<p>So i visited Wesleyan and I love the campus and the amazing facilities. The energetic vibe is also great. I just have a few questions about the student body in general. How integrated are the students at Wes? I heard there is some sort of segregation between the white population and people of other ethnic backgrounds because of the SOC; so do people from different ethnicity hang out with each other? Also is it easy to make friends at Wes and are people generally friendly and stuff? Another thing I noticed during my tour was that I saw some typical high-school "jocks" smoking and drinking on foss hill. is this a predominant element at Wes, and is there any fitting in/social hierarchy problems at the school? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>While there is some self-segregation, people of different ethnicities definitely do make friends – if you don’t want to be defined by being a SOC, international, whatever, you definitely don’t have to, though that is a choice some students make.</p>
<p>In general, it’s really easy to make friends – for the most part people are REALLY friendly. Even as a senior, I’m still meeting and getting to know new people through classes, clubs, parties, etc.</p>
<p>While there is a “jock” scene, it is just one (not that large) scene among many. There’s definitely not a social hierarchy – if you don’t want that scene (or any other), you don’t take part, and no one cares. It’s easy to avoid, since it’s concentrated in DKE and Beta. That said, plenty of the “jocks” at Wes are cool, interesting, smart people who aren’t like the high school school stereotype at all (or are at least way more complicated then the stereotype).</p>
<p>Wes has always struck me as a friendly, friendly place. There are all sorts of types here, so of course there’s going to be some self-segregation because people like to hang out with like people. In terms of race/ethnicity self-segregation, I think there is unfortunately some of that, and part of that does result from having a lot of SOC students meet each other and make friends at SOC weekend - but I think that’s more a testament to how quickly people make friends than anything else. I don’t think it’s an active, malicious force on campus, though, and everyone seemed generally happy with the friend group they settled into (though you’re always meeting new people). Then again, I’m not a SOC, so maybe I missed a terrible dynamic going on or something :(</p>
<p>One of the things I really liked about Wesleyan is that there really, honest-to-goodness isn’t a social hierarchy. I definitely wouldn’t say that the jocks are cooler than Eclectic kids, or the Eclectic kids are cooler than the Alpha Delt kids, or the Alpha Delt kids are cooler than the majority of students who aren’t affiliated with an organization that makes it easy to categorize them socially and mostly hang out in friends’ rooms and apartments and houses on the weekends. They’re all just very different crowds and a lot of people float among several of them, or find one crowd they really click with. The typical high school “cool kids” or “popular kids” just doesn’t exist. (though there are some people on campus that everyone seems to know - usually these people are interesting, outgoing, quirky characters who might not have been considered “popular” in HS at all!)</p>
<p>Thanks guys for your input. Today I saw this on Princeton Review "Demographically speaking, there are “two main molds of a Wesleyan student: the preppy New England kid and the kid…who [is] some kind of mix between a hipster and a hippie.” So is it true that the majority of the students at Wes are hippies or preps.</p>
<p>I could probably count the number of people I know that would be considered hippies on my hands. that characterization is maybe 15 years out of date.</p>