<p>Hey, I was just wondering... everytime i tell someone i want to go to wesleyan the first response ive been getting is "DRUG SCHOOL". I've already submitted my ED II app but I was just wondering, is Wesleyan really that full of drugs? I'm not a COMPLETE prude but i am kind of skivvy about drug culture and i kind of assumed it was there at every college but is it kind of extreme at Wes?
Thanks for all input: just my nerves!</p>
<p>I got the impression when I visited overnight that it's like any school: There are going to be drugs available but there isn't pressure to do something you don't want to do. I bet there are students who could talk more about it :)</p>
<p>I was worried about that too (I applied/got in ED I), and have asked lots of people online + in person about it, and from what I can tell, drugs exist, but are definitely avoidable and not much/any bigger at Wes than at other LACs. I heard one person say, in explaining how they weren't really so big at Wes, "It's not like we're Reed" :)</p>
<p>I think Wes' reputation for being really liberal has made people think it's for crazies, but all the people I've met who go to Wes seem surprisingly "normal". (Still really smart, interesting, and friendly, but wearing normal jeans/sweatshirts and liking non-chemical-induced fun).</p>
<p>Something else I've heard a lot is that there's no social division between those who do it and those who don't, which is awesome.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!!</p>
<p>Some people choose to drink and do drugs, and some people definitely do not - and there's no pressure to do if you don't want to. There's tons to do on campus that's fantastically fun and interesting, and the vast majority of it doesn't involve any drinking or drugging. This is not something to worry about! :)</p>
<p>when i visited, there we at least 2 groups of kids, prolly 5-8 people each, smoking weed on foss hill at about 2 in the afternoon...</p>
<p>^^if you can't deal with strangers blazing on the hill, you'd be better off somewhere else. let me tell you, wes is not the place to go if you're puritannical about drug usage (puritannical about drug purity, on the other hand...). anyone who tells you different is lying to you. that's not to say that IF you go to wesleyan you MUST do drugs, but it is to say that there will be a lot of people who do - more than at competing NESCAC schools - and if you can't make your peace with that fact then your social experience is going to be a weird and awkward one.</p>
<p>it's not massive, it's not omnipresent, it's not habitual (for the vast majority), but it is definitely there.</p>
<p>other weStudents: you can correct me about the part where i said the social experience will be weird and awkward for people who can't stand drugs, but you can't correct me about the level of usage. </p>
<p>it's all part of the questioning/experimentative atmosphere. you take the good with the bad. wesleyan simply has a very different social environment from williams, amherst, state universities, and probably 99% of the other schools in the country. drugs, along with tolerance, understanding, intellectual exploration and political engagement, are all different facets of the same diamond. wes is very unique, but it's also very quirky in both good and bad ways. do the drugs outweigh the many other advantages that such an environment of freedom and exploration offers? i say no. </p>
<p>did drugs ruin the 60s? nope. but they were an important part of it.</p>
<p>I think I will correct you, mrpimpateer, about the social experience aspect. you can actively avoid drugs and will have a completely wholesome social experience. it's not awkward at all to want to avoid drugs. it's all about what "crowds" you interact with. sure you'll see people lighting up on foss hill, but even telling your friends you would rather not hang out on the hill because of the smell is okay to say. you wont be scrutinized at all for it...</p>
<p>thanks for posting that, smartalic. that's really good to hear. "you can actively avoid drugs and will have a completely wholesome social experience".
i don't mind seeing others smoke or anything (i'll probably be uncomfortable around it at first, since i'm just not used to it, but i don't dislike people who do it or anything -- i'm good friends with someone who does) even though i def wouldn't do it myself.
but it's good that no one holds it against you if you don't want to do it. i guess there are all kinds of people, and different crowds for different people, like at any school. you can be surrounded with drugs if you want to, or avoid them relatively effectively.</p>
<p>do you have to live in the subfree dorm freshman year to find people who want to "actively avoid drugs and have a completely wholesome social experience"? what dorms would you recommend? (are the butts "studious" and quiet, or just low-key and druggy? i've heard both).</p>
<p>The only person I know who attended wesleyan is now a junkie and about to enter rehab. Not saying this is everyone...just the only person I know.</p>
<p>...troll.
colorado's next senator is a wesleyan grad, along with many other "successful" people.</p>
<p>i just looked through your other posts and they were about your "crazy drunk story" that means you should be dead right now, and your interest in guys with tattoos. if your pool of friends is equally "crazy", it's no surprise that the one connection you have with wesleyan is a junkie.</p>
<p>flying_pig319: in the past, wes reslife allowed you to request a specific dorm, but because they no longer have that, dorm reputations are a thing of the past. the butts will always be "quiet" because of the physical building structure, but the people there are random now.</p>
<p>as for a dorm recommendation, I dont have any. it's a complete crapshoot anyway who lives on your hall, etc. you definitely do not, and I will repeat, do not, need to live in subfree housing to meet subfree people. it will happen on its own as you make friends. </p>
<p>I also had never been around drugs before and hadnt known any users before coming to wes, and people were completely fine when I said no to smoking at a party.
feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions</p>
<p>thanks!!! just what i wanted to hear :)</p>
<p>"...troll.
colorado's next senator is a wesleyan grad, along with many other "successful" people.</p>
<p>i just looked through your other posts and they were about your "crazy drunk story" that means you should be dead right now, and your interest in guys with tattoos. if your pool of friends is equally "crazy", it's no surprise that the one connection you have with wesleyan is a junkie."</p>
<p>Obviously you don't know what a troll is then... and this person's not a friend. He's just someone I know who went to Wesleyan. Also note that I said not every graduate is like this person. Jeeeeeeez</p>
<p>Let's consult our friend Wikipedia: An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.</p>
<p>Why would you post that the Wesperson you knew is in rehab -- surely you did not think that this would add valuable information to our conversation? No, you were just trying to be disruptive.
While it was very generous of you to assure us that not everyone at Wes is like that, it would have been nicer if you had not posted your needless little anecdote at all.</p>
<p>you asked if people do drugs there</p>
<p>100% of the people I know go there are junkies. sorry for trying to help. JERK.</p>
<p>i actually do have a dorm recommendation, but it isn't like you get to choose which dorm to live in anyway. other than the substance free hall on butt c, fauver is actually pretty tame because of the strict RAs. that doesn't mean that you won't see alcohol or drugs, just that you won't have to worry about all out dorm parties like in other dorms. i'm pretty sure that almost every frosh&soph dorm has pockets of quiet, drugs&alcohol not-so-apparent halls. great example of this is the butts. some halls are very quiet and others... well you'll find out once you get in :) the same applies to subst. free people. you'll always find some here and there. you'll find plenty, don't worry. oh, and peer pressure here is a no-no. you do what you're comfortable with, and that's that.</p>
<p>yes, stats probably say that we do more than the average LAC, but in reality it is like any other college. there are drugs here and some people do them, others don't. i think people blow it out of proportion because we are more lax than most LACs.</p>
<p>mr.pimpateer- not weStudents, Wesbians :)
phishfan0969- get more data</p>
<p>hope that helped a little. post more q's if you have any</p>
<p>Mmm, I didn't find the experience very awkward. I lived in Fauver freshman year, and I had a large group of friends from my dorm who were all totally substance free. Many of them did later choose to use some substance (in most cases alcohol), but I don't know any of them who have had any problems with abuse, and some of them still live substance-free lifestyles.</p>
<p>I agree with the assessment that it's not a good idea to go to Wesleyan if you're completely not OK with other people using drugs: you will see other people using, and at Wesleyan, people like to be free to make their own decisions about their lifestyle. Wesleyan students don't like other people judging their behavior, and so telling someone who is using but not abusing drugs to stop will probably make them annoyed. (Unless you just ask them to take it out of the room - in which case they will almost always oblige).</p>
<p>However, I didn't find it at all awkward/weird to not use substances myself. Freshman year, I would just go to frat parties etc. and not drink - it was never a problem, and I never felt like anyone was judging me for it. Freshman year was still awesome.</p>
<p>Also, as for nowyouknow's advice: which dorms have strict RAs and which dorms don't changes every year. When I was a freshman in Fauver, one of the RAs was worse than the students and even gave his residents alcohol (he eventually got fired). It was one of the biggest/craziest party dorms that year.</p>
<p>Wow.
Yeah I know there a a fair amount of drugs at most american universities but thanks a lot for your input! I'm totally ok with drinking because where I live a lot of people do it. Just kind of skivvy about drugs because I've never been exposed to it before. I'm glad that wes is really liberal!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I agree with the assessment that it's not a good idea to go to Wesleyan if you're completely not OK with other people using drugs: you will see other people using, and at Wesleyan, people like to be free to make their own decisions about their lifestyle. Wesleyan students don't like other people judging their behavior, and so telling someone who is using but not abusing drugs to stop will probably make them annoyed.[/qoute]</p>
<p>I agree with this 100%. But the great thing about it, is it cuts both ways: people who do partake also tend not to judge those who don't. It's a very live and let live enviorment, and most people I know have friends who both do and don't do drugs and/or alchohal.</p>
<p>I went to Wesleyan, loved it, and never touched drugs or cigarettes. Make no mistake, Wesleyan students are serious about academics and getting their work done, if some of them want to wind down the day by smoking weed then that's fine by me. That being said, I really think the "druggie school" image is really exaggerated.</p>