I’ve been admitted to Uva, Wesleyan, Michigan, Wake Forest, UCLA, Boston College, and W&M. I narrowed my list down to uva and wesleyan and I need help on deciding. I’m an African American low income student, so I received great aid from both schools. Money isn’t a factor. I plan on going premed but am not sure on a major yet. I’m determined to go to med school so the school with the best premed program is an IMPORTANT factor. Also, the big/small school thing doesn’t really affect me because every school is a big school to me(my graduating class has only 30 students) I like to have FUN and thats holding me back from Wes a little bit because I heard that it’s pretty boring. Any suggestions/new information would be VERY helpful and appreciated!!
Wesleyan has been called a lot of things this past year, but, boring isn’t one of them (is it possible someone’s getting it mixed up with Virginia Wesleyan?) In fact, I’m not sure which of your choices has received the worst publicity over the past year in terms of fraternity life and partying in general. I’m betting Wesleyan’s five drug busts against UVA’s searing Rolling Stone article (which has since been discredited.) Don’t get me wrong. Wesleyan probably has the quieter campus on the weekdays, but, that’s because people there (and in NESCAC in general) tend to take their studies very seriously. Weekends, starting Thursday, are another matter entirely.
In terms of premed, I think it’s a wash. If you study hard and get good recommendations, you can get into medical school from either place.
You may want to consider geographic diversity, especially if money is not an issue. An awful lot of UVA students seem to come from the northern Virginia suburbs. There are a lot of rich kids at both places (UVA has the lowest percentage of Pell Grant recipients of any flagship public university), but at least at Wesleyan they come from 45 different states and many countries around the world.
Wesleyan. Much more diversity.
First congrats on your acceptances, those are great. Are you going to accepted student days at Wes? I think that is best so you get a feel if you will like it. A student I know went last year (also low income so got a fly in) and had a really good time with all the activities going on plus went to a couple parties. That would give you the best idea if it is a good fit for you. I think you will probably benefit from the personal attention and work with profs on research that you will assuredly get at Wes. I’m not sure if you will luck into research or not at UVA, I am less familiar with it but larger colleges have more competition among students for faculty attention.
I don’t think there really is such a thing as a ‘better premed program’ although I could be wrong, you should spend some time reading in the premed forum. It is just what 6 or 7 courses you take. Now there is such a thing as premed advising and you can start by reading the webpages on that for the two colleges.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/academic_sampler/med_school.html