Haverford Vs Wesleyan

I want to learn more about the differences between Haverford and Wesleyan. I’m looking for a diverse liberal arts school strong in both academics and athletics. I know Wesleyan is very diverse, but is Haverford diverse too? Is it homogenous like other nescac schools or does it have a different vibe like Wesleyan? Also, which school has a better math/Econ department? Are both schools well connected in Boston, NYC, Philly, etc in the business world? Which is more connected? Which school has a stronger sense of community? Building off that point, does Haverford seem too small? I’m coming from a small prep school in MA, so I think 350 students per grade wouldn’t feel too small.

Thanks

I can’t answer all of your questions, but it is a lot faster to get from Haverford to Philly than it is to get from Wesleyan to Boston or NYC.

Also, both have great reputations, at least in the northeast.

I don’t really have any experience with Wesleyan, but I can tell you that Haverford is anything by homogenous. It also has a very different vibe than any other college I’ve seen. The students are very loyal to their honor code, and they are self-governed and disciplined. There is a huge sense of community there, and the students are very open and accepting.

Philadelphia is very close, and there is a train station very close by the college, making it easy to visit the city. Students can get discounted tickets as well.

It is a very small school, but because it is so closely linked to Bryn Mawr, there are many opportunities to take classes outside of Haverford, as well as to join clubs and meet other people at another college. Swarthmore and Penn are also available for taking classes. You will get to know your professors very well, and even though there aren’t a lot of students, you will still find your niche with a group of friends who share your interests.

Hope that helps!

I think Haverford values a stronger sense of community than Wes. They are more mainstream than Wes, but not completely so. Wes is pretty unique. Haverford has Bryn Mawr nearby for social activity. I’d try to visit both in the fall. Sit in on classes, go for a tour, eat in the cafeterias.

If you’re looking for a job on Wall Street, Wesleyan is not the right choice. Lots of highly intelligent kids, but this is a “learning for learning’s sake” school and not pre-professional.

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@Deaston , I’m not sure where you are getting the notion that Wes is not regarded on Wall Street. Sure it is, and there are plenty of surveys that demonstrate that. FWIW, I work in NYC and interact with a lot of people who work for investment banks, private equity, hedge funds, VC’s, and since my S was almost exclusive looking at LAC’s I made it a point over the last 18 months to ask anyone I could what they perceived of various schools. Wes was actually one of the ones mentioned the most among the LAC’s, particularly by the VC people. Of course AWS (and to a lesser extent here on the East Coast, P) always come up too, but after that Wes was the most referenced LAC my experience. That’s nothing official, but it was my cumulative impression of their brand in NYC business.

In any event, both great schools. But very different. Wes has more than twice as many students at Haverford. Haverford is in a nice suburb of Philadelphia, Wes in a working class suburb of Hartford. Haverford emphasizes its student honor code, Wes it’s strong sense of student independence. Wes has far more majors and classes to chose from due to its size (not counting the majors available to H students at Swarth and Bryn that you can do if you don’t mind traveling to the other campuses – easy for Bryn, not so much for Swarth). On that note, H does have the tri-college consortium and Wes does not. H is 20 minutes to Phily and 2 hours to NYC. H is 2 hours to NYC or 90 Boston.

In particular if you are interested in media or performing arts, Wes is probably the strongest LAC in the country. It’s film studies is renowned, it’s theater program graduated the creator of Hamilton, its world music studies are well known. It publishes a student paper twice a week (most LAC’s are weekly, some even monthly – I don’t recall which for H). It has a ton of student music groups, and the college actually dedicates a stand-alone building on the heart of campus to a totally student-run theater group that puts on about 30 shows a year. If you like theater at H you’ll need to be commuting to BM for it. Similar with music.

On the other hand, Wes keeps ending up in the press with stories about hard drug abuse and “politically correct” scandals (they temporarily defunded the student paper after students protested an editorial by a student and former vet who was mildly critical of BLS, arguing it was offensive to even give such an opinion voice even if they offered to print rebuttals). Every school has substance abuse and “safe space” issues to some degree, but Wes gets disproportionate attention for it. There’s a saying about where there’s smoke, there’s fire…

I think H is awesome, BTW. There’s an amazing sense of community and very strong academics. It’s just more narrowly focused because of it’s size. The tri-college option (plus Penn) broadens those options but it’s not the same as having it all on campus. But for what the OP said they were interested in, it shouldn’t be an issue.

You can’t go wrong either way. Both are just as likely to lead to jobs or professional schools. But they culturally will be pretty different experiences.

Here’s a pretty recent post elsewhere on this forum about the best LAC econ programs, since the OP mentioned econ and math as their main interest:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1837826-best-liberal-arts-colleges-for-economics-p1.html

And here’s one for math:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1692361-best-liberal-arts-colleges-for-mathematics.html

I wouldn’t get too caught up on rankings but on a quick look it seems Wes is better known for econ and Haverford for math. I’m sure both are great all around though.

Haverford (as well as two NESCAC schools, Bowdoin and Hamilton) appears in a Princeton Review category, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.” Though the category appears to be in no way definitive in its compilation, Haverford is included as one of only 26 schools from among colleges and universities nationally.