Wesleyan vs. Wellesley

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
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<p>I am choosing between Wesleyan and Wellesley (which is also the hardest thing to tell people, because I confuse the names). I went to SOC and Wes's equivalent to that and did overnights at both.</p>

<p>My overall impression is that Wesleyan has a very happy vibe on campus and a lot going on from jazz concerts, to a capella, to lectures, to art shows, to parties. I understand that there is a big "hippie" population there, but the student body did seem very diverse in the sense that there were many different types of people (resulting from VERY prominent sports, art, music, etc.)</p>

<p>For Wellesley, I got the sense that academics are more compatible with me, but not enough to knock Wes off of my list. The student body, in comparison, was not giving off the happiest vibe, but was very studious, which is absolutely fine with me because of how much I myself study just for high school classes. I understand that a social scene is available and am not concerned. However, I did go to an all-women high school for frosh/soph year and switched to co-ed, so while at Wellesley, I was very aware of the missing dynamic in, say, a literature discussion.</p>

<p>Any thoughts? I'm looking at computer science and/or neuroscience and a pre-med track (probably, but this all changes and both have great programs so not basing it on specifics like that).</p>

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<p>Our daughter is a freshman at Wesleyan, majoring in math and psych (mainly for the data analysis courses). She loves Wes, and has taken to life on the other coast like a duck to water (36 inch snowfalls, and all!).</p>

<p>Since you’re headed in a “sciency” direction, it’s important to note that Wesleyan offers masters and doctorate degrees a bunch of scientific fields, from compsci to microbiology to astronomy to chem to physics to math, so I imagine Wes can boast more undergrad research opportunities per student (by far) than any other top LAC. </p>

<p>I believe Wes is #1 among LACs in research funding dollars, by a factor of more than 2:1 when compared to the #2 LAC, and the only LAC to receive NIH funding, if I’m not mistaken (following data is a couple of years old):</p>

<p>[50</a> Top Colleges](<a href=“http://50topcolleges.com/Wesleyan.html]50”>http://50topcolleges.com/Wesleyan.html)</p>

<p>Simply put, Wes is a GREAT school for future scientists and physicians. The academics are top-notch, and as a result, medical school acceptance rate is astronomical, some years reaching 100%, most years around 90% (I’m recalling earlier posts by a CC’er named JohnWesley, who was an expert on the school; you might want to search his posts for more details).</p>

<p>Wesleyan offers cool “5th Year” programs leading to a masters degree in several disciplines with an addition year of study (which is tuition-free!), and some 3-2 combined engineering programs with Cal Tech, Columbia, and Dartmouth.</p>

<p>[3-2</a> Program, Engineering at Wesleyan - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/engineering/3-2_program.html]3-2”>3-2 Program, Engineering at Wesleyan - Wesleyan University)</p>

<p>Wesleyan’s student body outnumbers Wellesley’s by around 50%, which means there are LOTS of people to meet and mingle with.</p>

<p>Aside from being a phenomenal school in just about every way imaginable, Wellesley has a much healthier endowment, and so I imagine financial aid might be better there, if that’s a concern. Wesleyan has just started a capital campaign, so in a few years, I think it’ll join Wellesley in the billion dollar endowment club. </p>

<p>With the ability to take classes at other institutions, course selection may be better as a student at Wellesley, I don’t know.</p>

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<p>A number of years ago, Wes did claim that the medical school acceptance rates were around what you mention.</p>

<p>Wes has corrected their error and now publishes accurate acceptance percentages.</p>

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<p>[What</a> Do Wesleyan Alumni Do?, Wesleyan Career Center - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/careercenter/alumni/connections/alumni_careers.html]What”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/careercenter/alumni/connections/alumni_careers.html)</p>

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<p>Many LACs receive NIH funding.</p>

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<p>CrewDad:</p>

<p>I stand corrected. Was shooting from the hip, there, I’m afraid. My apologies for the sloppy information.</p>

<p>I’m afraid I was also using old data when asserting that Wesleyan, in addition to being #1 in research funding, outspends the next closest LAC 2:1. According to Washington Monthly, Bryn Mawr is now almost even with Wes in total research funding (the 2:1 thing was true quite recently, but not as of 2012):</p>

<p>[Liberal</a> Arts College Rankings 2012 | Washington Monthly](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/liberal_arts_rank.php]Liberal”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/liberal_arts_rank.php)</p>

<p>Here’s some of what Wikipedia has to say:</p>

<p>“According to National Science Foundation (NSF) research and data, the University ranks first nationally among liberal arts colleges in federal funding for research in the sciences and mathematics. Wesleyan is also the number one ranked liberal arts institution in publications by science and mathematics faculty as determined by a measure of research publication rate and impact of publication that factors in both the number of research papers and the number of times those papers are cited in the literature. The University’s undergraduates co-author (with Wesleyan faculty) and publish more scientific papers than do students at any other liberal arts school. Additionally, the University is the only liberal arts college in the nation to receive research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) <em>to support a Molecular Biophysics Predoctoral Research Training Program</em>.” [emphasis mine.]</p>

<p>[Wesleyan</a> University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesleyan_University]Wesleyan”>Wesleyan University - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Oops. Looks like I didn’t read the last part of the last sentence (last time I read this article was a few years ago, and apparently, my memory isn’t, uh, perfect, to say the least).</p>

<p>My intention was to make clear what a flippin’ great science school Wesleyan is, unique in many ways among LACs (because of the grad programs and concomitant abundance of research opportunities for pre-meds and other science-oriented students … like ghandler94).</p>

<p>As a Wesleyan parent, my main criticism of Wes is what I perceive as the relative lack of course selection, which makes careful advanced planning for majors that much more important, especially if one wants to double-major (our daughter has yet to declare her intended majors, and has only failed to get into one class in her first two semesters, thankfully). A school like Wellesley, with cross registration at other schools, doesn’t have this problem, I imagine.</p>

<p>Perhaps the biggest difficulty in deciding between Wesleyan and Wellesley is getting the names straight. As I understand it, the Wesleys and the Wellesleys have a common English ancestor, so it’s not surprising that, even today, you can hardly tell them apart.</p>

<p>Thanks again for setting the record straight.</p>

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<p>Wesleyan’s sharp drop in USN rankings last year seems due to the drop in applications in 2011 (for some reason, USN 2012 rankings use 2011 data; not sure why). </p>

<p>Since then, it’s admit rate has dropped from 23% to 19%, while rates at several top LACs now ranked higher than Wesleyan that have hardly moved forward or actually moved backward between 2011 and 2013 (e.g. Amherst, Vassar, Williams, Haverford, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Pomona, Hamilton). </p>

<p>Given these numbers, together with President Roth’s $400m capital campaign now underway (Wesleyan’s biggest overall weakness is it’s endowment, in my opinion), I think there’s a good chance Wes will be able to join the billion-dollar-endowment club and move back up close to the top 10, pretty soon.</p>

<p>I wonder if part of the reason admit rates at schools like Wellesley and Wesleyan are improving while those at other top LACs seem to be leveling off is that the unreasonably low admit rates at places like Amherst, Swarthmore, and Pomona (and Pitzer??) are sending applicants to places where they feel the odds aren’t quite so astronomically bad, like W and W.</p>

<p><a href=“2013 College Acceptance Rates - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com”>2013 College Acceptance Rates - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com;

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<p>Someone mentioned John Wesley up thread…he has been absent from CC for sometime now. I miss seeing his posts about Wesleyan!!!</p>

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<p>So has JohnWesley’s nemesis, Parent57!</p>

<p>The rivalry between JohnWesley and Parent57, defending Wesleyan and Claremont McKenna, respectively, was the stuff of legend on CC, occasionally informative, and nearly always entertaining, at the very least.</p>

<p>I confess I sided with JohnWesley nearly all the time against ultra-conservative Parent57. Nevertheless, I must say, I miss him too.</p>

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<p>Yes! You are right!</p>

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<p>I believe JohnWesley is still with us. A new kinder and gentler avatar started up right around JohnWesley’s disappearance. I believe JohnWesley lives, but just in a new guise.</p>

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<p>Chrisb- You weren’t wrong about <em>science</em> research being more abundant than its nearest competitors. The numbers for Bryn Mawr in Washington Monthly Magazine include figures for research in a number of doctoral programs in the social sciences, including psychology, which do not exist at Wesleyan.</p>

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<p>Yes, I am right!</p>

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<p>GrudeMonk -</p>

<p>Are you insinuating that circuitrider is actually JohnWesley?!?</p>

<p>Stranger things have happened … ;-)</p>

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<p>OP,</p>

<p>Are you any closer to a decision?</p>

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<p>chrisrb - </p>

<p>I don’t want to insinuate anything. That’s not right in my view. I really don’t know anything and so I probably went too far. I apologize if I took this thread in the wrong direction.</p>