One of the nicest aspects of campus life is that you are provided on campus housing for all four years - there are a variety of options that are open to all students beginning freshman year. Most freshman opt to live in dorms, but you have a choice between all freshman dorms and multi-class housing, most live with one other roomie, though you can get a single your freshman year and triples do happen. However, there is always plenty of space, dorms at many other state institutions offer about 1/3 of the space, normally for three people. Wesleyan provides you with a desk, dresser, chair and closet space. THEY DO NOT PROVIDE A TRASHCAN (or mirror(s))! Trashcans become a college essential because it is super easy to let your mess be exacerbated by sheer garbage. Also, for those of us that like to try on 4 or 5 outfits in the morning and would rather do that from the comfort of your room - this way you can ask your roomies opinion - a mirror is a necessity that the school does not provide. All freshman only dorms have twin beds that can be raised to create storage space! NOTE: for those that party too hard and barely reach 5' 2", raising your bed all the way may end in some injuries or for your roomie funny stories. The beds are not uncomfortable, but an egg-crate or mattress topper is recommended. One of my friends on my hall freshman year had a fabulous mattress topper, we all napped in his bed, even when he wasn't there! NOTE: This for me is a great place to have a little discussion about hallcest - the comfy mattress topper was the precursor to two of my best friends dating and creating lots of tension amongst our friend family - anyway, though it can be a lot of fun to have someone on your hall to snuggle with on cold nights, once you pass the friend zone things can get complicated. So, if you are contemplating making this leap, set boundaries, communicate with each other and your other friends, and have a little fun! On another note, hooking up with hallmates can be fun, but make sure to keep yourself happy and avoid creating awkwardness since you tend to become close with at least some of your hall and see everyone all the time. All dorms have male, female and handicapped bathrooms. However, most RAs (Resident Advisors) offer their hall the choice of designating sex/gender based bathrooms or the option to keep everything sex/gender neutral. My hall decided that though none of us would be offended to find the opposite sex/gender in our bathrooms, we would keep the male-female distinction, mostly because then we would all have our own cubbies and know which bathroom to use. In the freshman only dorms, all the bathrooms have 3 toilets, 2-3 showers, 3 sinks, large mirrors, and cubbies to keep your bathroom essentials in. In the other dorms or housing options, you may have a similar layout or just individual bathrooms and showers. In addition, there is a handicapped or unisex individual bathroom with a toilet and shower - oh and a lock on the door. Many of these showers have better water pressure than those in the other bathrooms, so if you have long hair and would like to get all the conditioner out, you may opt to shower here. As a freshman, you can choose to live in regular dorms, program houses or WESTCO. In the regular dorms, you will be with mixed years or just freshman, all program houses are mixed as is WESTCO. Program houses are themed houses that group people together based on interest. All existing fraternities and societies with houses are considered program housing, thus as community members, frats are nicely integrated in the WESLEYAN community. As a freshman there is one program house option, called "200 Church," it houses around 50 students with the goal of creating a community focused on diversity and social justice. This house often holds lectures, or forums during the year that follow their interests and discussions. They also host parties and bring other forms of entertainment to campus. The rooms are singles and doubles and no application is needed as a freshman. As a freshman you can also live in WESTCO short for West College, which is a dorm complex that promotes and explores the arts and creativity. As a freshman, no application in necessary, though other years you must submit an application and go through an interview process. WESTCO has a reputation for creating a somewhat insular community and can often be a "cliquey" environment. Many kids love the WESTCO scene which has become known for its focus in the arts, they host an open mic night once a week and offer their space - the WESTCO cafe - for other entertainment events on campus. WESTCO is a vibrant community to live in, but if you opt to live here, do not forget to explore everything WES has to offer! After freshman year, program housing is an application process in which you select and apply to live in a themed house. Themes range from music to cooking to farming to a shared love of sign language. These houses can also represent designated campus communities, Open House hosts all the LGBT community events and works to bring the campus together by promoting acceptance and tolerance for difference. As a sophomore, you can live in dorms or program houses. My sophomore year my best friend and I lived in a program house together with two singles next to each other. NOTE: This is why I mentioned that Fraternities are considered program housing. Wesleyan has a co-ed housing policy that promotes co-ed living. Yes, my best friend and I - two girls - lived in a frat house. Yet, this is one of the things that sets WES apart, as girls we definitely found a great home and community of people to surround ourselves with even living in a frat house. Fraternities and frat culture are easily stereo-typed, and though Wesleyan greek culture can often fit the normative mold, some of the greek houses break the long tradition of misogyny that exists in the normative notion of fraternity. We had an amazing year and found a place to call home on campus. While girls do not always live in the fraternities, their applications are always accepted and reviewed. As juniors and seniors, there are campus apartments and houses that range from 2-6 people, all singles and shared living space, kitchen and bathroom(s). I am junior currently living in Senior Fauver - five person senior apartments that often are a mix of juniors and seniors. Many find that there closest friends are years above or below them, the grades definitely mingle because we are a small community. Each year, you have a few more options that offer a little more independence and responsibility, until you are living in houses or apartments, where you hold most of the control over your time and your space. Junior and senior rooms are all singles, unless you opt for program housing, and come with twin or full beds - they are currently adding more and more full bedding to the mix. NOTE: SUPER IMPORTANT: I'm sure you have already heard about twin beds in college. THEY ARE TWIN XL - do not buy the wrong sheets. Sorry I did not mention this sooner! The dorms and houses do range, some are older than others and housing is spread out around campus, so you can live right next to your classroom or a ten minute walk away. Overall, the options are great and there are many - your dorm and dorm room become your home away from home so make sure you look into the housing option that best suits your comfort!

The best place to get work done is the upper floors of Olin Library. It is quiet and there are zero distractions. The Science Library (Scili) has a more relaxed atmosphere, and I find that's the place to go if you are working on a group project.

The general Wesleyan stereotype is pretty similar to that of all left-leaning liberal arts colleges: hipsters, hipsters, and more hipsters. This is, to an extent, accurate. Skinny jeans, bands you've never heard of, weed, and political activism are popular on campus. (Irony has a strong presence as well.) However, to pigeonhole Wesleyan with this one reputation doesn't do nearly enough credit to the diversity and energy of the student body. Wesleyan students come from a wide variety of backgrounds: geographically, politically, economically, and in terms of their 'social group.' Despite our reputation we have several fraternities that fill the role they do on any campus, minus the extreme hazings and exclusivity: anyone is allowed in to any frat party. With frats, of course, come the bros and the jocks, but don't be surprised if you find one double-majoring in neuroscience and chemistry. Everyone here is scary-smart, and probably has some hidden talent you'd never guess. (One kid on my hall flies airplanes; another speaks 4 languages and spent a summer hiking in the Yukon.) One last point to stress about stereotypes here: no one takes them seriously. There are no cliques or socially-constructed categories, and no one sticks an anonymous label on you. Individuality is always valued above all else.

At around 12:30 AM on Sunday October 30th, the power went out after it had been snowing all day. The emergency lights in our hall kicked on and we all congregated in our lounge--no one had gone out that night, because of the weather. We played Apples to Apples until 2:30 AM and then went to bed, expecting the power to be back on when we woke up. Guess what--it wasn't. We all freaked out about this for a while, speculating about food, heat, and most importantly, whether classes would be canceled. Even for those of us whose computers were charged, the internet was out, so we had no way of knowing what was going on. Finally, a school official came to our dorm. She informed us that the power wouldn't be back for at least 24 hours, that the dining hall would have bag lunches available that afternoon, and that we should close our windows to preserve heat. Since the dining hall wouldn't be serving breakfast, we went to Weshop, the campus grocery store, to buy some supplies, and there was a mob of people there in their pajamas, all with the same idea. After we had gotten our bread/chocolate/applesauce/coffee, we went back to our dorm, Clark, and had a cereal party with all our milk and other perishable food. Everyone stayed in pajamas and tried to do homework while sitting in the lounge where there was more light. Our entire hall bonded that day like we hadn't done since orientation. Sometime that afternoon, we were informed via text message that classes were cancelled for monday. General rejoicing commenced. We went to get our bag lunches and found that the line was already several hundred students long. Luckily, it was a beautiful, sunny, 60-degree day, although there was still snow on the ground. While we waited for food, we debated the relative merits of keeping each member of our hall, in the event that society collapsed and we were forced to resort to cannibalizing each other. I was deemed valuable because of my snow survival skills, being from Minnesota. No one really did any homework that day. We sat in the hall and talked long after the sun set. We fretted and complained and were secretly happy.

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.

Rigorous academics where open conversation between students and faculty is the norm.

Freshman year can be rough. Co-ed dorms are a strange adjustment, and can be VERY distracting. I would recommend having a roommate freshman year, but not two, and not zero. I would also recommend living in a single-sex dorm. But if you can handle social distractions and still get all your work done, power to you! Live wherever you want.

I thought there'd be more drug use on campus, but it's pretty low key. There's a bust every so often when people are careless.

Come to Wes!

It's true that on the whole Wesleyan students are liberal, but the diversity on this campus is pretty mind-blowing. There are a couple hippies, hipsters, athletes, artists, people of all kind. Even conservatives. And on the whole, the students have a very deep understanding of inequity and are tremendously self-critical in a way that allows for each person to truly transform over the course of 4 years. Although Wesleyan is probably one of the most politically active campuses in the country, many students expected there to be more happening on that front. That seems to be related to the general (apathetic) political climate, and seems to be changing for the better.

I'd say that all these groups are probably better represented at Wesleyan than at most other schools, but there's definitely still a fratty-preppy contingent (although I think it's mostly confined to kids who do sports). It's absolutely true that Wesleyan is a very, very politically liberal environment.

Wesleyan's academics are wonderful. As a junior I was easily able to get into classes with 7, 11, and 12 people. This close interaction with professors is invaluable. I feel like a lot of my professors really know me, and are excited to see me learn and grow. People's excitement about their classes often goes way beyond the classrooms, and I have not experienced any significant competition with my other students.

There are some kids like that, but Wesleyan is actually a pretty diverse place with lots of different types of people. That's what I liked about it. Almost everyone is very open-minded and inclusive of other people.

The Wesleyan experience is also incredible outside the classroom. As a varsity athlete, I think that there's a lot of support for athletics. However, I never felt pigeon-holed into a jock stereotype. Some teammates are closest friends, but I also didn't feel any pressure to only hang out with my team. A lot of freshmen make their close friends on their hall in the dorm, but that is typically in freshmen only dorms (like Clark or Fauver). There's always something going on around campus, such as speakers, performances, movie screenings, etc. It's so easy to make friends and find things to do, and the party scene is pretty ideal. From dorms, frats, senior woodframes, and junior apartments, students definitely know how to wind down and have a good time on the weekends. A wide range of interests and lifestyles correlate with the diversity of the student body.

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.

Wesleyan students are politically progressive intellectuals. They are generally fairly wealthy. There is fair percentage of the student body that are students of color, a high percentage of LGBT students, and very few conservatives, "jocks," or stereotypical college "frat boy" types.

I don't think I'll ever go to a better dance party. where people really just dance to dance. freshmen and sophmores live in dorms together. the dorms have different vibes to them, and many people meet their friends there. at least at first. juniors and seniors live in apartments and houses. lots of people make good use of their kitchens and living rooms. house parties are big. there are some frats and thats a social option but definitely not the most dominant scene. there are a lot of campus bands, a pretty good variety of them, that play at different venues on campus. there are a lot of student organizations, many politically minded groups, like Students for ending the war in Iraq , a group for healthcare justice, environmental groups etc. wesleyan has a student run organic farm. community service projects. tutoring kids in the community.

Wesleyan is small enough that most people on campus look at least vaguely familiar, but big enough that you're always meeting new people. I'd say you're more in danger of feeling claustrophobic than agoraphobic, if I had to pick. Middletown has some nice restaurants and the requisite drugstore, hardware store and ice cream parlor, but almost all student activity takes place on campus. There is some tension between town residents and students, but many students also volunteer their time tutoring at a nearby housing project and teaching after-school art classes. One of the fundamental tensions within the Wesleyan community concerns what many students see as an attempt by the administration to bring Wesleyan into the mainstream, to which students have responded with a campaign to "Keep Wesleyan Weird." While I agree that it is important to maintain Wesleyan's independent spirit, I also agree with our new president, Michael Roth, that defining that independent spirit as "weird" is unnecessarily oppositional. I don't agree with all of Roth's decisions, such as upholding the previous administration's ban on chalking messages on campus sidewalks, but I think his heart is in the right place and I look forward to seeing where the university goes under his leadership.

There are stoners, there are hipsters.. but there are also just about every other social group that one might want to associate with (yes even bros). Wesleyan is pleasantly diverse, at least in terms of the variety of social niches, and there is a little something for everyone. Look forward to offensively over-represented liberal thought and attempts to offend everyone in order to offend no one.