<p>Like some of the prior posters, our son visited Wells and came away very interested. After visiting quite a number of schools, he has Wells in his top five schools--which has surprised his parents. We would be grateful for any general views from students (or their parents) on experiences at Wells. We also had two specific concerns. First, is the size of the college a problem, especially the number of men? Do students find the number of courses offered in their area of study to be too limited? Our son (currently) wants to study history and the list of courses overall and at any one time seems small.</p>
<p>Hey there,</p>
<p>I’m a current Freshman here at Wells, and I’m working as a tour guide for the admissions office, so maybe I can answer some of your questions.</p>
<p>First, I just want to say that I love it here. It’s a very different kind of college experience, but we have something really great here that most colleges can’t say that they have: a real community.</p>
<p>To answer your first question about the size of Wells: Far from being a problem, the size of our college allows us to have a lot of unique opportunities. You may or may not have heard about our Honor Code, which every student must sign her or his first year. Many liberal arts schools have one, but ours is especially unique because most students know and trust each other here, so we take the code very seriously. We can feel safe about leaving our things out in a floor lounge, leaving our doors unlocked if we are going to be in another part of the building watching TV or doing homework. The size also presents opportunities for professors, who are able to take us on field trips, which would probably be helpful for history majors. Class sizes facilitate classroom discussion (especially in majors like history and international studies, which is my major), and all of our professors know us by name. Right now we have a ratio of 70:30 women to men, but it’s expected that next year that ratio will be more even. Wells is very diverse and most of the guys here haven’t had any negative experiences because of being guys.</p>
<p>As far as courses offered, it’s rarely a problem, although some majors are being cut. History won’t have that problem, I’m sure, unless your son wants to include high-level language courses other than Spanish in his sequence. And if he does find that he wants to take a course that is not offered here, he will have the opportunity to enroll in a limited number of courses at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and FLCC through a tuition exchange sort of program, meaning that those courses would be included in his tuition fees. He would have to provide his own transportation however, or schedule his off-campus classes around the van schedule.</p>
<p>This school is a great bargain, too. I should mention this because if your son has good academic standing, he will be eligible for a scholarship. I applied to a lot of expensive schools and I feel that I am getting the most for my money here. I won’t have to worry about crippling debt after graduation like some of my friends are.</p>
<p>I want to emphasize how important it is that you visit Wells with your son. I was skeptical too until I came here to visit and stay overnight, and then I was sure that I wanted to come here, and I haven’t regretted that choice yet.</p>
<p>Molly—Thank you very much for your thoughts! We did visit Wells the other day and my son came away very impressed. I think it was the discussion based classes and the number of people who said hello to him during his tour. I know he is still concerned about the size but I could tell that he was seriously mulling Wells over. Again, thank you!</p>