<p>hi! i have been accepted to the three schools and am deciding between the three. im really confused because i dont have the money to visit them. can i have an insight from anyone who has ever visited or is a student there? thanks, btw!</p>
<p>I am a Wesleyan student from the class of 2015 I was accepted into University of Virginia and was considering applying to CWR. If you want math and a liberal arts background Wesleyan might be more appealing than the other two. As far as student atmospheres I can tell you that UVA is big so you may have a hard time looking for people who might fit your interests and who you will feel comfortable with, they are there thou. Can’t say much about CWR only that it is huge on the sciences and mathematics as well as research. Wesleyan and UVA don’t stand behind in research, however, Wesleyan’s Grad School is much smaller than UVA and it focuses specifically on sciences and liberal arts where as UVa’s focuses on Law and Medicine. Either way it will come down to what kinda atmosphere you feel comfortable. For instance Wesleyan is a very laid back atmosphere, people tend to be really friendly, weird in a good way, and they party hard. You are very likely to have intellectual conversation with your roommate and classmates and be challenged academically and ideologically. It is a very liberal school, far left that its counterparts (Amherts and Williams) also lots of activism specially now with the Occupy Wall Street movement. All I can say is that it isn’t competitive and you have room to grow as an individual. UVA from what I saw during my visit is big but overall I noticed student’s weren’t as open minded as Wesleyan students. There is some diversity but it’s a diversity in terms of numbers and not in terms of interactions. It is self segregated, Asians hang out with Asians, whites with whites, blacks with blacks. So that was one of the factors that I didn’t like about it, also it is very pre professional and I felt that the school focused more on developing CEO’s, Lawyers, and Doctors than intellectuals and cosmopolitan citizens. Another thing that I didn’t like, which is something most people like about UVA, is the traditions. Personally I am not someone who likes traditions and well UVA given its long history its full of them and they can be overwhelming but from what I saw kinda fun. Not to say Wesleyan doesn’t have any but they aren’t as big as UVAs, they are however more weird and out of the ordinary. Also I didn’t feel there was a big sense of community at UVA than at Wesleyan. I am a very shy person, I immigrated to the US six years ago from Latin America, so it hard for me to communicate with people so I usually don’t approach people. At UVA I felt like I had to approach people to get to know them and even start a conversation where as at Wesleyan people engaged in conversation with me without approaching them. When I visited people walked up to me and talked to me and my student host introduced me to his friends who were very kind and talked to me. I never felt isolated at Wesleyan where as at UVA I felt a little isolated and my host was busy so he couldn’t introduce me to anyone so I was pretty much left to walk around the grounds on my own. Another thing about UVA is that you may notice is that some friends from high school that go to UVA will stay together and form clicks that are close. There are of course some groups that are open but you have to look for those. The same thing happens at Wesleyan with some foreign students but no to the extend of UVA. As far as CWR is I can’t say much so I won’t go into details with it you should ask a current student to tell u how it is. As far as students both UVA and Wesleyan are diverse you will find people of all walks of life thou the Wesleyan student tends to be more activist, more liberal, more quirky and more outgoing. UVA students tend to be more conservative, more preppy, and a little close minded there are however exceptions to the rules in both cases. Anyways hope this helps I am obviously more biased towards Wesleyan but still UVA could be what you are looking for.</p>
<p>"… I noticed student’s weren’t as open minded as Wesleyan students". After visiting both schools while looking at colleges, I am astounded by this statement. During my visit it was very clear to me (made clear during the info session and tour) that Wesleyan is a “progressive” school with all the political conformity that this entails. This may be for you, but you should visit first because Wesleyan, while a great school, has a very strong culture.</p>
<p>This thread is from April, 2011.</p>