He wanted to test the veracity of this truism by living "abroad" for a year, examining not only Kenyon but also the bevy of other liberal arts institutions in Ohio. In this article, he discusses key similarities and differences between small select liberal arts colleges and honors programs or colleges at larger public universities.