I know Wesleyan can’t be compared to WASP (Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and Pomona), not only in ranking but also in reputation. But I’m wondering that is Wesleyan still in the same tier with Middlebury, CMC, Carleton, Colby etc. In addition, is Wesleyan still prestigious among top law schools (Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, NYU etc.) and graduate schools?
It is difficult to take this question seriously. Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan are comparable in every way, save one. Wesleyan’s endowment per student is lower, and this has created a disadvantage in business magazine rankings that put weight on this factor. In fact, it could be observed fairly that the positive publicity Wesleyan has received for its innovations in the liberal arts education model and the achievements of its graduates have outpaced its Little Three Rivals in recent years.
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I’m not sure OP can defend his/her original premise.
I think LAC tier is more “larger” than that of national university’s since LACs are smaller (The same pool of students would spread out more since the student body is small per school). So… say that WAS (Williams…etc) takes cross admits from Brown/Penn and etc. Then the “next tier schools” like Rice, Berkeley, Emory would be on par with Colgate, Wesleyan, and etc.
I guess you are still deciding between University of Michigan and Wesleyan. But like U of M isn’t really different from Emory prestige wise, I don’t think there is much distinction on prestige between Wes and other top LAC you’ve mentioned.
Well… the ranking on US News is different indeed: with Wes in top 20 and other top LACs you’ve mentioned in top 10. But that’s only considering US News. Look up other ranking sites like Forbes (#9) and Times (#11), the results are different. Oh and btw, I was accepted to schools that are higher ranked than U of M and going to Wes.
@RMCFRAUL7 I love the way high school students create these artificial groupings of colleges. WASP? You’ve got to be kidding me.
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Who cares? I picked Wes over Williams and Middlebury and would do so again. The latter two were too isolated and the culture didn’t feel right for me. Prestige barely factored into my decision. Middlebury offered me the most aid which was tempting, but in the end I decided that a bit of money didn’t overcome Wes’ strengths.
The differences in “prestige” between top liberal colleges is an absurdly minute consideration. You’re going to feel very silly that you obsessed over this in a couple of years. Spend your time doing something more productive.
And yes, Wes is a top feeder to Yale Law School. Not sure about others because only Yale publishes statistics.
I agree with @MeltsIntoAir . Grad schools, law schools and the rest of world don’t look at schools this way. Wes is an excellent school. No one will admit to their grad school candidate A from Williams over Candidate B from Wes, just because one went to school A and one went to school B.
There is this recent grad you might have heard of… Lin-Manuel Miranda? Wes grads do just fine. Worry about fit, not prestige.
“Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came, and
The world’s gonna know your name! What’s your name, man?"
(There’s a Hamilton lyric for every occasion.)
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@Muad_dib Who is OP?
@exlibris97 lol, just like HYPSM
@OWL2021 Yes, I suppose Wesleyan’s prestige is almost the same with Michigan (Wesleyan is probably more reputable in Northeast?) But I’m wondering in terms of undergraduate teaching quality, is Wesleyan a better choice?
Wes is more reputable in the Northeast, UMich is more reputable nationwide and internationally.
If by now you still haven’t decided because you’re caught up over name recognition, you probably belong at UMich. Out of all top colleges Wes has uniquely cultivated an atmosphere of not being caught up on the cutthroat college game. You will feel out of place.
“Who cares?”
Precisely right. The question “Is Wesleyan still prestigious?” is not a good question.
Wesleyan has a bit over 3,000 students. Michigan (at least if you are talking about the Michigan I am familiar with) has about 45,000 students. They are both very good but otherwise very different. No one should ever decide between the two based on a perception of “prestige”.
OP = Original Poster
@Mintwood. True in the case of similar “caliber” schools like Williams and Wesleyan. This next article (quoted from an old thread here…) could perhaps help OP…
Quoting from different thread:
In 1997 UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law did a ranking of the toughest schools to get an “A”.
The L.A. Times ran an article 7/16/97 “Grading the Grades: All A’s Are Not Created Equal” on how the admissions dept. from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall re-formulated the law school’s applicant’s G.P.A. The formula ranked each college according to how its students perform on the standardized law board exam, the LSAT, and how common a certain G.P.A. is at that school.
The following is UC Berkeley’s rankings of the toughest schools to get an “A.”
Swarthmore 89.5
Williams 89.0
Duke 88.5
Carleton 88.0
Colgate 88.0
J. Hopkins 87.5
Chicago 87.0
Dartmouth 87.0
Wesleyan 87.0
Cornell 86.5
Harvard 86.5
Middlebury 86.0
Princeton 86.0
Bates 85.5
MIT 85.5
Haverford 85.0
Pomona 85.0
Virginia 85.0
Amherst 84.5
Reed 84.5
Vanderbilt 84.5
Wm & Mary 84.5
Bowdoin 83.5
Tufts 83.5
Vassar 83.5
Bryn Mawr 83.0
Hamilton 83.0
Oberlin 83.0
Rice 83.0
U. Pennsylvania 83.0
Clrmt. McK. 82.5
Yale 82.5
Brandeis 82.0
Northwestern 82.0
Colby 81.5
Michigan 81.5
Notre Dame 81.5
Wash. U. 81.0
Barnard 80.5
Columbia 80.5
Stanford 80.5
Brown 80.0
Georgetown 80.0
Smith 80.0
Wellesley 80.0
Emory 79.5
U. North Carolina 79.5
Whitman C. 79.5
Rochester 79.0
UC Berkeley 78.5
UC San Diego 78.5
Illinois 78.0
SUNY Bing 78.0
Texas 78.0
Trinity U. 77.5
Boston College 77.0
UC S. Barbara 77.0
Wisconsin 77.0
Florida 76.5
U. Washington 76.5
Santa Clara 76.0
Geo. Wash. 75.5
UC Davis 75.5
UCLA 75.5
Colorado 75.0
Michigan State 75.0
Boston University 74.5
Cal Poly SLO 74.5
Massachusetts 74.0
Penn State 74.0
Iowa 73.5
Purdue 73.5
SMU 73.5
SUNY Albany 73.5
BYU 73.0
Minnesota 73.0
Ohio State 73.0
Oregon 73.0
UC Irvine 73.0
Indiana 72.5
NYU 72.0
SUNY Buff 72.0
SUNY Stony 72.0
Mills 71.5
American 71.0
Arizona 71.0
Loyola Mary. 71.0
Maryland 71.0
Fordham 70.5
Kansas 70.0
Syracuse 70.0
USC 70.0
Arizona St. 69.5
CS San Diego 69.5
Catholic U. 69.5
Oklahoma 69.5
Pacific 69.5
Hofstra 69.0
UC Riverside 68.5
Utah 68.5
CS Chico 68.5
Miami 68.0
New Mexico 68.0
San Diego 68.0
CS Northridge 67.0
Pepperdine 67.0
CS San Fran. 66.0
CS Sacramento 65.0
Hawaii 64.5
Denver 63.5
CS Fullerton 63.0
CS Hayward 63.0
CS Long Beach 63.0
CS San Jose 63.0
CS Fresno 62.5
St. Mary’s 61.5
CCNY 59.0
CS LA 58.5
Howard 57.5
San Francisco 57.5
If you’re going to be wracked with insecurity in your home country over where you went to school, Michigan might be a better choice. Ann Arbor’s a great place–Zingerman’s!–albeit one that has become overrun with indigent people over past decade; during those same years, Middletown has come into its own as a pretty cool town. In every other way, I can’t imagine the undergraduate experience (unless you’re into sports or have some highly advanced, narrowly focused research you think it might be possible to insinuate your way into at Mich) being remotely comparable to Wesleyan. You will be taught by graduate students in many, if not most, of your classes. All my friends who did their PhDs at Mich taught undergraduate and graduate courses. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not the same as having the kind of professors drawn to LACs precisely because teaching takes precedence in that more intimate environment. There’s also so much opportunity to development a strong connection with the professors who will later be writing your recommendations. I won’t say you’re more likely to get into YLS from Wesleyan, but…you are–providing you have a perfect LSAT and GPA and stellar recommendations and immense luck. It’s probably not kosher to compare state school endowments with those of private schools but for the hell of it: Michigan has an endowment of $2,348/student (including the huge grad-student population); Wesleyan’s most recent year-end letter reports that the endowment is at $880 million, which puts the school at $283,483 per student (including the very small number of grad students). Not quite the $728,656 of my first college (Bowdoin) but still quite respectable. I’m somewhat unclear as to what attracts you to Wesleyan in the first place. Your concerns and careerism sound very mainstream, again suggesting somewhere like Michigan or even another LAC. Just my two cents.
I agree with @wesleyan97 on all counts except I think Mchigan’s endowment is 100 times that number ^^^ bringing it much closer to Wesleyan’s. BTW, I was surprised by this as well, played with your numbers in my head a few times and they were off so I looked it up…
You’re right, @notigeringt, it’s $234,804/student at Mich. My brain no work today 
My brain isn’t either, for a while now (different reasons than this thread…) your numbers were my numbers… but I took a shower and started multiplying 50000 students by $3000 and it was only (<---- lol) $150 million which seemed way off…