<p>How is the race/class interraction?</p>
<p>Is interracial dating common any?</p>
<p>One question regarding Film: Is there any way for non-majors to take any of the production courses available (such as the Sight and Sound Workshop, Screenwriting or Introduction to Digital Filmmaking)? I’m not much interested in film theory/analysis; on the other hand, I’m greatly interested in gaining some practical knowledge on how to create my own films.</p>
<p>Quajafrie-- Non-film majors cannot take any of the production courses or screenwriting.</p>
<p>I second quajafries question, I also want to take some screenwriting courses without being a film major</p>
<p>Hey guys–</p>
<p>No, the production and screenwriting classes are for majors only, at this point (I know that at one point they were thinking about adding more screenwriting classes, in which case who knows, but they might not because of the economy anyway), except for Making the Science Documentary, which non-majors can take.</p>
<p>OTOH, if you’re interested in production its really easy to get involved in the film co-op and helping out on senior thesis films and such.</p>
<p>Aw that sucks. It would have been awesome to have a screenwriting class</p>
<p>Can AP Credits count toward the general education expectations?</p>
<p>No, any AP is viewed as simply a credit toward graduation. No gen ed and no major credit.</p>
<p>current Weslyan students:
hello~ I just want to ask one question: when can the class of 2013 choose classes( or courses)? I hope it’s not during July or August…cuz I’m gonna stay out of US… ( for some reason, I can’t find it on the Wesleyan’s website…lol)
thax a lot!</p>
<p>I may be wrong, but I believe I read somewhere that you can choose two courses (one for fall and one for spring), usually FYIs I think, over the summer, and then you register for your other fall classes during orientation.</p>
<p>Here is the answer from the FAQ on the Orientation section of the website.</p>
<p>How do I register for my courses?
In the Summer mailing, you will receive information about Summer Registration. You will then select up to four classes, including a First Year Initiative seminar. When you arrive on campus for Orientation, you will meet with your advisor and finalize a list of 4-5 courses for the fall. When you complete the course registration, your advisor must approve your class schedule.</p>
<p>can anyone talk about what westco is like? would it be a good dorm for a freshman?</p>
<p>Westco was meant to be a showcase of sorts, of Wesleyan’s ability to compete with fraternities without eliminating them. It and its counterpart East College (Eastco?) were one of the few genuinely original ideas to emanate from the Etherington administration (Etherington was the young Wall Street hot-shot who was brought in to help “close the deal” on some of the President Butterfield’s final initiatives: co-education and affirmative action.</p>
<p>Part of the argument for keeping fraternities (which had only just been eliminated at Little Three co-horts, Williams and Amherst) was that, at their best, they tested student’s abilities to govern themselves. A university dorm seeking to compete with them would at the least require some limited degree of self-selection, elected officers and even their own social budget – all unusual for the time.</p>
<p>For West College they chose the entry to Foss Hill, itself a kind of showcase. Designed by a personal friend of Butterfield’s, they were per capita, the most expensive dorms ever built by a college or university up to that time.</p>
<p>Most of the expense went into generous-sized common spaces: foyers the size of patios, with floor to ceiling windows, balconies. And, a system of interconnected tunnels that would anchor each dorm to a separate lounge that would twist along the edge of Foss Hill’s highest ridge.</p>
<p>The southern most section, Unit Two (2Westco) was originally a breeze way with mostly open space on the bottom floor and an abbreviated hall of dorm rooms that led to a courtyard on the second (I could tell you some stories about parties on that courtyard – but, I’m sure everyone has their favorite Wesleyan party story.)</p>
<p>The first floor of Unit Two always had a large undivided room right next to the first floor bathroom. I think. at one point, there was some thought given to making that entire first floor a kind of Master’s suite for the faculty head of West College, but they may have run out of money. I can’t quite see a faculty member living there.</p>
<p>For the first fifteen years of it’s existence, one walked past Res Life and through a door that led directly outside to the West College courtyard: if you faced north you were looking at a grove of century-old beech trees and a patio that looks as if it has been lifted intact from the set of a 1950s family show. If you faced south, you were looking down some flagstone steps that led directly to Church Street. </p>
<p>Anyway, the breezeway was eventually filled in with offices. After about 1970, you walked through the same door into hall with offices on both sides. The people assigned those offices often served a kind of double duty as West College Fellows. Some of the most charismatic people to ever work for Wesleyan have occupied those spaces. However, they are now student doubles.</p>
<p>In fact, though there are very few single rooms in the classic sense in Westco, most of the doubles are really two separate rooms accessible by the same hallway door. It was customary for many years for the school to rearrange the furniture back to two beds in the same room until everyone agreed that it was better to just leave them where most students wanted them – in separate rooms.</p>
<p>One thing that really made Westco special for awhile was it had its own catering facilities; not a real kitchen per se but places where food could be stored and served. Fun Fact: once upon a time, the dining service served a special ala carte lunch there every day, just for West College members. Today, it is used mostly for live music performances.</p>
<p>I think because of the history leading up to its inception, West College has always considered itself as Wesleyan’s anti-fraternity wing. It’s probably not as prominent now (because basically that battle was won a long time ago.) But, it was the place that always sought to have as much diversity as possible; that hosted the campus printing collective for many years; that interviewed that New York Times reporter for the “Naked Dorm” article; Also, before they built the new university center it was one of the only places on campus where bands could play and rehearse.</p>
<p>Also, you should know, in case it hasn’t shown up in a thread already: all Foss Hill dorms, including Westco have only one bathroom per floor (because it was built before co-education and they just weren’t thinking that far ahead.) And, those lounges? Well, one’s serves as the campus convenience store and the other is a laundry room.</p>
<p>johnwesley- that was very informative. thank you!</p>
<p>If anyone could answer these questions/concerns, it would really help my daughter decide (between Wes and Swarthmore)…</p>
<p>DD is very impressed with the academics at Wes, especially in the areas of her interests–sciences and the terrific research opportunities for undergrads, languages, and English. And she found the quality of the discussions in the classes she attended to be several notches above those in other schools she visited. </p>
<p>However, like many who’ve posted in this forum, she’s not into alcohol/drugs or even going to parties, and although she wasn’t concerned about this prior to her visit, she is now that she’s visited. Although her visit wasn’t during WesFest, her host for an overnight weeknight (not weekend!) visit took her to an Eclectic party of some sort…Now, she liked her host, and she didn’t feel pressured to drink (though she was a little uncomfortable when someone at the party untactfully expressed great surprise that DD, at 17, didn’t drink), it’s just that the scene wasn’t for her: loud music, drinking, smoking, especially the smoking (she has bad asthma). Now, she’s not a prude–doesn’t disapprove of others doing this any of this, at all, and tried to learn to like wine when we lived in France, where she was of legal drinking age. She just doesn’t enjoy it.</p>
<p>DD agreed with me that she shouldn’t judge the school by a single night with a particular group, and I told her that my understanding is that Eclectic parties are about as wild as Wes gets. It’s not a wild party school. And she’s learned through visiting the Wes website that there’s no smoking in the regular dorms. However, the fact remains that during her Swat visit, in the evening, she went to a lecture, hung out with students in a SciFi club of some sort, playing board games, and had some great conversations. She loved it. She really wants to go to Wes for the academics, but she’s concerned that she’s not going to find others like her at Wes. Will she find others who simply don’t enjoy the party scene? She’d love hanging out with friends on weekends, talking, going to movies, lectures, coffeeshops/restaurants, concerts, and so on…</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post. I really think Wes is the right school for DD, and that she just needs to connect up to the right folks there. Maybe choosing the right housing first year will be especially important (Butterfield, maybe–suggestions would be great!) But it’s not my decision, of course. DD is torn between Swat and Wes, and any information, positive or negative, that bears on this issue would be appreciated. </p>
<p>Thanks so much…</p>
<p>Mwaserewriter:don’t worry! I had the same worries because I am more or less like your D. There are all sorts of people at Wes and your D will find her crowd. I have got to know a lot of my prospective clasmates and they are all amazing, she’ll have no problem fittingin!
Oh and I’m prefrosh if you’re wondering !</p>
<p>MwasereWriter - I really appreciate your question; it demonstrated a thorough knowledge of Wesleyan and wasn’t long-winded at all. :)</p>
<p>I think what sometimes happens is that there’s a disconnect that occurs very quickly once people go away to college, between the habits of mind they acquire after a year or so and the people they were in h.s., i.e., they assume every pre-frosh who visits Wes is doing so in order to party or they equate being a good host with showing them “a good time” (wink, wink.) Your DD’s experience demonstrates just how wrong that can be sometimes.</p>
<p>As someone else pointed out, once she’s matriculated as a frosh, she will no longer be dependent on an older student (who happens to have the only key to their room) showing her around. Come next Fall, she will have her own priorities and her own cardkey!</p>
<p>IMHO, Eclectic looms larger psychologically than it does in any material or substantive sense. People are glad that it exists even if they only go to one party their entire Wesleyan career. In fact, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve seen the inside of Eclectic and I don’t think my experience is all that unusual.</p>
<p>That being said, there will always be two competing imperatives at Wesleyan, 1) keeping on top of one’s work, and, 2) allowing time to play (defining that however you want :P). For that reason, your DD may want to carefully consider her options because from what I’ve been able to surmise, Wesleyan may make for a very different atmosphere than Swarthmore.</p>
<p>I was also between Wesleyan and Swarthmore for a while, for the exact reasons that your daughter is (I like conversation, board games, restaurants, lectures, performances, etc. all far more than parties, and I don’t smoke or drink, though I may drink occasionally in college), but I ended up applying ED to Wesleyan after chatting with some people here on CC and going on a visit.</p>
<p>Read here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/586491-transfer-wesleyan.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/586491-transfer-wesleyan.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/586135-does-everyone-wes-party.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/586135-does-everyone-wes-party.html</a></p>
<p>I will not be much of a partier next year, and getting to know other prefrosh through Facebook, it looks like I won’t be at all alone. I think Wesleyan does have more going on than Swat does, in general, which means more parties as well as more cultural events and performances etc. It has a town which means more local restaurants to go out to, and in general I think the larger student body means that the campus is more active. I also think that while Wesleyan’s atmosphere is just as intellectual as Swat’s, Swat’s workload really, really overloads its students, which does not create the type of atmosphere I wanted in college. I have had many brilliant relatives and friends go there and be totally emotionally destroyed by the workload and general pressure-filled atmosphere (not to say that students are outwardly competitive with each other, but I think the atmosphere is more stressful and less enjoyable than what Wes fosters).</p>
<p>Also, I know you said you were aware of this, but I don’t one visit to each school is representative of the experience she will have there. I visited Wesleyan on a weekday and had a great time debating with some students over dinner, getting treated to sweet potato fries by my host at a midnight snacking session, going to a Jewish service for Rosh Hashanna, going to a “Take Back the Night” club meeting in a senior’s house where we were ate homemade biscotti on her front porch, and more. I stayed for almost two full days, met a zillion different people, and didn’t see any smoking, for what it’s worth. And keep in mind that Swarthmore has its share of debauchery as well (look up the “Gender****” dance party, for example), so I think the difference between her two overnight experiences is far greater than the actual difference between the two schools.</p>
<p>Good luck, and I hope your daughter comes to Wes!! :)</p>
<p>Eclectic represents a very specific social niche at Wesleyan. It’s probably the most “Wesleyan-y” of the social scenes, and it’s certainly a larger component of social life than it is at most schools. But it’s certainly not overwhelming in my opinion :)</p>
<p>I’m a member of Alpha Delt, which has a little bit more of a geeky kind of a reputation. We have board game nights and sci-fi-watching all the time, like you mentioned your daughter enjoyed at Swarthmore. I’m not saying this is necessarily the only place your daughter would be comfortable, but there are other scenes out there that are wonderful and different - and I’m sure she would find her place.</p>
<p>madjoy,
Yes, I know about Alpha Delt. My daughter read your post and felt she would really love it. Would you mind telling me if the eating club is open to everyone, or only to Alpha Delt members? Does Alpha Delt hold events at the beginning of the school year so that she could begin to get to know people there?
Thanks so much!</p>