<p>I am looking at Environmental Studies and International Relations (in Midd's case, it's called International Politics and Economics) majors in both schools. </p>
<p>Adv Midd:
1. Very good Enviro Studies program
2. The great Lang Sch
3. Great food I heard!
4. Hot guys available</p>
<p>Disadv Midd:
1. Too remote, difficut to get out or get in
2. Too cold
3. Not as famous internationally as Wellesley</p>
<p>Adv Wellesley:
1. IR good?
2. Famous
3. Accessible to Boston, Harvard and MIT</p>
<p>Disadv Wellesley:
1. All girls (not sure if I can handle that)
2. Too cold (maybe a little bit better than Midd?)</p>
<p>If anyone has the chance to experience both schs, pls let me know which one you think is better!!!</p>
<p>Regarding your disadvantages, I think being in cold weather is something you will have to deal with no matter where you choose so that point is moot. </p>
<p>Both schools are smaller colleges so you’ll get a more personal education no matter where you go. The Wellesley IR program is pretty strong; refer to another thread on here for more specifics about the program – my other post was pretty detailed and I don’t want to type it all out again. The ES department here is very small but very close knit. All the majors within the department know each other and the professors are all very helpful and at Wellesley to teach students about their subjects (I feel like I can say that about any professor at Wellesley).</p>
<p>Middlebury does have very good language programs. You could elect to do their summer language program for a summer; many girls at Wellesley choose to do that and their full immersion program definitely improves their language skills tremendously.</p>
<p>I think your decision will boil down to location and co-ed vs. all womens. Middlebury is more isolated; depending on where you’re coming from, you may have to transfer through multiple airports or take some buses, etc to get to campus. Wellesley is located in a suburb of Boston, which ultimately is pretty convenient. Boston is a great airport; pretty much everywhere flies into and out of it. You can take public transportation to campus via the Silver line on the MBTA and the commuter rail or you can take the bus from Boston that Wellesley has. That being said, we are located with proximity to Boston. So while you may be concerned with the all womens environment (and most people coming in are), you have Boston with thousands of other college students right at your doorstep. You can find a good balance if you choose to. Pretty much everyone I know came from a co-ed background and had mostly male friends in high school, and we are all surviving at Wellesley so you can too!</p>
<p>I think welles10 gave a great reply, but I’ll give my input anyway.</p>
<p>I had a lot of male friends in high school, but I’m still loving Wellesley. I’ve made some valuable friendships here at Wellesley, but I’ve also made some other valuable friendships at MIT, too. I don’t think I would have been able to get that kind of inter-school socialization if I went to another school. While a co-ed school would have been fine, it wouldn’t have forced me to go outside the bubble and explore other areas. While I love Wellesley, I am inspired to go off campus and meet other people every once in a while. I must go off campus about 3 times a week. Of course, this varies depending on the person (some people always stay on campus) but having the options to do what I like is always a bonus.</p>
<p>For my daughter, the all female thing was a positive feature, not a defect. She liked being able to roll into class in a tee shirt and sweats, and having the focus be on what thoughts she had. </p>
<p>That said, I think the all female thing at Wellesley depends a bit on the individual. Male female interaction tends to be moved to environments like parties. That gives an edge to women who are physically attractive and outgoing; that creates issues for women who are not so physically appealling or who are shy. Watching my daughter’s friends go through their time, the all female thing seemed to be more an issue for those who didn’t like or who didn’t do well in environments where the first impression was critical.</p>
<p>On a related point, sometimes when people focus on the single gender thing at Wellesley they fail to note how diverse the student body is in other respects. With regard to studying international relations, thing about whether you think it might matter that an unusually high number of Wellesley undergraduates come from overseas. When discussing international issues, the class discussion will vary when 20 percent of the students are not US natives, and bring their viewpoints to bear.</p>