flying_pig319

Okay, I have a pretty specific question about the Music department at Wesleyan: I was looking at the info about requirements for a music major, and it says that 14 courses are required. That seems like a lot to me, considering that you only have 32 courses total throughout your career at Wes. I was thinking about it as a double-major too, which I have heard from other people is supposedly very doable, but since the other major requires 10 courses, 24 out of my 32 courses would have to be taken in those departments? I don't know whether that's really intense, or whether I just am not familiar with how these things work and that's actually pretty reasonable. Do you know people, though, who have majored (or double-majored) in music, and do they find the requirements overwhelming?
Thanks

nowyouknow

andalusia- for me, dorm parties>big dance parties most of the time. the dorm ones tend to last longer (in my experience anyway) and my friends and i usually call it a night around 3 or 4. either way, there's nothing more fun that being... uh slightly impaired with your friends

andalusia

Nowyouknow, when you say dance parties do you mean
a) Lil Wayne and top 40 hip-hop
b) Justice and hipster Pitchfork **** (not that I'm lumping Justice with ****, but you know what I mean)
c) Girl Talk haha
d) Daft Punk

I just want to know if I am ever going to roll at a serious 'rave' in the next four years. Or if my glow sticks are going to come out of their package. That would be nice. I want to get a feel for the scene up there because while I'm fine with Javapalooza, but I'm afraid that no one is going to positively respond to my strobe lights and music running at 130 BPM. I will miss vibing so much, ack!

flying_pig319

Andalusia: While Wesleyan does have great parties, and I don't think people would react negatively towards any scene you're into, I suggest you look at a bigger, more urban school if you want a real rave culture. 3000 students in central Connecticut probably won't really do it for you.

(z)

But keep in mind that Girl Talk did perform at Wesleyan earlier this year. I love him.

MrPimpateer

@andalusia

hehe. i wish there were more of a rave scene here. there really isn't one at all, but people definitely do roll here; it's just a question of planning **** correctly so you have a big party to go to like the sex party or whatever at eclectic, rather than just sitting around the dorm (unless of course that's what you want). i have friends who went to NYC frosh year several times and went to real raves, rolling and all, but that's tough to do unless you have a car or a place to crash in the city. dance parties here is pretty much usually gonna be you and your friends in a dorm room unless it's psi u/eclectic or some senior's house, but i hate psi u so usually for me it's ended up being at random people's houses. you just kinda show up get wasted and listen to whatever they have on, which usually consists of older school hip hop (think 3 6 mafia, jay Z of black album vintage; anything from about 9th-10th grade or so) or, sadly, britney spears. i'd say the most representative artist from your list would be daft punk though, easy.

flying_pig is right though if you're looking for an active rave scene you'd be best off in a city.

@ealgian

if you read my other posts you'll find that i address your question pretty specifically in terms of the student body. summary: you are going to feel under attack if your views are not very pronouncedly left-ist (not just liberal; LEFTIST). as for professors i would say that, absolutely, a large number of them have specific agendas to advance. certain departments kind of invite that. fgss springs to mind ( friend of mine felt she was 'punished' in her FGSS class for not toeing the professor's line); sociology, anthropology, AFAM, american studies...the people in those majors, students and profs tend to have very set views on politics and society and, i'll tell you right now, they are going to gang up on you. if you have any illusions about political diversity at wesleyan just look at the campus reaction to mytheos holt, 'nuff said. dude gets called a bigot, a racist, a nutcase etc. every time he writes a column, even if he's writing about the ****ing budget crisis. if you don't want that to be your experience then beware. i admit he's provocative but people really take their hatred of him to another level. political intransigence varies by individual professors, but, like i said, in certain majors you are definitely going to see an agenda advanced.

this comes from someone who has definite progressive leanings, btw. i'm a fiscal moderate and mainstream (i.e. not leftist) social liberal, but i feel like i can't speak out at all here for fear that i'll be treated the same way as mytheos.

flying_pig319

Ealgian, I'd wait for another response too, because Mr_Pimpateer loves posting dramatically discouraging and/or inflammatory things. From what I've heard, if you go around trying to push conservatism on other people, that won't be appreciated at all, but if you're open to learning new things/viewpoints and you're a normal "Obama democrat", I don't think you'd have much of a problem. Mytheos is very actively a conservative -- writing pieces for the Argus and things. While some people appreciate the dialogue he brings, some are obviously upset by his views. Being a normal democrat who is open to learning about new, more progressive, viewpoints would NOT be the same as being a conservative who goes around campus actively campaigning.

Something I've found though is that while a certain degree of liberalness is assumed, there is always a LOT of dialogue on campus. About everything. There's bound to be someone who shares your viewpoint (as long as it's somewhere from moderate to radical, I'd say). It's not like everyone believes in one radical set of beliefs, and if you deviate from that you feel like an outcast.

I'll let someone with experience respond, though.

Ealgian

Thanks for the responses to my question. I've read some of Holt's columns and they are interesting but not my cup of tea. I don't take issue with people having any sort of bias as long as it does not manifest itself in a professor spewing personal beliefs during a class where the beliefs have no relation to the subject material.

Call me picky or principled, lol.

One of the wonderful aspects of IB at my HS is that there is dialogue without disparagement. From what I have read about LACs, Ivies, etc. that sometimes is not the case.

If more CC users who are at Wes/going to Wes could comment on this it would be much appreciated.

andalusia

Haha, I love Girl Talk too. I just think it's weird when people play his albums at parties and think that's sufficient for dance music.

Thanks for the responses though! I am still waiting to hear back from more urban schools, but Wesleyan offered a full ride so I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to actually be there. Lol, and I'm not going to base my decision on the lack/existence of a rave culture. If anything, it'll be interesting to see how everything comes together in a non-urban setting.

Thanks again.

Skie

Hey Flying_Pig,
My S is a sophomore at Wesleyan and doing a double major in philosophy and music. In the Music Department, all activities are for full credit, unlike many music programs where performance counts for less. So his piano lessons, chamber music and singing in Collegium were each given the same number of credits as the music history course he's taking this semester. He's going to end up with a lot more than 32 courses under his belt by the time he graduates. Even with all his philosophy classes and music activities and classes, he has time to take two courses in other departments every semester. There are no minors at Wesleyan but lots of students do a double major.

flying_pig319

I should have thought to ask you, Skie! Thanks.

madjoy

on rave culture: I have a bunch of friends who go to raves off-campus several times a semester. Most of them are graduating, though... And some of the big ravers graduated in the last two years. For some reason, I just don't know that many underclassmen, though, so that could just be me.


@ealgian: "In your personal experience, have you ever had a class where the professor forcefully/extensively addressed political issues unrelated to the subject material?"

I actually agree with MrPimpateer for the most part on this one. Most people at Wesleyan are pretty liberal. Not everyone, and conservative opinions are usually tolerated and listened to with interest by most of the student body (when they're not as intentionally-antagonistic as Mytheos often is - not that his opinions are so crazy, but he does kind of try to get the Wesleyan radical liberals angry, and he often succeeds). But when Obama won the election, the entire campus was pretty much one giant party - this *is* a liberal Democrat school with the occasional anarchist-beyond-the-two-party-system thrown in. (I actually know quite a fair number of libertarians, too, but hardcore traditional Republicans with conservative *social* values are hard to come by here).

Like MrPimpateer said, there are some departments where professors *will* throw in their opinion during class (usually related to the class subject matter, though; I haven't seen it thrown in completely unrelated). It's usually not a big deal because those are the departments where everyone agrees with them anyway - sociology, FGSS, etc. As a soc major, my professors in the soc department have had liberal leans and haven't really tried to hide it. That said, I think they're right, and pretty much everyone else in the classes seemed to, too. That's not to say that there wasn't any room for debate, and certainly some professors were challenged on their opinions occasionally. And as MrPimpateer said, there are some departments where this really isn't an issue. I recommend looking through the faculty pages of the departments you might be interested in majoring in, in the social sciences - you can get a pretty good idea of where the research interests lie, and, somewhat consequently, what their political leanings are.

That said, professors I've had *love* it when you challenge them. There are exceptions, I guess - a couple of arrogant professors who believe they're right and no one should challenge them - but most of them really encourage original and critical thinking. My Soc Analysis class (required for the major) was actually almost all about that - reading other sociological works and then critiquing them. It's a valuable skill to have and I do think it's encouraged by Wesleyan as a whole.

(z)

More questions:

- Is it possible to spend four years at Wesleyan without ever taking a math course?

- Is it easy for underclassmen to get involved in writing for The Argus, and maybe even Wesleying?

neethus1

I second (z)'s first question in #28. I hate math

1J0A6L6

From your point of view and experience, what are the strongest departments at Wesleyan?
Also, how is the math department there?