Wesleyan University

Since non-​students are posting reviews about a school they never attended I’d like to partake in the fun too.
First off prospective students should take these non-​student reviews with a grain of salt. They’re kinda silly and my review is no exception.
Secondly it’s unfortunate there are people in this world who hold a grudge against a potential employer simply because a job interview didn’t turn out the way they intended. Can you say «sour grapes»? I doubt their employment seeking experience reflects the actual student experience at Wesleyan University in any way, shape or form.
Now I don’t pretend to know everything about this school. I’ll leave that to the REAL students. But I will tell you that the harsh criticism of the school and the town of Middletown is undeserved. It’s unfair. How an outsider can walk around a campus and a street for a few days and conclude that others should stay away is beyond me. It’s unfathomable.
Everyone I know who graduated from Wesleyan loved it. The school holds an exemplary reputation throughout the state of Connecticut. I sometimes hire for my company and I would personally hire a Wesleyan grad any day over some dumb Stanford or UPenn grad. It’s a no brainer, especially after my recent experience in dealing with the ilk of people from those two schools. Newsflash for Chrissy; both schools were beat by Columbia in this year’s US News ranking. Ha ha.

Wesleyan is just a very strange place. I was here on business last month, and was so glad when I was finally able to leave this weird campus, you have no idea. First of all, it’s out in the middle of nowhere, and I do mean nowhere. Middletown’s whole social scene revolves around its tiny Main Street, and it’s not much to speak of. Unless a bunch of overpriced restaurants mixed in with some dilapidated storefronts is your thing, then you’re set, but other than that, there’s nothing around for miles. If you expect to have any kind of life while living/​working here, good luck. On the plus side, the campus is pretty, with a big sprawling hill in the center of campus and lots of identical red brick buildings. But pretty only gets you so far when the atmosphere and people are just plain miserable.
During my visit, I spent some time in the student union and chatted with a few current students because I find this to be a good barometer of what a school is really like. I asked them what it was like to be a student there and if they enjoyed it, and the best response I got was a half-​hearted «it’s okay» or «it could be worse». They said the school’s location made them feel isolated and that the students were pretentious and wore their pretension like a badge of honor. It’s one thing to meet one student who doesn’t like their school, that’s reasonable — not everyone loves their school. But, when you speak with several students and none of them has anything positive to say about their school — well, red flags galore!
To make matters worse, the staff I met seemed equally pretentious, very standoffish, and defensive about their school, like they were suspicious of visitors and determined to keep them at arms length. Fine by me! This isn’t a place I’d want to be, not even if you paid me.
I’ve visited a lot of campuses in my day, but I’ve never got such a strange, off-​putting vibe from a school like I did like Wesleyan. Stay away!

Go Wes !

Feels funny to review my school on Unilocal,but Wesleyan is the best. More than any other college or university I’ve visited, the vast majority of the students who go to Wes genuinely love it. No joke.

Wesleyan University (
) in Middletown, Connecticut, is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation. With about 3000 undergraduates and 300 graduate students, it is small enough for you to get to know your professors and to get very personalized attention in the areas of study that interest you the most. With no core curriculum, you have a great deal of freedom and flexibility in choosing among the 900 courses in 47 majors.
Students are quite diverse, with about 35% students of color, and 10% international. Their academic caliber is very high – over 2100 average SAT scores, for example – with a wide range of interests – music (from indie rock bands to accomplished classical musicians in both the western and eastern traditions), science (Wesleyan gets more federal research grants per student than any college in the US), economics (Nobel Prize winner Gary Yohe is one among a distinguished econ faculty), and everything in between.
Interdisciplinary programs such as the College of Social Studies (history, economics, government), the College of Letters (European Literature, history and philosophy), Science in Society (social and natural/​physical sciences) and the College of the Environment are among the most innovative majors there. One of the top Film Studies programs in the country is there, with many graduates going on to remarkable careers in Hollywood.
With a campus overlooking the Connecticut River, there is a vibrant small city downtown as well as one of the top rowing programs among smaller colleges. Wesleyan has a very active social life, with music, theatre, sports and cultural events making it tough for students to choose what to take part in and what to miss. Midway between New York and Boston, weekend trips are very posssible, though fewer students take advantage of that with the plethora of things to do on campus.
Each year about 10,000 students apply for admission, with about 22% admitted. About 45% of the freshman class are admitted through the Early Decision Program.

Ah, college.
I went from idealistic vegan hippie to a reasonable sub-​adult in my four years here and did as much growing up and becoming wiser as one can before the age of 22. Which is to say not a lot.
Wesleyan was, and continues to be, good to me. Unfortunately, few people in California have heard of it, outside of legal and academic circles.
And oh, right: learning. Do as much or as little as you want. Personally, I wish I had done more. (I also wish I had majored in economics.) Be a go-​getter and you can be any faculty’s little darling.
Also, I got to meet all kinds of wealthy folks’ spawn and through them learned to behave in a refined manner. Which helps former-​high-​hair-​turned-​vegan-​Jersey-​Girls like me get through this class-​conscious world.