<p>how important does everyone think sports and social life is at wesleyan? other LACs? I go to a medium-sized private school in NYC where social life and sports are huge, in addition to academics. im wondering how much i may see of it if i go to wes or somewhere else in the future. what do you all think?</p>
<p>Sports and social life are not necessarily the same thing at Wesleyan. Weskids consider themselves among the most fun-loving students in the country and will often concoct fanciful excuses for having a party. But, I would say, sports in general take a backseat to academics and probably politics. How does this differ from other LACs? I would say, it's pretty different from, say, Colgate and to some extent, Williams. But, not much different from Swarthmore and Pomona. The problem with LACs (and I suspect private high schools as well) is that it's tough to draw the line right down the middle; they either recruit so many bodies to field 20-30 varsity teams that the entire college leans toward sports or, they go in the opposite direction and actually have cut teams in order to make room for more musicians, artists etc. Wesleyan has it about right, in my opinion. Football is still played right in the middle of campus just as it was a hundred years ago; so it will be hard to miss. And there were pretty decent records this year in lacross, swimming, track, and women's basketball and Wes often does well in crew, baseball and wrestling. But, most people regard them as interesting extracurriculars that a large number of classmates participate in--even excel in--but, not much more than that.</p>
<p>Ahh. Sounds great to me. At my high school, it's not as if athletes are made to be celebrities, to any extent. Although we do have senior Pedro Alvarez, who will play at Vanderbilt next year and expected to go in the MLB Draft's 3rd Round this year. He's also #1 in the state of NY. But even he is not so much of an exception. I know that I liked Wesleyan a lot because it was able to integrate all of these things pretty well. Swarthmore, for example, cut its football team because they feared that recruiting football players would compromise their intellectual atmosphere and selectivity. Nor is Wes necessarily a place for your common meathead. Fun loving, smart, active students. woot woot. Thanks so much, johnwes!</p>