I would say that there are a few major stereotypes and though they all hold some truth, there is no real majority at Wesleyan, we truly have a group of unique and diverse students...
1. we are often stereotyped as strictly liberal and left leaning politically and socially - this ideology is said to be mirrored in our students and administration, however, though a lot of the student body is liberal minded, there are varied types of liberal ideology and there is definitely a conservative population that has a voice - in terms of classes, most professors maintain a variable amount of objectivity, always clarifying their own opinion with fact, but also providing varied opinions so as to enable us to create our own educated answers to critical questions
2. people like the say that WesKids "Work hard and Play harder" - there is definitely a great social scene here, but there are always activities and events on campus that are not party related in the drugs and alcohol sense - though there is obviously drinking and the use of certain drugs, granted this is a college campus, there is also a myriad of social scenes that one can associate with, thus though many of us do prefer to "Work and Play harder" there are tons of options available even with such a small school
3. we are notorious for being a bunch of hipsters - as a weskid from NYC, the so claimed hipster-meca, I take offense to such stereotyping. There are undoubtedly hipsters at Wesleyan, but arguably the word hipster is so difficult to define that the term in itself implies diversity - that aside, the student body is diverse, in class, race, gender and ideology - though we may have a large hipster population, whatever that means, we by no means fit the mould of a hipster school
4. they call us Intellectuals - this hits the nail on the head, weskids are not just smart but we are truly intellectuals. we are taught knowledge based on breadth and depth of materials and subjects - Wesleyan classes require a level of intellectual thought that goes beyond classic brains - we question the systems around us and learn to have a critical eye on society that does in fact make us intellectuals - at times we may seem pretentious to the outsider, but the student body often reflects those that want to learn from one another and expand their knowledge by expanding both their intellect, their experience and their awareness of others experiences and ideologies.