<p>My d is a sophomre at Wesleyan and absolutely loves it.</p>
<p>My s is a high school senior, and an accomplished jazz and rock musician, who has applied to Wesleyan as well as to conservatories and universities that have strong music schools. Lately he has been thinking that he may want more freedom than conservatories offer, along with the rigor of excellent teachers and classmates. Wesleyan could be a good fit.</p>
<p>He has superlative music recommendations and strong academic ones. He has taken mostly honors courses and 3 APs and has a B+/A- unweighted average. His SATs are below Wes average (650, 660, 690; SAT IIs are 710 and 670). He sent a CD of his music but did not meet with the music professors. </p>
<p>Can you comment on his chances...sibling connection; strong music but sub-average grades and SATs. Are all musicians at Wesleyan brilliant students as well? What is it like to be a musician at wesleyan?</p>
<p>I have a good friend at Wes who is a spectacular musician. In highschool he didn't have a single A, and I don't belive his school was particuarly rigorus. I'd bet a lot that his musical talent helped him get in. (OTOH, he also had 2200+ SATS...)</p>
<p>I hate to do the chances game, but I can talk a little bit about Wesleyan in general.</p>
<p>Music at Wes is really cool. The department itself is fantastic-- great jazz, world music, experimental music stuff, and the orchestra is great too. </p>
<p>There are also TONS of really fantastic campus bands. Everything from salsa to soul to bluegrass to rock to jam to alternative to acoustic to hip-hop... seriously, whatever he's into, there will be other people who like to play the same kind of music. </p>
<p>Having the resources of phenomenal professors and classes OUTSIDE of the music department is really important. I have friends at conservatories and their non-music classes are total jokes: horrendously boring, badly taught, and ridiculously easy. In my opinion, it's better to go to a school where there is a really strong music program and music scene, but where you can take interesting, well taught, and challenging classes outside of the field of music.</p>
<p>my ex-boyfriend is a music major at wesleyan. while he loves it here, be aware that the department is very strongly experimental/electronic. not to say there aren't options, but he found it frustrating at times.</p>
<p>One of my kids graduated from Wesleyan a few years ago...now a professional musician in NYC. He left Wes after freshman year to study jazz at the New School. It was a great experience, but decided to go back to Wesleyan to finish his degree. The music program is Wes is excellent..plus you get to go to school with so many amazing, interesting students. He did spend a lot of time commuting between Middletown and NYC to play gigs...but it's only a few hours. Anthony Braxton is a big draw and a strong influence on those students interested in composition.</p>
<p>Um that article discusses the dearth of fratlike parties and support for athletic teams on Midd's campus. It further says that concerts and cultural events are frequently the ONLY available option Friday and saturday nights. Read an article before posting it.</p>
<p>People are free to read an article published in a student newspaper for themselves. I said, that there was a dearth of talented performing artists at Middlebury and apparently the Middlebury student in question agrees with me.</p>
<p>How did you come to develop such an opinion? other than reading a poorly written article by some who is dissastisfied with the school in general and certainly wouldn't enjoy Wesleyan has to offer socially. Have you ever been a Middlebury student? Do you really find it productive to bash some school that the OP isn't even considering?</p>
<p>I don't know what else the general public has to go on but what students say about their own colleges. So far no one from Middlebury, including yourself, has stepped foreward to say that the writer -- who had the courage of his convictions to append his own name to a student publication -- was wrong. Only that he applied to the wrong college, probably relying on an old stereotype that USNews' mercurial swings of the pendulum did nothing to dissuade. That much we can agree on.</p>