<Wesleyan vs. Carleton> + big picture of Wes?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
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<p>Dear all,
I NEED TO PICK ONE.
Will you help me differentiate, pleeeease? (puppy eyes)
I'm not sure if my impression of Wesleyan is true, so correct me too... </p>

<p>These are my perspectives on the atmospheres/feel:<br>
Wesleyan seems artsy, alternative, and hip. nonconformist students<br>
Carleton is just laid-back, easygoing, accepting, Midwestern nice with a quirky sense of humor. </p>

<p>Academics/future:
* Which school sends more students to "renown" graduate schools?
While I am passionate about art(thus Wesleyan), I'm mostly concerned about my direction towards professional field such as law and business. Carleton seems very academic focused. According to my mommy and daddy, if i go to Wes, I'll get distracted by all these "avant-grarde artsy kids"(bcs I am one) and end up majoring in Film. which they will KILL me for. Hmph. So which school would you say better prepares its students for grad schools in those departments? </p>

<p>Prestige:
it seems as if no one's heard of Carleton. Like ever. Wesleyan is in New England, so it should count more??? How is the reputation of Wesleyan? </p>

<p>Easier admission: which is more selective? Ultimately, I will apply to whichever is easier to get into. Since my hook is artsy, creative, iconoclastic girl, would you say Wes would be harder for me? </p>

<p>.... I have NOWHERE else to ask. So, naturally I turned here. I'm from Chicago, and no one around me knows anything about these two great LACs. They all wonder why I want to go to such small schools no one's heard of, but those people really don't know anything, right? </p>

<p>:/</p>

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<p>Hey there. I go to Wes (ED), one of my bests friends goes to Carleton (and I looked at it). I think you pretty much have the general differences in feel right (except that I wouldn’t call Carleton “much more” academically focused than Wes (as you did in your other thread about this), just “a bit more”…we’re pretty academic as well). I would also add activist to your list of adjectives about Wes…as much as we’re known for hipsters, we’re known for hippies too! A few more things for you to consider: </p>

<p>--Wes has about 1,000 more students than Carleton. This makes a difference. From talking to my friend and my own experiences, this gives Carleton more of the classic LAC “really tight community” feel, while Wes feels slightly bigger. I preferred the latter (Wes was the PERFECT size for me), but for some Carleton’s size provides what they are looking for more.</p>

<p>--Weather. Carleton is awesome, but are you sure you want to continue the super-harsh winters? That was one of the main reasons Carleton wasn’t one of my very top choices. OTOH, from what I’ve heard Minnesota winters are prettier than Connecticut ones, so if you like cold you might prefer sunny but cold Minnesota winters to the slushy, greyer New England ones.</p>

<p>--Trimester vs. Semester system. Carleton is on a trimester system. Have you looked into that? Some people really like it, others prefer the more traditional semester system. </p>

<p>--In terms of grad school placement, I don’t know the stats. But we both do very well, and both are very respected (my mother is a prof at a top 15 uni, and many of her colleagues were very impressed that I was going to Wes and think very highly of it—including one saying it was a better choice than Brown. I’m sure the same is true for Carleton). For the people who matter in terms of grad school placement, both are viewed well.</p>

<p>The two schools are also compared more here (along with some other schools, which might also interest you): <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/495531-carleton-vs-colgate-vs-grinnell-vs-vassar-vs-wesleyan-help.html?highlight=carelton#post1060215558%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/wesleyan-university/495531-carleton-vs-colgate-vs-grinnell-vs-vassar-vs-wesleyan-help.html?highlight=carelton#post1060215558&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I really don’t think you should chose to ED based on which you think you are more likely to get into. They are both great schools, and I think most people who would be happy at one would be happy at the other, but they definitely have a difference in tone (the artsy vs. laidback thing you’ve picked up on) that makes one more right than the other for most people. If you haven’t gotten a chance to visit them (preferably with overnights), I’d suggest RDing. </p>

<p>I will say that being artsy/creative/iconoclastic will not make you stand out in the Wes applicant pool in terms of being a hook…OTOH, if you have the stats to get in, it might make the adcoms think you’d be a really good fit here, and therefore give you a space :D</p>

<p>(If you need suggestions for matches and safeties in the same vein, feel free to PM me…as I said, I liked both of these schools a lot, so you’d probably like many of the other schools I liked as well). </p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

<p>PS. Majoring in Film at Wes is not so bad…we do have one of the best programs in the country ;) In fact, it is one of the most difficult majors at the schools and very academic. It’s also one of the most difficult majors to get into, so your parents can rest assured that you won’t stumble into it by accident! [/film major] </p>

<p>PPS. Also, while Wes does have that avent-garde artsy flavor, the whole school is not like that...there is plenty of balance between artsy, dorky, quirky, activists, mainstream, etc. The student body is also very accepting.</p>

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<p>weskid, thank you sooooooooooo much for your generous help!!! :) :) :) i found your answer above and for my other thread extremely helpful YAY i love CC!</p>

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<p>starbucks: So glad to help! If you have anymore questions about Wes, feel free to ask (here or in a PM)--I'd love to answer if I can :D</p>

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<p>One thing you should think about is where you want to end up after you finish college. If you want to go back to the Midwest Carleton deserves a little extra consideration. This isn't a deal breaker, but this is a piece that not many students think about.</p>

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<p>When I studied abroad, there were about 6 Carleton kids on my program (since it was run by St. Olaf, which is kind of a "sister school" to Carleton in a way, though it has a completely different atmosphere), so I got to hear a lot about what the school was like.</p>

<p>To begin with, they're not all that different in a lot of key ways. Of the students in my study abroad program, the Carleton kids seemed to have had the most similar college experience to my own.</p>

<p>That said, a lot of WesKid's assessments are right on: Wes is a little bigger (which I think is nice; especially by the time you're a senior, it's great to still be able to meet some new people sometimes), the weather is different, and the trimester vs. semester thing is a big difference that a lot of people don't think about when applying to schools.</p>

<p>Wesleyan doesn't tend to offer pre-professional programs specifically, but the CRC is great at directing kids toward law school and business school. (By the way: law schools don't just want to see pre-law kids. For example, someone I knew here from Wes Amnesty Int'l was a film major who is currently attending Columbia Law, a top law school.) If you want to get into law school, a Wesleyan degree will help you. Then again, a Carleton degree probably would, too. But as WesKid said, don't discount film at Wes. A degree in film from Wesleyan is actually about as good a bet at success as anything; the Wes film alum network is rumored to be extremely helpful.</p>

<p>Also, I think the reputation is slightly off. While Wesleyan definitely has a little more of an urban/hip/LA-NYC kind of feel, possibly from its proximity to New York City, making it a bit less outdoorsy/preppy/New-Englandy than a lot of top LACs, the hipster thing doesn't pervade the campus. Maybe the campus music scene, but to fair, the somewhat hipster popular Wesleyan bands are actually pretty good (MGMT has gotten pretty big, and Boy Crisis and Bear Hands and Red Wire Black Wire are on their way up). But seriously, the campus is much more diverse than that; that vibe tends to be focused around Eclectic (a literary society). Overall, there's certainly a liberal atmosphere, but it's not overly artsy.</p>

<p>In fact, there's a huge science contingent. Of liberal arts schools, we have one of the best (possibly the best?) scenes for undergraduate science research. It doesn't sound like that's what you're interested in, but I'm just saying, Wesleyan is not all "artsy." And we do have some truly top-notch academics, in everything from econ to math to sociology to molecular biology & biochemistry to film to Russian lit; we just know how to have fun and maybe (hopefully) help the world a little bit on the side. In general, I think people at Wes are pretty laidback, too.</p>

<p>Oh. And one thing I hate to be honest about: reputation. Wesleyan has a great reputation among a lot of people who matter (for example, admission committees at pretty much all grad schools ever) but not necessarily the general populace (including some prospective employers), even in the Northeast (it gets confused with Wellesley constantly). Like I said, for people who know it, they know it's a great school. But a lot of people haven't heard of it.</p>