Middlebury vs. Wesleyan

johnwesley
Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:09:40 +0000

I found Wesleyan’s campus to be underwhelming when I visited, but maybe it was just a mistaken impression.



We prefer the word, “understated” It’s true that a good deal of the Wesleyan campus is hidden in plain sight. Over the space of 181 years, they’ve adaptively re-used virtually every residence in the neighborhood instead of erecting a vast array of “collegiate” looking buildings. The admissions building, most of the humanities, language and area studies faculty, have their offices and teach many of their classes in stately homes that line High Street. Moreover, there are something like 200 university-owned houses all around campus that have obviated the need to construct conventional dormitories over the space of the last thirty years (expect to learn addresses, instead of building names over the next year, or so.)

Even the modern architecture tends not to call attention to itself, snaking along a hill, or tucked behind the backyards some High Street mansions, or squeezed between two older buildings. The result is that, with the exception of the eight story Exley Science Tower, much of the area around Wesleyan leaves the same impression that it did in the 1950s when the school was barely a thousand students. But, don’t let that fool you. Wesleyan is one of the most exciting universities in the country.