ramblings and stuff.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
1

<p>I'm a junior in high school (male) with a heavy interest in Wesleyan. I visited Wesleyan last year and found it to be a really cool campus and atmosphere. Middletown wasn't extremely attractive but I'm fine with it... I'm assuming the school keeps its students entertained (my only criteria in a school location was that there was an asian restaurant, which Main Street satisfies). </p>

<p>I have a few random questions. </p>

<p>Can someone describe the curriculum a little more (I've heard things from open to distribution reqs)? How easy is it to get into the classes you want to take? How is the food in the meal plans? How often do students go to New York/Boston/New Haven, etc? Whats the workload compared to a decent high school workload (4-5 AP's)? What are the most popular majors and why? How easy is it to do independent study? And... do you like going to school there?</p>

<p>Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>The curriculum is open, in that you aren’t required to take any classes other than the ones for your major. However, to get honors (and to fulfill some majors) you must complete the “general education expectations” which consist of three courses in the Humanities, three in the Social Sciences, and three in Natural Sciences/Mathematics. considering your major will fulfill one or two of these categories already, it’s not surprising that ~80% of students complete Gen Eds. in terms of course access, that varies depending on your major and the classes you try to get into. some classes are extremely hard to get into, but the electronic system Wes uses accounts for previous attempts and gives second-attempters preference. other classes you will have no trouble getting into. it really does vary.</p>

<p>the food is excellent. the variety is almost unheard of at a liberal arts college. there is Usdan campus center (all you can eat with stir fry, entrees, pasta, kosher, vegan, pizza, burgers/hot dogs, salad bar, desserts/ice cream) plus a cafe with sandwiches downstairs, WesWings (wings, burgers, salads, sandwiches), Summerfields (like WesWings), Red & Black Cafe (sandwiches, random fare), Pi Cafe (coffee, sandwiches, pastries), Star and Crescent eating club (open to all, has one set meal each lunch and dinner with a meat/veggie option), and WeShop (on campus grocery store - great selection, but expensive).</p>

<p>can’t comment on the workload - will vary. econ, gov, english, and psyc are the most popular majors. why? the majors encompass a wide range of interests (many have tracks or concentrations within the major). the sciences are also very well represented. in fact, chemistry arguably has the best camaraderie of all the majors. </p>

<p>people don’t leave campus that often (which means tons to do on weekends), but there are always some people going to the cities. it’s more a special event to do than a weekly or biweekly occurrence.</p>

<p>in conclusion, Wes is awesome.</p>

3

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I basically agree with all of this. The other thing to say about classes in the ease of getting into classes in your major increases dramatically once you get into the major. At one point, I was declared as a double major, and I don’t remember NOT getting into any classes in either major after that.</p>

<p>Also, as smartalic34 says, how hard it is in the first place will vary a lot by major. Many of my friends in math/science have no problems getting into most of their classes, whereas, say, popular English classes can be harder. But then, in a humanities major there tends to be less of a prescribed path, so not getting your first choice isn’t that big a deal. There are always more classes I’ve wanted to take than were possible every semester, and while I didn’t always get my dream schedule, I was always happy with my courses by the end of drop/add.</p>

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<p>Thanks, appreciate the replies.</p>

<p>Speaking of drop/add: how long is it? does it work well?</p>

<p>Also, do students ever do internships? Obviously Middletown isn’t a city. Are there programs in different majors that let you do things like that?</p>

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<p>A) Drop/Add lasts for about two weeks at the beginning of the semester. It’s a time where you can go to a bunch of classes to figure out which ones you like, try to get into classes that you didn’t get into during the online registration (lots of profs let in a few extra people)</p>

<p>B) Most people don’t do internships during the school year, but will over the summer, though I’m sure there are some exceptions.</p>

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<p>Drop/Add…do many schools have that? i don’t think i have ever heard of it before : P sounds awesome, though. haha.</p>

<p>also, what are the approximate sizes of classes? i’m assuming the ones at the introductory level are medium-sized?</p>

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<p>I think most schools have some sort of drop/add period (also called “shopping” periods). Though maybe at big state schools it would be too unwieldy? But yeah, I don’t know how I would survive without it.</p>

<p>Class sizes will vary. Some intro classes can get into the hundred+ (esp. intro science classes, as well as Film), but those tend to have smaller TA sessions, and the science ones have labs. Large intro social science and humanities classes tend to be more like 50-60.</p>

<p>Once you get into upper level classes, you get much smaller. I’m a film major, and have also taken a TON of upper-level Religion classes (almost majored). I think my larger mid-upper level classes have been about thirty-forty people (lecture formants), while the smallest class size I’ve had was six (which I’ve had twice).</p>

<p>I’d say most upper level seminars in humanities and social sciences range 15-19 people (though, as suggested above, you can definitely find smaller if that is something you want). Workshop-type classes (arts, writing, etc) tend smaller, especially at the advanced level. I’m not really as sure about how sciences work at the upper level.</p>

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<p>Wesleyan uses seniors/majoring students as TA’s? Are TA’s only used in the big intro classes or are they common?</p>

<p>This is a random question you might not be able to answer. I’m into visual art, so lets say I wanted paint and canvas without actually joining a class. Would my activity fee cover that? (Could I just go ask someone in the art department for supplies?)</p>

9

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Wes does use majors as TAs. They are mainly only in big intro classes, though other upper-level science classes sometimes have them, I think. Language, econ and CSS also sometimes use them (they have a different name in CSS).</p>

<p>However, TAs are not like at some Unis, where they are the main teachers. Instead, they mainly just run study sessions outside of the class, and/or are available to give students advice on papers (for instance, I had a friend who was a TA for an econ classes, which just meant that he had office hours every week for people who couldn’t make the prof’s hours or would rather go to another student).</p>

<p>I’m not sure about your other question, though my guess is the answer is no.</p>

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<p>In the sciences and some other programs, grad students or post undergrad fellows can be TA’s as well. </p>

<p>TA’s also help create and grade exams and assignments depending on the class.</p>