Wells College vs. Drew University

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Hi, I'm torn between Drew University and Wells College</p>

<p>I'm planning on majoring in Political science and a pre-law focus. Drew University offers this UN semester which sounds really interesting, they also have this Terrorism course that I badly want to take too. But Wells also has this National Model United Nations conference and a Public Leadership Education Network. Both of them also offer a pre-law track. </p>

<p>I'm an international student so I can't really see the campus so i'd like a non-biased opinion. I heard that Wells has an amazing environment but then again so does Drew. I mean I don't really care if Wells is in the middle of nowhere, I just wanna have a quality education since that's what I'm going for. </p>

<p>I have read a lot of negative feedback regarding Drew almost about everything while Wells had lots of positive ones.
What I also like about Wells is it's affiliated to Cornell,U of Rochester and Ithaca, they allow their students to cross-enroll to those Universities. Both schools offer awesome study abroad programs too.</p>

<p>Oh and Wells is 5 hrs to NYC while Drew is 50 mins. Walmart is 20 mins away from Wells which is.. bad. I also received a scholarship from Wells but I'm still waiting for Drew's offer, if ever.
so anyway! Help! those student reviews are scaring me, I need your honest opinion about both schools. </p>

<p>Help!!!</p>

2

<p>

Anyone with a Bachelor’s degree can apply to law school. Don’t let colleges fool you into believing that you need to be on a pre-law track. It’s a marketing scam to lure prospective students. </p>

<p>

Don’t choose a college based on a single course. If the professor teaching this course leaves the university, the course will disappear as well. </p>

<p>Does it make a difference to you that Wells is so much smaller than Drew? That has social implications as well as academic ones. For example, Drew has 8 professors in political science and 16 polisci courses scheduled for next fall. Wells only has 2 faculty members teaching 4 courses. Most students would prefer the larger selection of classes and a larger group of peers with shared interests.</p>

3

<p>but in wells you’re allowed to cross-enroll to the universities they’re affiliated to if you are interested in a course. Actually I like a lot of courses offered in Drew compared to Wells, it’s just that the student reviews are scaring me and Wells got better reviews compared to drew, actually waaay better.</p>

4

<p>Which reviews are you referring to?</p>

<p>I don’t know any of these colleges personally, so all I can do is point out various pieces of data that might support one conclusion or another. </p>

<p>For example, student satisfaction is normally reflected in the retention and graduation rates: unhappy students leave the school. Drew does better than Wells on both these measures. (75% vs 69% on retention, 61% vs 39% 4-year graduation rate, 69% vs 59% on 6-year graduation). Well’s 4-year graduation rate has me worried in particular. Is there a specific reason why 1 out of every 3 students who will graduate from Wells cannot do so in 4 years?</p>

<p>Is the cross-registration program between Wells and the other colleges feasible? For example, are there regular shuttle buses or public transportation between the campuses, or would you need a car? (Wells is a 40-minute drive from Cornell, for example.) Is there a limit to the number of courses you may cross-register in? Which courses are available for cross-registration at all? (What about limited enrollment courses? Non-liberal arts courses?) </p>

<p>I graduated from Bryn Mawr, a small liberal arts college with cross-registration agreements with Haverford, Swarthmore, Penn and Villanova. I found that logistics determined how useful each agreement was. For example:</p>

<p>Haverford: a 10-minute bus ride away, shuttle buses scheduled every 30 minutes, got registration priority for limited enrollment classes, all classes available, no limit to the number of classes I could take there.</p>

<p>Swarthmore: a 40-minute bus ride away, shuttle buses scheduled every 90 minutes, could only register on a space-available basis for limited enrollment classes, some departments off-limits, at most 2 courses per semester.</p>

<p>Villanova: no shuttle buses or public transportation available, could only register on a space-available basis, had to petition for approval to take each class. </p>

<p>The net result was the following: Bryn Mawr and Haverford had about 3,000 cross-registrations per year, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore about 70, Bryn Mawr and Villanova in the single digits. </p>

<p>Since we could only register for Swarthmore classes on a space-available basis, none of the popular classes were available to us (since they filled up with Swarthmore students). Furthermore, the infrequency of the shuttle bus caused all sorts of scheduling conflicts. (e.g. to take a 11:00-12:15 class at Swarthmore, I might have to take the 9:00 shuttle to Swarthmore, and the 1:15 shuttle back. That’s 5 hours blocked off my schedule for a 75-minute class!) </p>

<p>I never even considered taking a class at Villanova since I had no way of getting there.</p>

5

<p>reviews from www dot students review dot com</p>

<p>and you’re absolutely right about the cross-enrollment thing. I should’ve thought about it.</p>