<p>So, Ive been accepted by all these great schools and Im having a really hard time making a decision. Can you guys tell me whats the character of each schools student body? And also, what are some similarities and differences between these schools besides the obvious stuff like location? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Carleton - good, solid choice; quirky, yet earnest. "The Drew Carry of colleges".</p>
<p>Colgate - probably the most conventional college scene on the list; Div I athletics (unusual for an LAC); Greek letter societies; not terribly arty.</p>
<p>Grinnell - you have to imagine where they would be without a buttload of money. Best for people who really, really hate on the East Coast, the West Coast and much of the industrial Midwest.</p>
<p>Vassar - one of the most prominent brands among top LACs; when you think "artsy and quirky", you immediately think of Vassar and Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Wesleyan - like Vassar but, with more parity between the sexes; more science jocks; has competed with Amherst and Williams in the same athletic league for the last one hundred years. Middletown is a grittier host town than most of the others (though, Vassar gets a pass here only because it's not actually <em>in</em> the town of Poughkeepsie.) Quite possibly the smallest school in the country with its own music scene.</p>
<p>All of these are great schools, with kind of different feels. One thing to think about is size. Carleton and Grinell are significantly smaller than Vassar, which in tern is significantly smaller than Wesleyan. All are LACs, but Carelton is about half the size of Wes, which makes a big difference. I'm not quite sure where Colgate fits in.</p>
<p>Anyway, my impressions:</p>
<p>Carelton: Great school with a nice, quirky, supportive, intellectual student body. My friend who goes there says it has a rather "midwestern" feel, lacking east coast competitiveness and edginess. It has a tight nit student body (everyone lives in mixed class dorms, there is one central dining hall everyone eats at, etc). Very nice, cute town with pretty good access to the twin cities. It’s on the trimester system, so you should see if that is something you’d be interested in (or not). </p>
<p>Colgate: The preppiest of these colleges, with the most greek life, athletics, etc. I don't know much else. </p>
<p>Grinnell: As far as I know, a lot like Carleton, probably slightly less quirky. One of the prettiest campuses I've ever seen. HUGE endowment, but the town it is in is not as nice as Carleton’s, IMO, and it is more isolated.</p>
<p>Vassar: As Johnwesley says, known to be really artsy/liberal/activist. Though it is probably more diverse than people think (as is Wes), it will still feel "edgier" than the midwestern schools, probably. 60/40 female/male ratio. Steinway pianos in all of the dorms, plus apartment/house things for seniors. Beautiful campus, but terrible town. Closeish to NYC.</p>
<p>Wesleyan: A lot like Vassar, though with perhaps more activists and less hipsters (or so the stereotypes go). 60/40 female/male ration. At 2,800 undergrad and 300 grad students, it feels bigger than most LACs, which means slightly more autonomy, but slightly less intimate campus. Lots of cool housing options, including program houses, apartments and woodframe houses. A bigger town than the others. Two hours to NYC and Boston, ½ hour from New Haven and Hartford. </p>
<p>Do you have any particular majors you’re interested? That might help you narrow down the choices. Also check out any ged ed type requirements at each school and see if that influences how you feel in any way.</p>
<p>Good luck deciding! I go to Wes and love it, and would be happy to answer any questions you have about it. I also looked at Vassar and have a really good friend at Carleton, so might be able to comment more on those in comparison to Wes if you want.</p>
<p>A few clarifications:</p>
<p>Grinnell, with around 1500 students, is about half the size of Wes.</p>
<p>Carleton has just under 2000 students; Colgate has around 2800; Vassar about 2400.</p>
<p>The male/female ratio at Wes is 50/50.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. I meant to say 50/50 male/female for Wes...I must have gotten confused after writing about Vassar! It's funny, because on of the reasons I liked Wes more than Vassar was the more equal gender ratio :D</p>
<p>Also, those numbers are too big for Wes-- it's about 2700 undergrad and 150 grad.</p>
<p>Well, the "quick facts about Wesleyan" entry on the Wes website says 2,700 undergrads; but if you add up the number of "matriculants" for the last four years from the admissions page data, the number is actually around 2,900.</p>
<p>As for graduate students, the "quick facts" says about 200; but that number could well be outdated (see above).</p>
<p>right, but people transfer out, take time off, etc., and there aren't ever as many students in a class year as initially matriculate.</p>
<p>Yeah, I knew your were going to say that. (I'd do one of those emoticons but I don't know how.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies.:) Right now I'm between Wesleyan, Carleton and Vassar. I'm undecided about my major but I would like to have many opportunities to explore different subjects and maybe create my own major (maybe Comparative Literature).</p>
<p>I'm a high school soph who really likes a few of these schools, so I'm going to ask some questions of my own:</p>
<p>How does the social life differ between these colleges? Particularly between Wes, Vassar, and Carleton?</p>
<p>Chagilsma: Well, Wes makes it REALLY easy to explore different majors (the gen eds aren’t actually a requirements for gradation, and are easy, anyway). And it's also fairly easy to create majors (I know someone who just got one approved), and comp lit is something that would be very good here: we are very strong in English and East Asian Studies, and our Russian and Romance Language in translation classes are good too.</p>
<p>Also, have you checked out the College</a> of Letters at yet? I don't know if it’s something you’d be interested it, but it kind of relates to comp-lit and is REALLY cool if it’s the kind of thing you[‘d like, and is unique to Wes. </p>
<p>Teenage_cliche:</p>
<p>I can speak to the comparison between Wes and Carleton, but keep in mind my understanding of Carleton comes entirely from one friend of mine’s POV: I’ve never visited overnight there or anything. </p>
<p>I think as a whole there is more parting/big parties at Wes. Not that there aren’t other things to do as well (there are, I’ll get to that), but because of the presence of a couple of frats, plus the senior woodframe houses and junior apartments (everyone at Carleton lives in dorms), there are a lot more venues for really huge dance parties and fairly large drinking parties. Also, the cold during the Carleton winter does, according to my friend, make it less likely that people will leave their dorm to party unless there is something really special going on. </p>
<p>Because more-or-less everyone lives in dorms for all four years, plus there are a significantly fewer number of students, there is more mixing of the classes and general campus tightness at Carleton. People like pretension and are really chill with each other. At Wes, OTOH, campus living is more split up (dorms, program houses, apartments, houses)…this means the campus as a whole I less tight, but it is easier to find and immures yourself in your favorite group, whether that be by living with your friends in an apartment, or by joining a program house in something that interests you. That also means a lot of cool different kind of events are put on all over campus, because all program houses have open events, everything from the Prohibition Ball at well-being house to hiking with out house to making ice-cream with science house. </p>
<p>I think there are plenty of non-party things to do at both schools. I get the sense that there are more at related things at Wes (at LEAST one play every weekend, lots of dance performances, art shows, the film series, etc), and more things like everyone playing ultimate Frisbee and broomball at Carleton, but that might just be a product of what my friend tells me about (though probably not entirely, since Wes is more well known for the arts). </p>
<p>Both are schools where you won’t be pressured to drink or smoke if you don’t want to; Wes probably has a higher ratio of pot smokers to drinkers, if for some reason that matters one way or another. Both schools are rather intellectual—Carleton probably a little more so, while Wes has more activism type stuff going on. Both are schools where people will put down their books to play in the snow if it’s really delightful out. </p>
<p>Anyway, hope that helps! I get the sense that Vassar is more like Wes, but I can’t really comment of the specifics.</p>
<p>Wesleyan and Vassar approach the whole progressive college tradition from two sides of the same coin: Wesleyan was once an all-men's college that went co-ed while Vassar was an all-women's college that went the same at about the same time. Both have an appeal for residents of New York City (and, to some extent, California) who might not find the weather and emphasis on sports at other small, New England colleges entirely to their liking.</p>
<p>As a former women's college dating from the Victorian era, it was natural for Vassar to be built behind a wall. It's easy to see where Vassar ends at the outside world begins. The most protypical social venue is a castle-like dorm complete with a Steinway piano in its lounge.</p>
<p>At Wesleyan, it's just the opposite: it's more difficult to see where Wesleyan stops, even away from Wesleyan. At Wesleyan, the protoypical venue for parties is a "senior house" that has been constructed to resemble a rambling, family home, circa the 1830s (some of them are real and some have been recently built by the university.) There are porches; the front door directly lets out onto a Middletown street. And from there, students navigate the city to get from one end of campus to the other. It's a subtle difference in feel. By the time you get the know the city of Middletown, you feel more like an adult; a bit more competent to handle your own affairs -- both academic and social.</p>
<p>As Weskid said, there are parties nearly every weekend; very few are dependent entirely on fraternities. And, the new Beckham Hall concert space has already hosted some spectacular shows. Wesleyan is becoming a major venuefor the Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, independent music scene.</p>
<p>Wesleyan has offered me less financial aid than the other ones, so that might be a problem. Does Wesleyan increases its loans in the financial aid package of the following years after the first?</p>
<p>There are limits to how much your subsidized federal loans can be, and those increase with class year. It's not bad, though, and it won't go up more than that.</p>
<p>Also, financial aid can sometimes be negotiable, so it might be worth a call to the office.</p>
<p>"...everyone at Carleton lives in dorms"</p>
<p>Weskid:</p>
<p>FYI, just a clarification. Carleton actually has 10 modern townhouses on campus very similar to Wes' woodframes - a very hot ticket in the room lottery. There are also 29 college owned houses adjacent to campus available for student living, many shared-interest themed. In addition, 2 new dorms are starting construction now, one apartment-living based. Options are pretty diverse.</p>
<p>I am currently trying to decide between Wesleyan and Vassar. They seem somewhat similar. The main concern for me is that everyone I talk to always says that there are a lot of drugs at Wesleyan. How true is this, and how does it compare to Vassar?</p>
<p>1190: Thanks for the correction! That's why I warned people I was getting most of my info from a friend (and from visiting, but that was a while ago and I don't remember very well, obviously). My friend talks like everyone lives in dorms, which is obviously not true--though it is true that at least some seniors live in dorms (since my friend knows them), which is not the case at Wes, which could be viewed as a plus or a minus. </p>
<p>maxliving: That's funny, because as a prospective student, I'd heard there were more drugs at Vassar than Wes! Anyway, I think that should tell you something. As far as I've ever heard, the two are comparable. And at Wes, at least, there is probably a higher % of pot-to-alcohol use than at more “traditional” schools, but not as much as you'd think going in. Nowhere NEAR everyone does either, especially pot, and not that many do either all the time. I’d say about 40-50% of my friends smoke pot, or have at some point in the last two years, but only a few do it regularly (and even that is just a few times a week, not like 24/7 or anything). For a largish number of those 40-50%, its only a couple of times a year. Many more drink regularly (once, sometimes twice a weekend or every few weekends), but rarely to excess. A number only drink occasionally. I have a couple friends who don’t partake in anything and are perfectly happy. I don’t smoke and it hasn’t affected my life at all…if I don’t feel like hanging out with friends while they are smoking, I go find my many friends who are not.</p>
<p>As for harder drugs, those aren’t prevalent at all. I mean, you could find them if you want, and I suppose some small set of people must use them a lot (as at any school), but unless you manage to only make friends with those people no way will they effect your normal social scene.</p>
<p>Basically, although they aren’t particularly hard to find, it is also easy to avoid hanging out with all (or any) “potheads” if you’re not into that…especially if you steer clear of WestCo (not that everyone in that dorm smokes a lot, or at all, but definitely a higher % than the rest of campus). Also, I’ve experienced exactly 0 pressure to partake in any drugs: although people will often offer to be nice, people here are generally big on respecting other peoples personal living choices, and that includes the choice not to do drugs or drink. </p>
<p>So, long story short: the stereotypes are overstated. It’s easy (and not at all unusual) to have fun here without doing anything, or just drinking, or whatever you want. As far as I know the same is true for Vassar. You will know people who smoke, and you will see som people doing it sometimes (lik on the hill), but as long as you don't mind that, you won't have an issue.</p>
<p>There is pot smoking at Wesleyan. It tends to be more visible down here because milder weather tempts people to use it outdoors more than they might in Vermont or Maine and the degree to which it might get masked by alcohol use at other schools. Also, there's just a bigger party scene in general at Wesleyan than at other schools. I can't speak from experience about Vassar but I would be astonished if the situation were much different there.</p>
<p>What are 200 grad students studying at Wesleyan? I always figured it was called a university for the same as Colgate because there were 5-10 students in a masters of education program.</p>