Kaitlin

From a big picture standpoint, the best thing about Wes are the students. If you want to be around the most amazing, intellectual people with unreal stories, this is your school. If I could change anything, it'd be the weather - winter in CT lasts from November through end of March although the weather in the Northeast sucks in general during the winter, anyway. As for size, it's on the small end but I really like this because unlike other larger schools you CAN run into people you know all the time. At the same time, I'm steal realizing there are so many people I've never seen before.

Middletown is alright. It's not the best college town but it's got some nice restaurants and everything to fufill basic needs (including lazer tag). It's about an hour and a half to both NYC and Boston which is nice.

I'd say we have school pride in the way of loving our school. Everyone gets excited to hear the fight song. When it comes to school spirit through sports events, it could be better but it's getting there.

Wesleyan is incredibly diverse racially, ethnically, spiritually, and socioeconomically. Everyone, for the most part, is incredibly accepting of each other. Very conservative people would probably not do too well at Wes, though. For a loving, accepting school, not much love is given out to the Wes Republicans group (it is growing, though). Wes is very LGBT friendly. Socially, I would say you've got the very jock-y athletes as one extreme, and eclectic (the "hipster" society -- they host tons of concerts and the annual "sex party" I'm sure you've all heard about) as the other extreme, but most people fall in the middle. Sometimes these groups think they're isolated and that's why they hate on the other extreme, but if you work to make friends outside of your social group, you'll have them. I played for the varsity soccer team, and while at times I felt like I had to prove I was a "dumb jock," I had a very easy time making friends who aren't athletes by joining other extracurricular activities, and my best friends honestly lean more towards the artsy/hipster side than the athlete side. Religiously, most students aren't religious, and those that are are Jewish or Christian. Our chapel does hold other religious services, though. Because Wes is a small, private liberal arts school, a lot of kids went to prep schools, are wealthy, and can pay full tuition, but a lot of students (I think 40%) are on some form of financial aid. I've never seen financial differences be an issue in friend groups, and this may be because all of your basic needs (housing, food) are included in your tuition and you can't opt out of them. ALSO, and I don't know why Wes gets this rep, but the students are not unattractive. In fact, the students are very attractive and at the very least, dress very well.

Accapella is a big deal. We also have a few dance groups and comedy/improv groups which are pretty good. We have this annual burlesque show which is HUGE on campus. We have guest speakers and bands come a fair amount. Robin Williams talked earlier this year and most weekends you can find either school bands/ DJs or non-school affiliated bands playing. When it comes to nightlife the frats on campus hold a lot of stuff. We have a few traditional sports frats, Beta and DKE, which hold dance parties and whatnot. Psi U is another frat which holds cool themed dance parties like Studio 54 and 90s party. Eclectic is known as the alternative, hipster frat and hosts the ever-popular Sex Party early in the year where everyone goes scantily clad and has a dance party in Eclectic which is adorned with porn. Alpha Delt, the literary society, also holds parties but they tend to be on the classier end, I'd say. In general though, frat life is not that big and most people just go to frats for parties on weekends. People are always partying in dorm rooms, the Lo-rise and Hi-rise apartments and senior houses.

It really is different for every person and every social group, but it general involves alcohol and partying. I'm not sure how people don't know this, it's like the administration's best kept secret, but Wes, for a pretty small school, is a BIG party school. If you wanted to, you could easily find someone to go out with you every night of the week. For some people, the weekend starts Wednesday, where students go to the bars in Middletown (yes, you'll need a fake ID). Thursday it's usually more casual drinking unless you have a class Friday morning. Friday and Saturday (mostly Saturday) are the big nights of the week. The seniors, who live in houses, will throw house parties, where the frats will throw parties (often themed), dorms will throw (unofficial b/c drinking is not allowed in them) parties. There is usually at least one big concert in the Thurs-Sat range that people will get excited and drink for. Public safety is pretty lax about drinking (with the exception of if they catch you in a freshman dorm on a school night). When the weather is nice, people will go out to Foss Hill during the day and day drink, catch a tan, play some music, or play frisbee, volleyball, or soccer at the bottom of the hill. This wonderful time is called "hill season." Wes is also known for having great spur-of-the-moment events like having a flash party in our old, abandoned dining hall, MoCon (RIP), starting a crazy marching band parade, or parties in the streets if it's nice. If that's not your cup of tea, there are always movies showing in town and on campus, and a lot of people like to drink casually in more intimate settings or have dinner parties. NYC and Boston are also relatively close, so sometimes students will go for the weekend.

It's kind of a valid concern, but not a valid complaint. The university is trying to attract more people so they're trying to make it more "centered." They've apparently cracked down on "chalking" which was big my freshman year as a way to advertise individual complaints/inspirations/messages. People still do it, though. Really nothing has changed, our sports teams are just getting better and you'll see a few more preppy kids on campus than you did the year before.

Well if not confused with Wellesly or Ohio-Wesleyan or Kansas-Wesleyan or anything of those other "W" schools, I'd say the stereotype of Wesleyan is a ultra-liberal, protest-loving, weed-smoking, sport-hating University full of artists and hippies. It's also nicknamed "Diversity University". And everyone is brilliant.

So as a gal who likes romantic comedies and dating, I was VERY concerned as a high schooler applying to colleges. On all my college visits, I would hear that there was no dating and people either fall into two romantic categories: if you have a bf/gf you're a weird couple with no other friends and like, fold laundry with a glass of white zinfandel on Friday nights, or you (the majority) hook up with everyone and nothing develops beyond that. Wes is NOT like this! Yes, we have a bit of those two categories like every place, but people like dating here! We have lots of healthy couples, relationships of all levels of commitment, but I would say that generally, if you have a bf/gf, the relationship tends to last longer than, say, high school (6+ months). Honestly, this is probably because at college you can literally (if you want) be with someone every waking minute of the day, so it's pretty easy to figure out if you're compatible if you want. It's not uncommon for people to be head-over-heels in love, basically live together, and pick out the names of their future dogs, but they only last a month. But I would say there's generally more hooking up than dating but it's not as polarized as it apparently is everywhere else.

Most of it isn't. You can find every type of person imaginable at Wesleyan from, yes, the pot-smoking crunchy kids, extreme right-wing conservatives, to eccentric and amazingly talented dance and theater majors, to alpha-jocks. However, most people are found in multiple categories. Basically, Wesleyan is just an amazingly accepting environment where everyone is free and encouraged to pursue whatever they want and be whomever they want. Also, sports are getting bigger at Wes and more people are attending games than previous years. And everyone is brilliant.

Applying to Wesleyan was honestly the best decision I've ever made. Apparently you either love or hate Wes, and I'd say 99% of the time is all love.

Wesleyan is DIII and participates in the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference). The NESCAC consists of all the top-academic co-ed liberal arts colleges in New England: Wesleyan, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Tufts, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Hamilton, Trinity, and Conn College. It is, by far, the most competitive DIII conference in the country. Traditionally, Wes is not known for its sports. We do have some bad teams, but we also have some really good teams. Most teams fall in the middle of the pack, conference-wise. Our Men's Soccer and Men's Lacrosse teams are always at the top and have gone to the NCAAs multiple times. Athletics across the board is getting way better because I think our administration is actively making an effort to get better athletes here. The top sports will usually have a pretty good showing at their sporting events, and everyone comes out for homecoming. It's a pretty decent sport scene for a school that is small and isn't that jock-y. I had a great time playing my sport at Wes.