Wesleyan University Top Questions

What is your overall opinion of this school?

Dennis

I matriculate in fall 2015

Rachel

The best aspect of Wesleyan is undoubtedly the students. There are so many different kids on this campus that there is an opportunity to learn from everyone about anything from music to computer programming to physics back to philosophy. the student body is not just diverse, but the students are dynamic. We tend to push each other and challenge each other. There is a unique sense of community on campus that comes from both its size and the way in which social barriers are broken down by the administration. I like to think of Wesleyan as a microcosmic socialist society, once we are on this campus, all students are essentially equal. Based on year, we are all offerred the same housing and meal plans, given the same opportunities to get into classes, and represented as equals on campus. The social status of one's family is often superfluous to their life at Wesleyan. Students are able to get to know each other without feeling the pressure of social barriers that draw people to those that are most like them. The students as well as the structure of the university and their policies creates a community unlike others that I have seen on college campuses. Though wesleyan is small, we definitely suffer from large classes. Though you may find large intro classes anywhere you go, the intro classes at Wesleyan are often too large and tend to become more of a burden because of their size, however, these classes are only in certain subjects and past very basic intro levels there are many opportunities to take incredibly small classes with as little as 3-5 students.Very few students have negative things to say about our school and most complaints are directed towards the administration, as our student body is one of the most active and politically aware regarding university policy and action. In addition, our student council has legitimate power within the administration, enabling our voices to be heard when there is an issue. Most student complaints are petty and unrelated to their opinion of social life at wesleyan. Our food options are slightly limited but there are restaurants and viable options for eating very close to campus. While I would not consider Middletown, CT to be a real college town, it does provide us with anything we might need, coffee for finals, sustenance for daily life and entertainment for recreation.

Alexandra

I think Wesleyan is a school where anyone can find their niche. Whether you are an athlete, an aspiring journalist, a hipster, a drinker, a smoker, a nerd, the student body president, or any combination of the above, there is a place for you to excel and be happy. No matter what your interests or activities are, the one thing that connects Wesleyan students is their desire to learn and to be challenged. You are just as likely to meet the captain of the basketball team who is an English/Neuroscience double major as you are your class vice-president who tutors local high school students. There are numerous ways for students to get involved in both the Wesleyan and Middletown communities.

Sarah

I haven't been here very long, but I love Wesleyan so far. When I visited, I was impressed by how open and approachable everyone I met was, and that hasn't changed. In high school, I avoided talking to people I didn't know, fearing awkward conversations. But here, everyone has such an interesting perspective to share that I love meeting new people and hearing about their experiences. The basics: Wesleyan's size is perfect-- not so big that you get lost in the crowd, but big enough so that you're always encountering new people. The academics are wonderful, although it can be a little difficult to get into popular classes. Tons of extracurriculars. Lots of social opportunities no matter what your scene is. It's hard to balance everything sometimes, but I'm never, ever bored. One unusual thing about Wesleyan, as compared to other similar LACs, is that we're encouraged to get off campus and get involved in the community. For instance, as a work-study student, I get paid to tutor local elementary schoolers. Many (most?) Wesleyan students participate in some sort of community service. The most interesting experience I've had so far was Snowpocalypse 2011. On Halloween weekend, it started snowing heavily, and electricity went out across Connecticut for three days. With our computers and phones dead and classes canceled, students congregated in the halls together, playing board games, eating perishable food, and just generally bonding. It turned what could have been a nasty situation into one of my favorite times here so far.

Chris

An atmosphere where finding your academic and social passions are cultivated.

Lisa

Wesleyan is a prestigious liberal arts college located in central Connecticut. For a liberal arts school, its student population is sizable; we have 2,800 undergrad students, which, I believe, is a perfect size because Wesleyan is small enough where you can go to a meeting or a party and recognize somebody you know, yet large enough to meet somebody new.

Liz

It's a very diverse school, and I mean that in different senses. The town is nothing to speak of, but that only means that the campus yields richer events and experiences. The campus is pretty - prettier than it used to be, although now apartment buildings are taking the place of woodframe houses, which used to be the standard housing for older students. School pride could be better. The sports teams are generally very good, but it can seem very divided between those who do sports and those who don't. People work very hard, but they also play hard, too. Extracurriculars are important to most students.

Ryan

The best thing about Wes is how friendly everyone is. The worst thing is to be mean to somebody. Conversations with strangers are a frequent occurrence while waiting in line at weshop. I love the size of Wesleyan- I am always meeting new people, but there's also a good chance that I'll see someone I saw one night at a part who I would like to see again.

Eric

Wesleyan is a place unlike most places. For the most part, people are good-hearted and have good heads on their shoulders.

Aurora

"You go to an all-girls school?" is the reaction of, hmm, 70{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of people when they hear that I go to Wesleyan. No, Wesleyan is not Wellesley, and there are plenty of boys at Wesleyan. Some have also heard about the clothing-optional dorm. I'd like to clear this up a little - although limited residences (and I'm sure, private residences) have the option of voting to be clothing-optional, Wesleyan students don't walk around naked. Although, a few walk around barefoot in the good weather, and there is the occasional streaker. And one of my favorite moments at school was when the entire library decided to trick an afternoon tour into thinking that Wesleyan studies naked. (If you were on that tour - we keep our clothes on most of the time and we have a great sense of humor and community.) I think the reason I came to Wesleyan and the reason I don't regret that decision is the fact that there are so many amazing souls on campus. The kind of people that you just connect with - that remember witty inside jokes and have wisdom and experiences a lot of people our age don't. Every semester is a different experience, and it is what you make it. I know you probably hear this a lot. However, it is the truth. The people you hang out with, where you live, what you spend your time doing, what classes you pick, what food you eat, where you travel, are all things you can mold at Wesleyan to give you the best time ever.

Alex

I wish more people new what wesleyan was or where it is.

Meredith

I think that the best aspect of Wesleyan are the students. With one word I would describe the student body as pasisonate. Wesleyan attracts students that are not only passionate about learning but about using that knowledge to make an impact on the world after college. I have never been in another envirnoment where there has been such a genuine desire to, in loss of other words, make the world a better place.

Bethany

If you are going to go to a small liberal arts school, Wes is a good choice. Just try not to fall too deeply into the bubble. One of the biggest problems with Wes kids is that they lose perspective.

Maria

the campus is beautiful and i felt like at home. my friend from a big state university told me that there is a family-like atmosphere. i would describe wesleyan as family if i had to choose one word.

Kate

Well this is an all-encompassing catigory isn't it? Hardly a simple survey question, more like an application for admission. Anyhow, to put it really simply, Wesleyan is incredibly cool (if you don't believe me ask our president. Holla). It's a great place to go if you want to be challenged and engaged, are comfortable having your views and assumptions questioned, and if you are open to meeting new and interesting people. Wes is not too big and not too small, it's a liberal arts school with a baller science program, and it's got a real campus and a small town set up with out being in the middle of nowhere. But I'm a tour guide, so you would expect me to love wes, right? Things that are sometimes problematic: It's a little bit like summer camp in that you get to live in a hip little bubble and discuss race, class, and gender issues while drinking coffee in Victorian houses and then maybe go see your friend's experimental music performance without much regard for what is going on in the world around you or that no one else regularly tries to use the pronoun "ze." Sometimes students self-segregate along racial or cultural lines which makes it harder to meet certain people. Sometimes we get too caught up in the semantics of things and it prevents frank discussion from occuring because people are worried about offending their classmates or sounding somehow prejudiced.

Kendall

wesleyan has a very diverse student body in almost every way -- racially, ethnically, religiously, socially -- but not politically. everyone has basically similar political ideas. the school is a little under 3000 students undergrad, making it a pretty big small school -- small enough that you start recognizing familiar faces, big enough that you dont know who they all belong to. Middletown is pretty shitty. Theres a strip of expensive restaurants and some basic stores for hardware etc, but otherwise its just an angry industrialized blue-collar town that doesnt really like the pampered liberal liberal arts kids who live uphill and reportedly have strange parties with strange drugs, have strange ideas about political activism and come from places that, for the most part, are strange, by Middletown standards. But not to worry! there qre so many things to do on campus and so many people to meet that you wont really care what middletown thinks. one thing that bothers me is students' apparent desire to be upset by anything that they can logically be upset about. don't get me wrong -- wes students are, for the most part, remarkably happy people that do a variety of wonderful, beautiful things for the sole sake of making themselves and people around them happy -- but they also like to protest things that dont need to be protested, and try to make even the most irrelevant problems into political issues. for example, the school introduced a new food provider this year. people agreed almost unanimously that the food was better than it had been in past years and was certainly above college food par, low as that standard may be. but people still complained tirelessly about the new food provider and its politics; they mistreat workers, the food is not local enough, etc. On the one hand, it was nice to see students trying to make a pretty good system better. but on the other hand, I would have rathered see them protesting unjust wars, unscrupulous governmantal economic decisions, genocide in africa, or any of the millions of issues that are more important than making a good college food system a little better.

Reese

hokay, so as far as I can tell, as long as you're not looking for an engineering or linguistics program, you should make out okay. If you want dance, film, language, or polisci, you may become a very happy person, at least until finals, where everybody goes a bit crazy. I don't know if it's size or something else, but the University is one notch below having enough happening. Some nights are just slow if you don't want to get drunk, which I don't. The campus lacks a real center, so meeting people can be tricky if your hall isn't close (says the mild introvert). However, once you do find people and know them, they're 99 percent wonderful.

Ryan

There's a lot of tension, sadly, between Wes and the rest of Middletown because a lot of people from the town accuse students of being over-privileged white kids. Especially when a student drops a Sour Patch Kid on the ground. All hell broke loose.... But it's a fun town anyway. Certainly very easy to get a lot of food off campus, and frequently not much. Typhoon has great lunch specials, and It's Only Natural has the best sweet potato fries. As for the school itself, it's awesome. The professors are really laid-back, for the most part, and really cool. A good number of people, because it's easy to find your friends, but not hard to avoid someone if necessary. The new campus center's a huge disappointment, but maybe not so much to incoming students who didn't get comfortable to the old set-up. If you want food on campus, the S&C in Alpha Delt is the best food on campus, and Pi Cafe's a nice pick-me-up.

Christopher

Wesleyan is truly a wonderful school for someone to be individual. If you're very radical, you will fit in at this school. But if being an outspoken liberal is not your thing, there is no need to worry. If you can defend your stance on an issue you will not be despised.

Matt

Wesleyan students, as a whole, are extremely engaged and affable people. Interesting people, interesting interests. The campus is contained as far as social life goes, but there is enough going on any given night that it is easy to stay entertained-- if you aren't working your ass off.

Elizabeth

The town is small and most students stay close to campus or bail to NY for the weekends if they need a different venue. There are some bars and a really great art community in Middletown for those who want to get out. Basically, Wesleyan is as difficult or easy as you make your schedule. You can challenge yourself beyond beleif or float by, so if you're not fairly self-motivated you might find yourself drunk for four straight years. The students are amazingly independent and there is a lot of extra-curricular creative activity. Any sense of school pride I have comes from how impressed I am with my friends' ability to design and carry out a wide range of projects outside of school contexts. The administration is fairly removed from student life, and in my own experience organizing a student group, the administration doesn't really know where to find its own students.

Harper

Students are free to do whatever they want; there aren't many restrictions. They can experiment with course selection, extracurriculars, drugs, social groups, alcohol, etc., and it's pretty much expected, even encouraged. And the good thing is that the students are smart and responsible enough to handle the freedom.

Nico

The best thing about Wesleyan in my opinion is the amount of new people you will meet. Of course at any school you will meet new people, but I feel like at Wes you'll meet different types of people that you wouldn't have met anywhere else.

Molly

Wes is the perfect size - if you like familiarity. After four years at Wes, you'll know at least 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of your class, even if you like to keep just a few close friends. But most of the people you'll meet will be interesting and lead multifaceted lives. It's difficult to pin any Wes student to one category. It's a small but beautiful campus. Housing is shit your sophomore and junior years, but it's worth the tribulation if you find yourself in a senior woodframe or fauver apartment in your last year. Foss hill is maybe the greatest part of Wes. You'll hear every single Wes student mention it fondly. It's in the center of campus, and is best described as a great slope of grass, which looks onto Andrus baseball field. It's the site of WesFest, Spring Fling concerts, student concerts, and everyday lounging. On the first warm days of spring, it is packed full of kids playing catch, reading, singing, smoking, and kicking it. It is too glorious to describe: you'll have to see it yourself to get it. In the past decade, Wes campus has been completely overhauled. Since 1998, Freeman Athletic Center has been constructed (a gorgeous complex complete with a new, huge weight room, basketball gym, new locker rooms, and 10 squash courts...which are awesome), a turf field has been laid down for the field hockey and lacrosse teams, a new softball field has been constructed, the new Usdan Campus Center has been built, two new dorms (Freshman and Senior Fauver) have been constructed, and construction on a new science center is planned for 2010. The facilities are incredible, although many students miss the old Campus Center, and the old dining hall Mocon, which were both torn down last year upon Usdan's arrival. Wesleyan's relationship with Middletown is a tenuous one. Middletown is a very diverse community of mostly blue-collar residents. Main street is just blocks from the center of campus, and offers a quirky array of shops and restaurants. The food is decent, and there are a few bars. If you know where to look, there is a lot of fun stuff to do in Middletown. But most students don't look. Most students stay completely detached from Middletown. It is this detachment which causes some of the resentment of the local community. Still, there are plenty of students who engage regularly with the community. It is difficult to get to and from Middletown without a car - to get to New York or Boston, you'd need a ride to either the New Haven train station (about a 30 minute ride), or Hartford bus terminal (about a 20 minute ride). Wes administration is mostly receptive to student needs and requests. At least, that's the reputation the administration likes to exude. With regard to some academic departments, the administration has done a very poor job meeting needs. Last year, Wes alum Michael Roth as chosen to become the new President of Wes. He has done an excellent job raising funds for the school, and has made some good choices, especially the choice to exempt students from low-income households from paying tuition. He also responded well to recent confrontations between Middletown Police and Wesleyan students, in an incident known now as the Wesleyan Riots. At around 3am during the standoff, some Wes students went to Roth's on-campus residence, and explained to him the situation. Roth came down to the scene, and issued a statement which asked both students and police to be more reasonable. That is the nature of the relationship between students and administration at Wes - lines of communication are open, and many students form incredible relationships with staff.

Harper

Wesleyan, in a word, is AMAZING. Applying to schools, I applied to Wes on a whim. I had no intention of attending, nor did I have any idea what the place was like. I had never even stepped foot on campus. Looking back, deciding to come to Wes was the best decision I ever made. While the small size does lead to almost everybody knowing your business, that is a small price to pay for the intense feeling of a true community and sense of belonging. I love that I can walk across campus and recognize most of the people, whether or not I know their names. Most of my time on campus is spent, well, everywhere! I couldn't pinpoint one place I can almost always be found, though I will say that Olin Library is a popular spot, especially early on weeknights and alllll day on Sundays. As for Middletown, well, you get what you give. Many feel as though the area surrounding school is a bit shady, and I won't lie, it can be a bit dangerous. But if you have a head on your shoulders, it's really fine. Spend some time volunteering in the community, and you will see that these are some of the nicest people, and sadly, many have been dealt an unlucky hand. That being said, there are a lot of really good restaurants on Main Street, and one night a week, almost everybody on campus flocks down to the bars, where Wes kids are welcomed with open arms. The biggest recent controversy on campus was probably the "riot" at the end of the year. A completely non-violent party ended in disarray and violence when Middletown Police and CT state troopers arrived on the scene and displayed what some students have called "excessive force". Being a Wes student, I have to agree. Check it out on the news if you really are interested. It was all over the CT and New England news channels. School pride? YES! The first thing the freshman class did together was learn the fight song on the first night of orientation, and I have yet to forget it. It helps that the fight song plays over campus by the bells pretty frequently. GO WES!

Adam

Perfect size, amazing professors, amazing student body. A good place to go if you actually want to question the fabric of society, self, reality and everything else. A bad place if you want to ra-ra the football team.

Kara

I love the school. great, small and interesting classes. i wish it were a little bigger, but you can know a lot of people and everyone is friendly. the administration needs to get in touch with the students mindsets more. no one goes to football games.

David

Wesleyan educates just over 2800 undergraduates. While this size is perfect for a student entering college, who wants to find a small and welcoming community. by the end of a student's tenure it can start to feel small. While the campus has relatively easy access to both New York and Boston, this feeling is accentuated by the fact that Middletown is not a particularly exciting place outside of campus.

Michelle

When I tell people I go to Wesleyan, they say, "Oh, in Illinois?" Or "What's it like going to an all girls school." The most frustrating though is when I say I go to Wesleyan, and they're like "Oh, Wellsleyan... I heard that's a great school." The new food provider was definitely one of the biggest controversies in 2007-2008. Bon Appetite just replaced Aramark, and the food plan is constantly changing-- often for the worse. Freshmen and Sophomores are required to have a minimum of five meals a week which can only be spent at either the campus center or Summerfields. But if you're on a sports team for instance, you usually get out of practice late and they stop food production at five, so you're stuck with the leftover scraps. Also, if you don't use up all five meals in a week, they don't roll over or anything. They just disappear!! Where do all the meals go? Nobody knows! It's really frustrating because when I get out of swim, sometimes I just want to pick up a frozen dinner and go eat in my room, or on the weekends I want to go out with my friends to a restaurant, but I am restrained to the cafeteria because of the meal plan.

Jessie

People always think there is a naked dorm; there is not. Nobody really knows where Wesleyan is, or they confuse it with Wellesley or Ohio Wesleyan. I spend most of my time either in my dorm sleep, gym lifting, or library studying. I think the new Roth administration has been doing a pretty good job of gauging the needs and interests of the student body. Middletown is okay, not much of a college town, but just a regular old town. Not much school pride, Wesleyan just isn't very good at sports in general.

Daniel

No matter what they say or how much they emphasize the word "University," Wesleyan is a liberal arts college with all of the perks and challenges of a typical liberal arts college. The good news is that Wesleyan is not nearly as small as some of its peer institutions. With a large student body comes more opportunites, a wider range of interests, and a larger social circle. However, this larger student body is well contained on Wesleyan's relatively small campus, which helps to create a wonderful sense of community. The student body is the heart of this school, and is what allowed me to feel at home at Wesleyan within only a few weeks of arriving. Wesleyan is not for the lazy or faint of heart. If you want to get involved, it is easy to do, but you alone have the power to do so. Once your in, its your responsiblity not to take on too much. Extracurriculars drive every student, and it sometimes seems as if the hours of 4-9 are the most exciting at Wes. One downfall of Wesleyan is its location. Middletown is nothing special. It has some decent food, and anything a student might need, but nothing more. Furthermore, a recent episode with the local police has raised awareness of our delicate relationship with the town, especially with its police force.

Jesse

I'm a transfer student from a much larger, public institution and to me it seems as though Wesleyan's size is very well suited to fostering and enabling community. It's not big enough for you to feel insignificant or lost and it's not so small that you get tired of the student body. Wesleyan does live up to it's reputation for weirdness, but it's an endearing weird and one that you'll find you miss when you go home.

corinne

A lot of people complain about wesleyan while they are there and then complain about not being at wesleyan when they are not there. basically, i think the student body is quite cynical and just wants to complain. It's a very small school, but this has its pros as well as it's cons: smaller classes, you get to know people easily, attention from professors, all good things... but sometimes the ways in which everybody knows your business can start to feel like high school. its kind of hard to hide. Nobody has heard of wesleyan. The president's son is kind of cute. (He goes to Trinity, but looks like a wesleyan student, weird.) You never have to buy your own alcohol if you dont want to. everybody i know does drugs of several sorts. work hard, play hard... but its easy to pull decent grades without THAT much work. olin library is my second home.

Paige

The best thing about Wesleyan is the community; the people your surrounding yourself with. If I could change one thing I would give the student community more clout with the administration. There always seems to be a struggle because both are so strong-minded. The school is small- only around 2700 undergraduates, but that turned out to be the perfect size for me. People who have heard of Wesleyan are always impressed. But at the same time it isn't known by everyone, so occasionally coming across someone who thinks you go to an all-girls school outside boston provides for good exercises in humility. Middletown is good for what it is, and gives you good options for food and stuff, but in reality your gonna spend most of your party time on campus going to house parties, dance parties, and frat parties. For me this was great, especially since the greek community is open to everybody, as is everywhere else on campus. You can ngo out with no money and still get a good buzz going.

Agnes

i think wesleyan is filled with many different types of people. i find that most people come into wes and find their niche somewhere. there are a lot of motivated, interesting, wonderful people at this school. almost everyone is passionate about something and willing to share their experiences and extend their services. wesleyan, while definitely a "bubble" (people rarely leave campus to go to nyc/newhaven to go out), is a wonderful, experimental environment. students are entrusted to pursue experiences at their own will and i think thats the best and most important thing about the environment and administrative policies. i think a lot of people are molded by the school in one way or another. when they leave wesleyan, they realize the impact of their school, and i think that most times, they take pride in the people they have become. one thing i would not really expect is to be exposed to many different diverse culture unless you go out and pursue it. while there are a lot of different cultures contributing to the student body, i find it is diffcult to find their backgrounds mixing much.

Becca

After my first week at Wesleyan, I remember telling my family that I was so impressed by the amount of smart, interesting, friendly, incredible people I had met. After my first year, my classroom experience, social experience, and overall sentiment about Wesleyan remain completely positive. I think my liberal arts education will prove to be just, if not more, valuable than an Ivy League one. While small, the size of the student body is in no way stifling--I love being able to leave my dorm and always run into at least one person I know. There are always great events going on around campus, from visiting speakers and professional art exhibits to student-organized concerts and dance performances.

Ben

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.

Casey

I've found Wesleyan to be the most interested student body I've ever seen. My freshman year the girl who lived next to me had just published a book, and downstairs a boy was writing the score for an independent film that was being released. That's just how it is. I feel like everyone has so much they are doing and are interested. Wes goes way beyond the classroom or the party, and I've found this to be more evident here than any other school.

Jamie

Most people where I'm from haven't heard of Wesleyan, or if they have, they are thinking of the wrong one. It used to frustrate me, but now I've learned to like that aspect of Wesleyan because I think it speaks to who we are as a college: we're a great school, but we don't feel the need to show that off all the time. The school is the perfect size if you're looking for a small, but not too small liberal arts school (2800) because you'll see people you know everywhere around campus and people you've never seen before. As far as the "college town" goes, Middletown gets a bad rap in most college guide books, when in fact it's really not so bad. It doesn't cater to college students, but there are many good restaurants and coffee shops there that are only a 10 minute walk from campus. I go there about once a week when I get tired of the food (which by the way isn't so bad either though it being Wesleyan, students complain about it regularly). What I love about Wesleyan, however, is that people are smart and talented, but are not usually full of themselves. Though we can be a little too pc, with gender neutral bathrooms and pronouns, we are also able to poke fun at ourselves, rather than take ourselves too seriously like some other top schools.

Ana

For me, the best thing about Wesleyan is that it seems as if theres a place for everyone. The second best thing is that it really promotes spiritual life.

Cameron

Stereotypes break down at Wesleyan. Though one might claim to be completely open-minded, it takes exposure to develop real tolerance. That's the best thing about Wesleyan-- the mindset (which to others may seem forced, silly, and somewhat pretentious) does create an opportunity to explore different experiences from the inside. The mindset is all about trying anything new, just for the sake of trying. Since everybody is on the same page, there is an atmosphere of liberation-- sexually, creatively, personally; Wesleyan provides a unique environment to self-search and really figure out who you are.

Nick

Wesleyan has just the perfect number of students--there's a strong sense of community with a small and intimate campus, but you're still meeting new people until the day you graduate. The administration really listens to the student body. Students have a major say on what happens on all levels of the institution. Right now there is a group called SEWI (Students for Ending the War in Iraq) which is currently in negotiations with the Board of Trustees to have them divest from weapons contractors. Additionally, groups like EON (Environmental Organization Network) have a large voice in environmental sustainability issues in student housing, food plans, and more. In general, different groups on campus treat each other with the utmost respect, and when one group is being screwed over, you'll usually hear about it.

Leah

Wesleyan is a wonderfully eclectic place. My Dad used to call it the blue-jeaned black sheep of the Little Three (the other two being Williams and Amherst) back when he was in college, and I think that maybe the broadest thing you can say about Wes is that while it and its student body are kind of grungy in many respects, we wouldn't have it any other way. I guess that what I'm getting at is that in spite of the fact that Wesleyan has rarely (if ever) been known for its athletics, the student body has an enormous amount of school pride. Most of the campus knows our fight song by heart, and we pull it out for just about every occasion, regardless of whether or not there's an actual sport involved. There's also a sort of lore surrounding our school that each new student is initiated into, from the Douglas Cannon (which students used to steal and take with them around the world, sending "ransom" pictures back to the administration) to the bizarre stuffed buffalo on the fourth floor of the science tower. Wesleyan's not a big place, and Middletown certainly isn't anything to write home about, but we love our school and its many eccentricities (and even shortcomings) fiercely.

Nico

not worth your time. nothing to do in middletown. administration is bullshit but the deans are cool. wesleyan sucks. there is nothing unique about it- its a rich white liberal arts college a dime a dozen. if u think its a top tier school try transferring your wesleyan credits somewhere and see how far you get. try name dropping it and see how many people think it is wellesley. NOT WORTH YOUR TIME OR MONEY.

Julia

wesleyan's really good academically, has a lively student culture.

Nora

Wesleyan is a place where, no matter what you like to do, you can find someone to do it with you. Sniff cocaine off the toilet seats? Sure! Compare and contrast minor characters in obscure Russian novels? No problem. I don't like cocaine or Russian novels, but I have friends who are into each. Because of the diversity of interests here and the degree to which they interact, I've personally found people to be less judgmental and I really feel free to experiment and learn. The atmosphere of openness and intellectual discussion is probably one of my favorite things about the place.

John

To me, the best thing about Wesleyan has always been the people. What I find amazing about Wesleyan is how difficult it is to categorize people. The frat guys are artists, the economists are lesbians, nothing seems to fit the mold. If there's a problem with that, it's that sometimes people get really wound up in not making stereotypes, to the point of getting angry if you ever refer to more than one person as a group (i.e. "the international students," or "the queer students"). It's a small enough place that it seems someone I know is involved in every performance, symposium, or charity drive on campus. Very strong community feeling, which is not to be confused with "school spirit." We have school spirit, but it revolves more around our progressive ideals than it does around the football team. Not a pretty town or a pretty school, but a place to go if you want to be somewhere that's a bit different from anywhere else.

Toby

The school is definitely a little bit too small. The best thing is that there are definitely a wide variety of people at Wesleyan, although most of them are white hipsters. But, you can definitely find people with similar interests to you. I like Middletown a lot but it's hard to get to the airport/train station -- there's no public transportation and the school doesn't provide shuttles. The administration has some wonderful people in it. For the most part, though, those high up act as though they have the student's best interests in mind when they really just want more money for the school.

David

Wesleyan is a school that is good for anyone. It's academically challenging, but Wes students like to party a lot. The size is perfect and makes for great campus unity. Everyone at Wesleyan loves the place. People don't talk about it all the time, but it comes up every now and then that Wesleyan is the only place that Wes students would want to be. Middletown has some good restaurants, and that's about it, but I rarely feel the need to leave campus because it's where everyone is. The one thing I would change about Wesleyan is the location. I would move the school to a warm climate. The weather in the winter is the only downfall, although the campus can be really nice covered in snow.

Jeffrey

It's a wonderful place, full of some of the warmest, most welcoming, and most amazing people you will ever meet.