<p>This is the stats for the Class of 2013. I understand that Wesleyan is traditionally ranked as one of the best liberal art colleges in the nation. But compared to its peers Wes seems to have fewer students ranked in the top decile of their high school classes(e.g Haverford 94%, Middlebury 88%). I am wondering why this is?</p>
<p>Heh… I can give you my personal gut reaction to this, which probably isn’t true, that Wesleyan has a substantial number of very, very smart slackers, who probably did very well on their SATs and had plenty of interesting extracurricular, but may have had some trouble in things like turning in work on time.</p>
<p>The better answer is probably that Wesleyan reads applications carefully and holistically, and won’t reject someone based on their numbers out of hand.</p>
<p>Rest assured, my peers at Wesleyan were some of the smartest people I know - smarter than some other people I know who went to HYPS.</p>
<p>Because it’s very possible that alot of the students applying/accepted do not have class rank…those % are based on only the students whose schools report…</p>
<p>Wesleyen cannot compete with other peer institutions with their financial aid package. I know several people who had put Wesleyen as their first choice school but financial aid was significantly worse and therefore, crossed off the list.</p>
<p>Obviously, no one but a Wes admissions officer can actually answer your question for sure. But here are my guesses:</p>
<p>A big factor is probably SIZE. Wes is much larger than most of its peers. Thus, even if it has the same # of students who were in the top 10%, the overall percentage will be lower. </p>
<p>For instance, Haverford has a class size of about 300 students a year. So, 94% of those were in the top 10%. That’s 282 students.</p>
<p>Middleburry has a class size of around 600 students a year. 88% of those is 528 students.</p>
<p>Wes has a class size of about 740 students a year. 70% of those is 518 students – obviously way more than Haverford’s entire class, and around the same number as Middleburry. Wes just also has more OTHER students, too. </p>
<p>Other potential contributing factors:</p>
<p>A) Maybe Wes’s admissions looks for fit more than ranking and/or doesn’t consider ranking as important a factor as other LACs. Perhaps they are just more likely to take the brilliant musician who was in the top 20% but not 10% (ie. a friend of mine, who is doing very well here). Some schools really care about SATs and think they’re important, others less so. The same can be said with rank.</p>
<p>B) It’s possible that Wes, which is known as more alternative than many of its peers, attracts more people who went to alternative high schools that don’t rank. For instance, at my high school, which was generally liberal and had a strong focus on “learning for learning sake” and therefore doesn’t rank, TONS of people every year apply to Wes/Brown/Vassar/Oberin/Bard/etc, while only one or two apply to Middleburry. </p>
<p>C) It’s possible that because of our old-school, former top New England men’s college thing, we might still get more applicants from places like Exeter, Andover, and certainly Chote (because of the Connecticut thing), schools where the top 10% almost certainly go on to HPYSMetc. but people outside of the top 10% are still incredibly impressive admissions grabs. </p>
<p>Vassar, which is a lot like Wes in size and atmosphere, has a 67% top 10% rate for 2013, probably for a lot of the same reasons.</p>
<p>Weskid: You are taking a percentage of the entire class rather than the part of the class that comes from schools that rank. According to the stats page linked on the Wesleyan admission page, only 51% of the 2013 class came from a school that ranked. </p>
<p>Also, it should be noted that the class of 2013 is the class that entered in Fall 2009, not the class that will be coming next fall. Because less than 20% of the applicants were accepted this year (vs. 22 in the last) the percentage in the top 10% may go up a little.</p>
<p>On the more general question, it is true that some academically rigorous schools (where, e.g., a third or more have gpas above 4.0) don’t rank because ranking doesn’t help a lot of their students. If Wesleyan is accepting comparatively more students from those schools, it could have an effect.</p>
<p>I was looking in the wrong column. For the class of 2013 only 44% of the class of 2013 came from a school that ranked. I would like to know why it dropped so much from the earlier years. Also, I would be interested in what the percentages are for other schools.</p>
<p>But overall is Wesleyan an academically strong school? Does it deserve its reputation as a member of the historic “little three” and the small ivies?</p>
<p>yes Wesleyan is an extremely rigorous school, with an education equal to any school in the country. Wes is definitely representative of the Little Three and little ivies. Wes takes a hit in rankings because its endowment is smaller, and many use that as an excuse and say, oh Wesleyan isn’t up to snuff compared to Williams and Amherst… but actually, if Wes had the same amount of money, it’d be ranked right next to Williams and Middlebury. Wes is simply more careful with its spending, and gets more bang for its buck.</p>
<p>davy.davy: I’ve noticed you’ve been posting quite a bit, about very specific questions. I would check out the Wikipedia and U n i go articles on Wesleyan and see if they answer some of your questions. I think you’re trying to parse things a little too thinly…</p>
<p>Wesleyan is most definitely the best school ever!!! You read it here!!!</p>
<p>@smartalic34
I’m in like the final stage of deciding which college to attend, so I’m really just picking on small things. I have two great options here, Wesleyan and Haverford. I’m slightly leaning toward Wes. Would you be able to answer my question in my new post “will I fit in at Wes”. An honest answer would be greatly appreciated.</p>