<p>2 of my friends just got Goldwater scholarships for scientific research. </p>
<p>There are great opportunities here if you choose to take them on.</p>
<p>Any place is what you make of it. It's not really my place to say if something is worth it for you or not, you have to make it worth it for yourself.</p>
<p>You could go to harvard and come out with a sub par education because of the choices you made.</p>
<p>sf606508: "I am personally a fan of family tradition, and nothing is as venerable a tradition as going to the same college of one's forefathers."</p>
<p>why? what's the logic behind this? warm fuzzies? since no one is their father/mother, and different colleges provide dramatically different experiences, academics, etc., why is this "tradition" important? to create an elitist old boys' club system?</p>
<p>Here are some facts I can remember off the top of my head from my visit to Wesleyan on Wednesday: (I was accepted, but after my visit have decided I'm not going, but that's another story)</p>
<p>Acceptance rate: 27%
Median SAT scores: 760/760/760
Students who have taken 4 years of foreign language: 77%</p>
<p>LACtransferhopes: there is a reason why 5-6% of students at wes are legacy... there is something to be said about going to the same college as one's parent. what is said about that varies from person to person, but it's as if you are giving the child a living family photo album they can add onto and make their own... if that made any sense. to each his/her own I guess...</p>
<p>Wes appeal is unique. It was a challenge to find a larger LAC that nurtures both the creative and intellectual side of the student. And find kids who are multi-talented both academically, in the arts and on the playing field - Who are also collaborative and not competitive. It is no wonder that, as President Roth said at Wesfest - the president of Universal Studios is a Wes alum, as is the kid who now has the Broadway hit "in the Heights" on Broadway, or the doctor who graduated from Wes who is also a bestselling author...it speaks
to the interesting student body and the support they get from the university to use their abilities to infuse creativity and passion into their professions and the world- whether it be through business, the arts, public policy, science and so forth.</p>
<p>enough with all the westurbation. you're all talking yourselves in circles. </p>
<p>Wesleyan != Ivy League (that's programming language for Wes DOES NOT EQUAL Ivy League)</p>
<p>You get in to an Ivy, if I was you, I would go there. The name > anything you'll learn at Wesleyan.</p>
<p>UChicago...not so much. There's no doubt it's more prestigious, but the margin is definitely not large enough that it would outweigh the benefits of Wesleyan. </p>
<p>These are (I can only speak to social sciences - History, Government, and to a lesser extent, Econ): </p>
<p>1) Extremely diverse classes for an LAC. I've looked at the course offerings of, for example, Bowdoin and Amherst, and at least in history and gov't, they don't hold a candle to Wes in terms of the diversity and breadth of subjects to study. Wesleyan has a great deal of history courses on countries outside of Europe (this was of utmost importance to me - I feel like there's only so many times you can actually learn something by rehashing the French Enlightenment), for example. If you want Ottoman Empire; British Empire; History of Latin America; India under the British; Mughal India; Russia after 1881; an entire course on Stalin, and another on Gandhi; come here. Wes' government department, while not pre-professional like Georgetown's, is also a very strong one. It takes a liberal arts-type approach to the study of political science: you get your courses on international development and political economy, but there's also lots of political theory and cool seminars on Marxist thought. As for Econ, there's an incredibly strong program here. You work hard, you will get your JPMorgan internship. I am friends with many Freeman Scholars and that's pretty much their career path post-Wesleyan: i-banking. Get serious about Econ, keep your grades above 3.7, and you're golden (Goldman?).</p>
<p>2) This diversity of classes is amazing for an LAC, which status is good because all prestigious LACs provide:</p>
<ul>
<li>smaller classes;</li>
<li>professors who spend time teaching and are accessible;</li>
<li>NO grad students/TAs, at least in all of my classes so far;</li>
</ul>
<p>which lead to you learning a great deal more, because you're actually motivated to go to class and interact with professors, which of course benefit you as well.</p>
<p>3) Wes in particular, because of its smaller size, wide course offerings, lack of required distribution requirements, and INTELLECTUAL ATMOSPHERE (can't stress this enough), further benefits students by giving students like me, who normally would take only history courses, exposure to a great deal of other disciplines through interaction with friends taking different courses of study (English, Spanish, comparative lit, philosophy, etc. etc.), which friends you'll make because Wesleyan as a smaller school fosters a great deal of social interaction with eclectic (and Eclectic) groups of people whom one wouldn't normally encounter, like Freeman Scholars, film majors, members of improv groups, theater geeks, etc. Furthermore the course catalogue is much more accessible than, for example, Brown's Mocha, which has about 4 or 5 times as many courses in it. It's easy to familiarize oneself with WesMaps and find interesting, out of the way courses that are frequently the most interesting.</p>
<p>well said krongman</p>