D is interested in molecular bio. major and, by all accounts, Wesleyan has a great program. D is a serious student - quiet nondrinker type looking for a diverse student body but one that is more focused on academics than activism. Would Wesleyan be a good fit?
I was also worried a bit about the perceived alcohol & activism scene before coming to Wesleyan.
But you don’t need to worry about them. While it is easy to get drinks, its not an necessity to join the party scene. The activism scene is also present. But you don’t necessarily need to be part of it (trust me, you won’t feel left out).
I personally go to the library to study on Friday nights but also easily go to the parties once every two week or so. You’ll find your friend groups here. With about 2800 undergrad students, the size allows Wesleyan to be one of the most diverse Liberal Arts College that you can find in the country.
Maybe. Maybe not. Wesleyan is a slightly larger LAC than most and the thinking is that you can have sizable numbers of all sorts of students with all sorts of interests, including political activism, occupying the same classrooms, dining hall and grassy quads. @citivas relates that his DS was perturbed by a group of students circulating a petition in the dining hall. If that sort of thing is a turn-off, you may want to look for a more politically apathetic campus.
LOL. To be clear, he was concerned going into his visit based on various stories of political aggressiveness including students convincing the student government to defund the newspaper (temporarily in the end) because it published a student op-ed they didn’t like, even though it was published right next to an opposing view. He has a political POV but that kind of attempted censorship wasn’t aligned with it. So when he went to lunch and had multiple people proactively come to his table to pressure people to sign petitions, it reinforced his existing impression. Personally I really like Wesleyan and think it would have been a great choice for him, but where he’s at is great too. Wesleyan was just a bit ahead of the curve on this kind of new attempted censorship at many LAC’s – Middlebury, Pomona, Amherst, etc. have all had similar issues. By comparison the LAC he’s at had a student group invite Dinesh D’Souza as a speaker last year and he came, spoke and went without any drama. The vast majority of students could not more strongly have disagreed with D’Souza but they didn’t try to block others who wanted to from hearing him or attempted to violently confront him or in the process give him any power by making it national news.
Well, this just reinforces my point. Direct actions at Wesleyan rarely exceed about 200 people which apparently is all it takes to get the attention of the national news media.
And, needless to say, not everything takes place on campus: http://wesleyanargus.com/2017/09/29/nine-students-arrested-for-civil-disobedience-in-protests/
My son’s experience (Class of 13) and somewhat unique to Wes vs. other top schools he considered was how eclectic it was there – meaning no dominant clique (sports, music, activism, parties, etc.) There was always a “like” group of people for whatever into. For example, amazing sports facilities but barely discussed on campus tour! He ended up double majoring in music and film, but freshman year took Calculus-based Econ, Arabic, etc.
Lastly, his network of friends from Wes routinely visited us at home and still do today…I can tell you what an amazingly interesting group of folks…sorry to gush, but truly make sure you check it out!