S24 is interested in math/comp Sci/psychology and has good stats and community-focused ECs. He’s also trans. He loves the setting of Tufts, but is drawn to the possibility of more community at Wes. Any insight would be helpful!
I believe the ED2 deadline for Wesleyan has already passed.
Or are you talking about colleges for a current high school junior??
You’re right the deadline for Wesleyan has passed. However, it may still be possible to switch an RD application to ED2, if the AO allows it. Our HS counselor advised us last month that many schools offer a little flexibility on early January ED2 deadlines since so many schools are out of session then. If OP decides on Wesleyan it doesn’t hurt to ask. Good luck to OP!
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Thanks so much! Yes, S24 initially didn’t ED2for the Wes application, but we’re thinking of changing that in the next day or two.
It sounds like Tufts is the distinct preference but for the trans community question—is that right? Does your son have concerns about Tufts’ embrace of trans students? Or is it just Wes’s distinctive LGBTQ-friendliness that is the differentiator? How does your son feel about Wes’s location and size?
FWIW, my kid is applying ED2 to Wes after getting rejected ED from a school of similar size/location to Tufts. His preference for the ED school was definitive, and I know he would have forever wondered about that school if he had applied ED1 to Wes. Wes is the clear #2 choice, so he has no doubts about ED2 there. But size/location/feel are significant factors, so I would encourage your kid to really reflect on what he wants and whether he will feel regret over not trying for Tufts.
I also am not quite sure I understand the community question with Tufts.
Normally I would think of Tufts as a good university choice for people who are interested in a fairly warm and supportive college community. More toward the nerdy-fun than party-fun end of the spectrum, and generally very progressive with a pretty strong dose of activism.
I note there are always some latent socioeconomic diversity issues at a place like Tufts, because they skew toward students from upper income/higher education families. But that’s pretty much universal among very selective private colleges and universities offering this sort of combination of academics and overall experience, not least in the Northeast.
Of course this is not in contrast to Wesleyan. I guess I more just think of community as a common strength, so usually I would think the decisive factors would be something else–setting and overall size being most obvious, but perhaps also a particular academic department or program of interest.
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Has he visited both? There’s a definite sense of community at Wes, but like many LACs, it’s partially the result of being in a smaller, less densely populated setting. Trips to Boston and New York City don’t take place without some planning and certainly not every weekend.
My DD had this same choice to make 2 years ago…she ended up choosing Tufts and has no regrets! She loves the size, community, vibe, education and proximity to Boston. The campuses feel very different, with Wesleyan feeling much more isolated and smaller, but for some that is an added bonus! In the end, I told her she can’t go wrong and to go with her gut so she has no regrets…
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Thank you all for such thoughtful responses. Yes, he has visited both, and liked both a lot. It’s definitely great to hear that Tufts is a supportive environment. I think his question about Wesleyan is whether it feels like a bubble due to its setting (and if so, whether that’s a bad thing, or actually good.)
I think that is a large part of the point of LACs. They are by nature more intimate communities.
There is actually a bunch of social science to support this, sometimes associated with Dunbar. But roughly speaking, most prominent LACs are around what is sometimes called the “tribe” size, give or take. At that level, already many people will not be friends and such. But each four-year class is small enough where most people can at least be acquaintances, and at least most of the other students can be known names or at least known faces.
Once you move up in size to a Tufts, now each class is the “tribe” size, so likely only a fraction of your class will even count as an acquaintance. And many more people at the college generally will essentially be strangers to you.
Which is better or worse is entirely personal, though. One common observation is some people like to find “their people”, and that can imply a smaller group–say 50-100, or even less, where basically all the people can be at least friends, and many good friends, and some close friends.
Depending on what you are talking about, there could be many such groups, even at a SLAC (including because people can be part of more than one such group).
On the other hand, if you are talking about a relatively low-frequency sort of person, maybe less so.
Like, sometimes very conservative people express concerns about relatively liberal SLACs. And while that would not be a concern of mine, I think it is valid for them. Because, very conservative people may well be far less than 50-100 people in a class, indeed less than 50-100 in a whole SLAC.
But this sort of thing is going to become less and less an issue the larger the overall school size.
OK, so if you like the idea of at least kinda knowing most people, particularly being acquainted with most of your class, and are very likely to be able to find various groups of “your people” at a SLAC, that can be just fine.
But, if you like the idea of being able to meet entirely new people on a regular basis, or have a sense of “your people” that might be pretty rare at a given SLAC, maybe a larger university would be a better idea.
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Wesleyan is a very porous bubble in the sense that it’s hard to separate the campus from the surrounding community which itself is a bit of a microcosm. Thus, you might find a high-end, natural foods store on the same block as the community health center or that the nearest synagogue is next door to an Islamic center. The fact that both the town and the university are of a “Goldilocks” size and scale makes for a very interesting dynamic.
I think most private colleges exist in their own bubble. But that’s not to say it’s a bad thing. Most students at these schools are very consciously choosing a particular educational experience. I say this as a parent whose kid attended a NESCAC.
Tufts may be in a city, but Wesleyan is not isolated. Very simply put, Tufts is a little more mainstream than Wesleyan. That’s neither good nor bad. It just means that the vibe to each school is distinct. Is your son more mainstream? Then he should choose Tufts. Is he less mainstream? He should choose Wes. Isolation is not an issue at Wes, but if he needs easy access to a truly urban environment, then Tufts makes sense.
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Thank you all! I would not describe him as mainstream, really - he’s definitely not looking for a preppy vibe. Mainly, though, he’s a serious student. I think he’s looking for a place where he won’t have to justify himself as a trans person and can focus on just enjoying/experiencing college.
Tufts doesn’t have a preppy vibe. It’s more mainstream than Wesleyan though. I think it’s likely that Wesleyan might have the edge on being very accepting of a trans person, but I also think Tufts is big enough that it won’t be an issue.
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In terms of academic fit, Tufts has a CogSci major that is CS+psych focused and might be a good fit. https://as.tufts.edu/psychology/academics/undergraduate-programs/babs-cognitive-and-brain-science The Engineering Psychology major might be worth a look also. Wesleyan doesn’t have as obvious a pre-packaged blend of psych and CS (their cog-sci concentration within the psych major isn’t as computational as the major at Tufts) but I’m sure the curriculum flexibility is there to blend the two if he wants to.
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Wesleyan’s interdisciplinary Quantitative Analysis Center represents a noteworthy resource for a student who might be interested in combining statistics and computing with a social science such as psychology.
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I would place a large premium on having a large, fairly liberal city near the campus as Tufts does, in this case. The depth of social options is incomparable between the two. Middletown is too in the middle of nowhere and rather small, even if Wesleyan itself is progressive.
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But, what does “in this case” really mean? Is DS looking to expand his connections with other trans men? Does he feel he may need to date women off-campus? I take the OP seriously when she writes that he is just looking for a place where he can:
I’m don’t think Middletown is in the middle of no where. Middlebury is in the middle of no where 
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I think the comparison is that at Tufts it is easy to navigate social situations with other college kids in the area. And that at Wesleyan it’s harder. Yes, an occasional party at Yale or making a friend at U. New Haven or Conn College. But not terribly convenient without a car and Ubers for those distances get expensive very quickly.
I know kids at Tufts and they socialize with kids at Harvard and BU and Northeastern (etc.) because there is easy public transportation (not an Amtrak train… but an easy to navigate subway system) without thinking about it.
Agree that Middletown is not truly isolated- but for a college kid, the social options off campus aren’t really that easy to navigate…
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