I am a college senior trying to choose between these two places. I loved Wesleyan’s social scene, and how kind and accepting everyone was, and I felt very comfortable there. But I really liked Amherst’s professors and their classes and the students were all very smart and passionate. I feel like I would feel comfortable at Wesleyan but challenged at Amherst. And I don’t know which one I want. If you can give me some input, just tell me soon because I got four more days left. Please help.
Have you visited both schools? Wesleyan is larger and more “alternative,” Amherst is an excellent school but a little more serious. My kid loves Wesleyan and is very challenged - classes are small and the workload is heavy but manageable. My co-worker recently graduated from Amherst and found it very strong academically but she ended up visiting friends at Wesleyan on the weekends because it had a better social scene. What is most important to you? What do you want to study?
There are some extremely challenging courses of study at Wesleyan, including two Oxbridge-like “colleges” where a 10 page essay per week is the norm (one in the humanities called, The College of Letters, the other in the social sciences called, The College of Social Studies.) Like @Deaston said, it depends on what you are looking for.
I’m planning to major in Biology and Environmental Studies. And I don’t really know. To be honest I’m leaning more towards Amherst but I can’t always tell if that is because my family and some of my friends are kind of pushing me towards there. I did really like the intellectual focus there, but I’m sure I could find that at Wesleyan as well. I’ve been kind of flipping back and forth all month.
Interested in Molecular Biology Biochemistry?
Here’s what’s offered at Amherst:
https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/biochemistry-biophysics/courses
Here’s what’s offered at Wesleyan:
https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse_list=MBB&offered=Y
Go with your gut. It’s the only way.
circuitrider’s comparison of courses offered at Amherst and Wesleyan is pretty misleading. At Amherst, the Biochem / Biophysics major is a small, interdisciplinary program that only offers a few of its own classes – as you’d expect, most of the required courses are in other science departments. On the other hand, the list of Wesleyan classes looks like it covers everything offered by their bio department.
Amherst offers tremendous opportunities in the sciences, and has great faculty in biology and chemistry – not to mention it was the first college in the country to offer an undergraduate neuroscience major. Since you mentioned environmental science, I should also point out that it has an awesome geology department that’s actively engaged in expanding environmental geology offerings. It’s also in the midst of building a dope new science center that would be open by your sophomore fall.
Amherst is a terrific place that has had a huge impact on my personal and intellectual growth. Ultimately, the largest portion of your time in college is going to be spent in class or studying. It sounds like you feel the academic culture at Amherst is a better fit, and I think that’s a good litmus test.
Good luck – you have two great options!
@hwysevenman is correct. These are all interdisciplinary departments and majors. It’s not clear why Amherst is not listing all of their cross-listed courses except perhaps because they are not offered every year. We do know that Wesleyan is nearly twice as big and, as expected, it has twice as many offerings in Biology as well as in Environmental Studies:
BIO
Amherst offers:
https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/biology/courses
Wesleyan offers:
https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse_list=BIOL&term=1159&offered=Y#spring
ENVS -
Amherst offers:
https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/environmental_studies/courses
Wesleyan offers:
https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse_list=ENVS&offered=Y
Both schools are fairly comparable. I think it comes down to the fit. I would say even the student body is similar- with perhaps Wesleyan being slightly more alternative. The biggest difference is size and location. Would you prefer to be in CT or MA? Do you want to access the outdoors quickly and live in a more rural environment or not? More students or small town feeling where you recognize most everyone’s face by the end of the year? Amherst does have the consortium which can make the school feel bigger when you want it too.
Is money an issue? Is there a difference in the two offers if so?
My D is a first year at Amherst planning to major in Bio, Chem, Biochem or Neuro (keeping her options open for all as a pre-health, also participating in a 5-college certificate program that is related). She’s had incredible professors and attention, has gotten funding for two otherwise unpaid internships (one grant from the college, one from a club she is in at the college), loves the social scene (is participating in the new branch trials this year), really having an incredible experience. She has never had a problem getting the classes and sections she wants, she has an official adviser, an alumni mentor, and several informal advisers. She was able to get rec letters for research and internships easily after only one semester. There’s a well developed internship program in the career center and tons of academic help available.
The other 4 colleges in Amherst’s consortium offer courses in many, many areas and UMass in particular has a wide variety of upper level science courses. UMass is also the easiest to get to from Amherst college.
She didn’t visit Wes and I have no experience with it. I think she skipped it because of Greek life mainly.
^ bingo. Certain courses are only offered in fall or spring (In fact the intro bio course is not offered until spring every year, on purpose), and some courses are in alternate years.
What do you mean by alternative? student body make up?
@audi2016 – ?Maybe the references above to Wesleyan being more alternative refers to this:
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-wesleyan-student-pleads-in-molly-case-20151112-story.html
Or maybe it refers to the LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM housing (see bullet point that starts ‘Open House’.):
http://www.wesleyan.edu/creativecampus/studentgroups/themedhousing.html
^^^LOL. Amherst doesn’t have any themed housing?
Amherst does have themed housing. If you love to cook, there is a house that basically shares cooking responsibility and food, there are language houses, and more…perhaps not as many as bigger schools though. Most students prefer to live on campus all 4 years.
I posted this on the Wesleyan board in response to another thread, but, it bears on this topic: