<p>I'm really interested in several NESCAC schools, and I'm wondering how open the Wesleyan campus community is to people with strong religious beliefs. Is it open and welcoming? Skeptical? Hostile? How would you characterize life at Wesleyan for a religious person?</p>
<p>Wesleyan is very open to people with strong religious beliefs. I would say that no matter what your belief system you will find a sub-community of fellow believers with whom you can hang out. It seems to be pretty open-ended. My son, who is a sophomore and not Jewish, attended a Passover Seder last spring and loved it. The website describes Wesleyan’s various religious communities in some detail:</p>
<p>[Welcome</a>, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/orsl/]Welcome”>Welcome, Office of Religious and Spiritual Life - Wesleyan University)</p>
<p>As you will see, Wesleyan has four chaplains: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. In addition, there are on-campus services for all four of these groups plus Unitarians, Buddhists and Quakers. Some of these groups have services in Memorial Chapel, one of the most beautiful buildings and located in the middle of the campus on College Row.</p>
<p>There are also a number of student “Identity Groups” at Wesleyan, including:</p>
<p>Wesleyan Association of Christian Thinkers<br>
Multi-Cultural Campus Ministries (MCM)<br>
Catholic Student Organization<br>
Wesleyan Christian Fellowship<br>
Interfaith Justice League<br>
Muslim Student Association (MSA)<br>
Unitarian Universalist Campus Ministry<br>
WesChristian Connect </p>
<p>Wesleyan also has an outstanding Department of Religion. [Welcome</a>, Religion - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/religion/]Welcome”>Welcome, Religion - Wesleyan University)</p>
<p>Two of my roommates were Religion majors and one of them went on to become a very distinguished professor of religion.</p>
<p>Although Wesleyan was originally founded by Methodists (hence, the name “Wesleyan”), it officially became fully independent of Methodist administration in the mid-1930s, though a certain Methodist influence lingered tiil the early 1950s.</p>
<p>So I can say without hesitation that a person of strong religious beliefs will feel quite welcome at Wesleyan.</p>
<p>I’m not a student at Wes, but I’m applying ED and it looks to me like the students are mostly very liberal and the majority of the population is agnostic/atheist. However, they seem to be accepting of everyone and won’t look at you cross eyed if you are religious. That’s just what I’ve read. I’m applying ED and I’m not super religious, but I believe in God and I go to a Catholic school.</p>