<p>My son chose Wesleyan over Swarthmore, after having spent a weekend at Swarthmore, which at that point was his first choice. He felt that he would fit in better at Wesleyan overall. Wesleyan is about twice the size of Swat, which was a primary factor, as it seemed that Swat could be a bit too insular and offering a more limited range of relationships. He also had a horrible interview at Swat, where the student interviewer opened the meeting by asking, “What’s your opinion about diversity?”. My son asked him to define diversity, and the interviewer asked him to offer his own definition, and it seemed that the interview went downhill from there. Two years into Wesleyan, he has absolutely no regrets. Coincidentally, when he arrived at Wesleyan, one of his first friends was another student who had spent his freshman year at Swarthmore, didn’t like it because of the limited social opportunities, and transferred to Wes. Funny how that worked out.</p>
<p>He also chose Wesleyan over Hamilton (which in his mind was a tougher choice), Amherst (because of the obnoxious and arrogant admissions dean who gave the information session and focused so much on test scores and GPA), Williams (too small a town and too remote), Bowdoin (too far north), Tufts (too impersonal), Haverford (too small), Colgate (student interviewer took him to his sister’s dormitory room where on that cold winter afternon she was drunk after polishing off half a bottle of Jack Daniels on her desk), Northwestern (not impressed by classes he sat in), UChicago (too cerebral), Trinity (scary urban hood right in front of the campus), Cornell (not impressed with classes he attended, too impersonal and students disconnected), and Occidental (admissions reps seemed to be pushing too hard to impress and he was not impressed with what Oxy had to offer in range of classes and intellectual depth).</p>