Campus Visit Tour: Penultimate Stop Wesleyan

Parents Forum
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<p>This morning we drove approximately 30 minutes from New Haven (a city of approx 150,000) to Middletown (pop 45,000), a primarily manufacturing town that has undergone a renaissance in the downtown area in the past several years, largely as a result of Wesleyan’s donations of $$$ and brainpower. There are certainly some not so nice parts of town, but the downtown area had several little restaurants and could be walked to from campus. Wesleyan has established an office for community relations in the downtown area to reflect their commitment to their community.</p>

<p>Wes (as Wesleyan is called by the students) has 2600 undergrad students, about the same as Vassar. The campus is truly lovely and beautifully manicured. The architecture is eclectic to say the very least. One original building (South College, built in 1825) remains and was originally a military school prior to the founding of Wes. There are many buildings from the 1800’s, one a memorial to students lost during the Civil War and one which houses the Philosophy Dept. The President’s house (he lives on campus and holds weekly meetings with Wes students) is Italianate architecture. The Center for Fine Arts (CFA in Wes parlance) is a very peculiar complex of 11 buildings connected below ground (can you tell I listened to our tour guide?). No offense to admirers of the architect, but it frankly looks to me like concrete bunkers from the outside. We did not tour the inside, but I understand that the performance spaces, galleries, and cinema are top notch. With the exception of this group of buildings, Wesleyan fit my imagined picture of a New England liberal arts school to a T. The campus has its hills (Foss Hill) for sledding, lots of trees which should be gorgeous in the autumn, stately Greek Revival buildings, and a large central field which becomes a football field in the fall and baseball diamond in the spring.</p>

<p>Freshman dorms are standard doubles, some freshman only, some with upperclassmen as well. The dorm we toured was spic and span clean, if mundane. All freshmen eat in dining halls. Upperclassmen (mostly soph and jr) may live in dorms in singles, doubles, or quads. Seniors may live in houses which have multi-room apartments and are maintained by the college. 95% of the campus including dorms, houses, etc is wi-fi, a feat I’ve only seen at Columbia.</p>

<p>Academics are very strong, especially in the sciences, poli sci, government, English and Econ and there are some very competitive interdisciplinary majors that encompass multiple related majors: government + econ + history, e.g.. Wes has a few Masters and scattered PhD programs, mostly in the sciences with an unusual PhD in Ethnomusicology. Film/cinema is a VERY popular major with approx 30 majors/year. Students who are selected for and choose to stay for a 5th year for an MS are apparently fully funded. Undergraduate research in the sciences is very common, even for freshmen, and approx 60% of publications are co-authored by undergrads. 40 to 45% students double major, many in widely divergent fields (one tour guide was a jr majoring in physics and dance)…there are no minors but some concentrations and certificates. Wes has no “core curriculum” or distribution “requirements”, but “strongly encourages” their “General Educational Expectations.” These are 3 courses in each of 3 groups: math/natural sciences, humanities and arts, and social and behavioral sciences. These are not required to graduate, but are required for Honor’s and 80% students complete them. My D was really encouraged by the ease of the double major. And there are approx 20 music majors/year including performance majors…probably a critical mass to have a good program. </p>

<p>Wesleyan students described themselves as “politically active”…a euphemism for left-leaning and multi-faceted. Several students were on athletic teams or played intramural athletics and acted in plays and sang in a capella groups. </p>

<p>Like Williams and Vassar, Wes has a commitment to diversity articulated by the adcom and its literature. Approximately 22% students come from historically URM groups (8% AA, 8% Asian/Pacific Islander, 6% Latino) and 6% International students. Still a pretty small number, but I guess for a school that costs $42K to walk through the door, this is expected. 40 to 50% students study abroad, usually for a semester, in one of 5 Wes-run or 150 Wes-sponsored programs in any area they desire (not necessarily in their major). Financial aid is portable. Internships are available too.</p>

<p>Admission is need-blind and Wes meets 100% demonstrated financial need as defined by Wesleyan. Like at Williams, approx 45% of the students receive financial aid with amounts that may change yearly. The average indebtedness of a graduating senior is a bit below the national average (per the adcom) at around $22K. That’s pretty high, in my book, especially for pre-professional students. There is no merit aid.</p>

<p>My D really enjoyed her interview with a rising senior describing it as more conversation than interview. The interviewer carefully reviewed her resume and asked her questions about many points on it. They then discussed current events and laughed quite a bit, according to her. My take on Wesleyan? Please don’t say anything to her because she would have to take the opposite position on principle, but I loved Wesleyan. Tomorrow, thank heavens, is the last campus visit to see Penn. I’m looking forward to my own bed, my own cooking, even feeding the dog and cats.</p>

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<p>Quiltguru: In that you're traveling in the summer, did you get to see many actual Wes students milling around? My daughter really liked the school when we visited 5 years ago, and it was one of her top choices, but over the last few years, its reputation seems to be that the students have become more and more way out (lots of body piercings, multicolored hair, other kinds of extreme appearance), and a reputation for heavier than typical drug use. One of my son's very good friends turned down the school because of these reasons, as did the daughter of my friend whose older sib graduated from there in '04. (The first girl is headed for Tufts, the other applied ED to Vassar). I'm interested to know if those qualities of the student body were in any way apparent to you on your visit.</p>

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<p>No really way out people today; we saw a boy with blue hair, but we see these all the time in Ann Arbor. We actually know 3 students from my D's HS who attend Wes and who have told us that drug use is no more present than at other schools and that they have never had issues with it.</p>

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<p>That's good to know. As I said, it seemed like a terrific place to us.</p>

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<p>Quiltguru:</p>

<p>My S and Garland's D both graduated from Wes last year. There are distribution requirements. In fact, my S realized in his final year that he needed to take one more science class; he thought he'd fulfilled all his gen ed requirements much earlier. He also maxed out in his major and yet was expected to take a seminar in that major, so he had to jump through quite a few hoops to get some classes relabelled. Apart from these problems, he enjoyed his time at Wes and had some great profs and some great classes. He really grew intellectually there.</p>

<p>My S is a non-smoker, no-drinker. He had no trouble avoiding the drink and drug scene. On several occasions, he and friends went off campus to have drinks and he was the designated driver. In his second year, he moved into a substance-free dorm. In his final year, he lived in an apartment with 9 other students. His room was so small that when he got up from his desk, his chair hit his bed. His closet was tiny. It was the smallest room he'd been in. </p>

<p>There's quite a bit of campus activism. Wes is famous for the chalkings whereby gays/lesbians try to attract attention to their concerns by writing provocative (and sometimes downright obscene) messages in chalk in front of buildings. I believe chalkings were banned just before my S started. He did not report it as a concern. I think a truly conservative student might feel rather isolated at Wes, but a left of center one would feel quite comfortable and would not feel pressured to join activist groups.</p>

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<p>When we visited Wesleyan it seemed unclear as to whether or not there truly were distribution requirements. Our tour guide told us that there were, but students could petition to get out of them easily. Very confusing.</p>

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<p>Regarding the Center for the Arts, check out the architects' website. Go to PROJECTS-->THEATERS AND EXHIBITION-->CREATIVE ARTS CENTER, WESLEYAN, for interior shots of the buildings.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.krjda.com/flash.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.krjda.com/flash.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Regarding distribution expectations, from the Wesleyan website:</p>

<p>General Education Expectations</p>

<p>"The inclusion of courses that fulfill Wesleyan’s general education expectations is vital to the student’s educational experience at Wesleyan. To assist in the experience, the faculty has divided the curriculum into three areas: natural sciences and mathematics (NSM), the social and behavioral sciences (SBS), and the humanities and the arts (HA). The faculty has assigned a general education designation to a course when appropriate as well as established a distributional expectation for each general education area. In consultation with their advisors, first-year and sophomore students are encouraged to select courses from all three areas to experience the full dimension of intellectual breadth vital to a liberal education.</p>

<p>General education courses in the natural sciences and mathematics introduce students to key methods of thought and language that are indispensable to a liberal education as well as to our scientifically and technologically complex culture. They are intended to provide scientific skills necessary for critically evaluating contemporary problems. These courses apply scientific method, utilize quantitative reasoning, and enhance scientific literacy. They also provide a means of comparison to other modes of inquiry by including historical, epistemological, and ethical perspectives. The Natural Science and Mathematics departments have made special efforts to design and present a variety of courses that meet these objectives and are appropriate for future majors in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, as well as those interested in majoring in one of the natural sciences or mathematics.</p>

<p>General education courses in the social and behavioral sciences introduce students to the systematic study of human behavior, both social and individual. They survey the historical processes that have shaped the modern world, examine political institutions and economic practices, scrutinize the principal theories and ideologies that form and interpret these institutions, and present methods for analyzing the workings of the psyche and society.</p>

<p>General education courses in the humanities and the arts introduce students to languages and literature, to the arts and the mass media, and to philosophy and aesthetics—in short, to the works of the creative imagination as well as to systems of thought, belief, and communication. These courses provide both historical perspectives on and critical approaches to a diverse body of literary, artistic, and cultural materials.</p>

<p>The general education expectations are divided into Stages 1 and 2. The expectation for Stage 1 is that all students will distribute their course work in the first two years in such a way that by the end of the fourth semester, they will have earned at least two course credits in each of the three areas, all from different departments or programs. To meet the expectation of Stage 2, students must also take one additional course credit in each of the three areas prior to graduation, for a total of nine general education course credits. Advanced Placement and transfer credits do not meet Wesleyan’s general education expectations. However, courses taken prior to matriculating at Wesleyan may be considered for general education equivalency credit for transfer students. Students may also request in advance that individual courses taken on an approved study-abroad program or a sponsored domestic study-away program be considered for equivalency. Courses taken on Wesleyan-administered study-abroad programs or through the Twelve College Exchange are coded for equivalency.</p>

<p>When a course has multiple general educational area assignments (NSM, SBS, HA), a student must select one general education area assignment by the end of the drop/add period. Student forums and individual and group tutorials never carry a general education designation.</p>

<p>A student who does not meet these expectations by the time of graduation will not be eligible for University honors, Phi Beta Kappa, honors in general scholarship, and for honors in certain departments."</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification, jiminy!</p>