<p>hi! i have been accepted to the three schools and am deciding between the three. im really confused because i dont have the money to visit them. can i have an insight from anyone who has ever visited or is a student there? thanks, btw!</p>
<p>let me guess: you applied to fifteen schools and its down to these three?</p>
<p>These schools are fairly different:</p>
<p>Wesleyan - a smallish New England liberal arts college of 2,800
Case Western Reserve - medium sized Mid-West research university of 4,500
UVa - a large “Southern” public university of 13,000</p>
<p>What are you looking for in a school? Majors, weather, size, housing, athletics, grad school placement, etc…</p>
<p>I have been admitted to those three schools. So, I am deciding where I am going next year.
I am studying mathematics. Of course, I am also dreaming about getting into a good grad school. I personally prefer Wesleyan as it is the smallest one and also a liberal art college.
Anyway, which one of these has the best program in math? I want to study many things like philosophy, education, or even language though. Regardless of the cost and tuition.</p>
<p>Does anyone have specific information about these?</p>
<p>Sorry for taking advantage of your post, tlnv88.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>wow johnwesley, it’s a little bit creepy how true you are. yea, any insights?
i’d like to know what are their strengths in major, the difference in the students’ atmosphere, the social life, and so on. if you know anything, it will be so helpful! thanks</p>
<p>Fair enough. Let’s start by saying, Wesleyan is the clear outlier in your group. The other two are fairly large universities, one a flagship public (UVA), the other the result of a merger between two competing institutions in Ohio. You can get a great education at all three choices; a lot depends on what you’re looking for. </p>
<p>For straight up and down liberal arts and sciences with a goal toward grad school or at least a foothold in the real world upon graduation, you can’t do much better than Wesleyan and Virginia; they’ve been at it approximately the same length of time; both have tremendous track records. The main difference is size and atmosphere. </p>
<p>Wesleyan consists of about 3,200 students (including graduate students) from every part of the country on a venerable campus that sits on the edge of a small working class New England city. It’s academic strengths run pretty much across the board from hard sciences to the performing arts; the students run the gamut from nerdy to hipster. It’s more politically active than Amherst or Williams, but, holds the distinction of retaining a tiny fraternity population.</p>
<p>Coming in at just under 20,000 students (including 13,000 undergraduates) UVA boasts a magnificent central quad designed by Thomas Jefferson and predictably has one of the top architectural programs in the country. There’s also a nationally ranked law school and a medical school nearby all of which add to a more pre-professional tone than you would find at Wesleyan. And, unlike Wesleyan, Virginia has a quota on how many out-of-state students they can admit, so even though they have some very highly qualified people from around the world, the overall social scene is marked by the huge number of upper middle-class Northern Virginia families (and, not a few Washington, DC politicians) who send their children there.</p>
<p>Case Western is the only one of the three that might possibly be described as having an urban location. Charlottesville has its moments, Middletown has its North End, but Cleveland is the real deal. As stated above, it is the product of a merger between Case Institute of Technology, a tech college and Western Reserve University, a more traditional liberal arts university. Depending on what you are looking for, it could either be the school of your dreams or your worst nightmare: all the competitiveness of a tech college melded with the distribution requirements of a LAC.</p>
<p>My .02</p>
<p>I am a Wesleyan student from the class of 2015 I was accepted into University of Virginia and was considering applying to CWR. If you want math and a liberal arts background Wesleyan might be more appealing than the other two. As far as student atmospheres I can tell you that UVA is big so you may have a hard time looking for people who might fit your interests and who you will feel comfortable with, they are there thou. Can’t say much about CWR only that it is huge on the sciences and mathematics as well as research. Wesleyan and UVA don’t stand behind in research, however, Wesleyan’s Grad School is much smaller than UVA and it focuses specifically on sciences and liberal arts where as UVa’s focuses on Law and Medicine. Either way it will come down to what kinda atmosphere you feel comfortable. For instance Wesleyan is a very laid back atmosphere, people tend to be really friendly, weird in a good way, and they party hard. You are very likely to have intellectual conversation with your roommate and classmates and be challenged academically and ideologically. It is a very liberal school, far left that its counterparts (Amherts and Williams) also lots of activism specially now with the Occupy Wall Street movement. All I can say is that it isn’t competitive and you have room to grow as an individual. UVA from what I saw during my visit is big but overall I noticed student’s weren’t as open minded as Wesleyan students. There is some diversity but it’s a diversity in terms of numbers and not in terms of interactions. It is self segregated, Asians hang out with Asians, whites with whites, blacks with blacks. So that was one of the factors that I didn’t like about it, also it is very pre professional and I felt that the school focused more on developing CEO’s, Lawyers, and Doctors than intellectuals and cosmopolitan citizens. Another thing that I didn’t like, which is something most people like about UVA, is the traditions. Personally I am not someone who likes traditions and well UVA given its long history its full of them and they can be overwhelming but from what I saw kinda fun. Not to say Wesleyan doesn’t have any but they aren’t as big as UVAs, they are however more weird and out of the ordinary. Also I didn’t feel there was a big sense of community at UVA than at Wesleyan. I am a very shy person, I immigrated to the US six years ago from Latin America, so it hard for me to communicate with people so I usually don’t approach people. At UVA I felt like I had to approach people to get to know them and even start a conversation where as at Wesleyan people engaged in conversation with me without approaching them. When I visited people walked up to me and talked to me and my student host introduced me to his friends who were very kind and talked to me. I never felt isolated at Wesleyan where as at UVA I felt a little isolated and my host was busy so he couldn’t introduce me to anyone so I was pretty much left to walk around the grounds on my own. Another thing about UVA is that you may notice is that some friends from high school that go to UVA will stay together and form clicks that are close. There are of course some groups that are open but you have to look for those. The same thing happens at Wesleyan with some foreign students but no to the extend of UVA. As far as CWR is I can’t say much so I won’t go into details with it you should ask a current student to tell u how it is. As far as students both UVA and Wesleyan are diverse you will find people of all walks of life thou the Wesleyan student tends to be more activist, more liberal, more quirky and more outgoing. UVA students tend to be more conservative, more preppy, and a little close minded there are however exceptions to the rules in both cases. Anyways hope this helps I am obviously more biased towards Wesleyan but still UVA could be what you are looking for.</p>
<p>My “hunch” is that if you want to study Math, that Case Western would be the better choice, because it is very well known for science and engineering, and that Wesleyan would be the least best choice of the three, because it is known as a liberal arts school, but that is just my gut feeling. Hopefully, others can give you more well founded advice.</p>
<p>^^ Well, Math <em>is</em> one of the liberal arts (and sciences.) Understandably, a real math prodigy would want to see some depth in the program before running the risk of burning through all the challenging courses. Wesleyan, however, is one of the few, if not the only, liberal arts college in the country with a Mathematics doctoral program.</p>