Wesleyan has long been a leader in providing access to underrepresented students and diversifying our student body. Since partnering with QuestBridge in 2008, we’ve supported hundreds of Quest Scholars, typically enrolling 30 to 40 scholars each year, including no fewer than 10 scholars through the College Match. Quest scholars at Wesleyan come from small, rural towns across the country as well as major urban centers, and all have had their full demonstrated need met through comprehensive, need-based financial aid. Questbridge Applicants, Admission & Aid - Wesleyan University
Thanks….even last year they were much higher than that 30-40 with the 101. It’s a good development to see that increase. And Wes has always been above average in transparency about admissions.
Tbh, my kid ”threw in” a Middlebury app a couple years ago bc there’s no supplemental essay in their application. There are some kids from her high school who go there every year (CA public) but they are almost always recruited athletes. We weren’t surprised by her rejection—certainly Middlebury does this to increase apps and lower the acceptance rate. Knowing better now, I wouldn’t give my $80 app fee to SLACs without a better strategy. I’d play the ED or ED2 card on the reach, if my kid was set on the school(s), and then I’d tell them to cultivate strong relationships with admissions at a small number SLACs in the target/safety range. No apps to reach/highly rejective schools in RD. Not worth the application money or the essay work.
I don’t necessarily agree with this, but I do make a distinction between reach and highly rejective. An unhooked applicant does not have a distinct advantage in ED vs RD if they are academically competitive.
My s22 threw in Midd and Wesleyan the night they were due because he was sick of writing supplements and I thought it was worth a shot. He had never visited or shown interest. Not recruited or hooked. He got into both.
Amazing. That was not our experience, but I’m glad it was yours. I think I feel the way I do about it because of what I see happening at our high school. In the years I’ve been paying attention (4 or so) the northeast SLACs are represented almost exclusively by recruited athletes (Middlebury, Williams, Colby usually among them). I don’t think anyone at our school has ever selected Wesleyan over the last 4 years. My D22 was waitlisted there. She went out of her way to cultivate a relationship with the Smith admissions rep and she was admitted (no one at the high school has chosen Smith either). If admissions reps at SLACs are looking at which schools they are most successful with, it certainly isn’t our Bay Area high school (which sends tons of kids out of state, to big publics, and tons to CA schools, public and private) so why would they admit anyone but a committed athlete or a person who commits via ED? Anyway, I think it’s amazing that your kid got into both Middlebury and Wesleyan. Did they choose one of them?
(In case anyone assumes my kid wasn’t qualified, she was. 3.95, 12 APs, excellent scores, leadership in journalism, county government, school clubs, etc.) She landed in a great spot, I’m not at all fussed. But I do think SLACs have something to offer my S26, so I’m trying to learn some lessons and pay attention for the next go around)
So based on my tour through SCOIR, it appeared to me that if Middlebury was waitlisting our kids proactively (and it sure looked like it), that was much more the exception than the rule. But I also know our HS has a record of actually sending non-athletes to all sorts of SLACs, so maybe their yield models “know” our kids might well yield if admitted RD.
I’m not normally one to push ED, but if you are looking at SLACs where maybe kids from your HS do not so much yield, but they are not official demonstrated interest schools either (where presumably by physically visiting and such you might make yourselves stand out), then maybe ED1 and ED2 will end up being a couple shots to get around that sort of problem.
Strangely, out of all his options, those 2 were the last ones standing and he picked Midd. He’s doing amazing there (3/3 semesters college scholar) and has become much more independent. He had applied w 4.0/4.64 tons of APs and 3 sport varsity in addition to minor club roles. 1550 sat
D24 is about to hear back from some SLACs that she applied to unhooked with slightly lower stats and less activities, so the reaches are even more of a reach for her. You mentioned Smith, which is actually one she applied to also. If none of them work out, I’ll be sad for her bruised ego, but I also think she would be happy with her in state, honors college back up plan.
Ostensibly Wesleyan/Trinity is a rivalry, but in my experience Wes-Williams is much more intense.
And as much as people don’t seem to like to hear it, all three of the schools comprising the Little Three care about winning that title. Each school keeps Little Three Champions banners and displays them with the winning team in media.
But based on what I’ve seen, the Wes/Williams rivalry is among the most fierce even if Williams/Amherst football is the Biggest Little game. I’m sure perceptions vary. I think it can also vary by sport. For example, Amherst is always terrible at crew and Williams and Wesleyan are very good at it, so pretty intense in that sport as between the latter two and not so much as concerning the former.
Can’t think of any derogatory nicknames, but I can verify that the vitriol flows with some fans during football games. It’s mostly pretty tame by comparison to P5 rivalry behavior, but there are people who really do care about winning those bragging rights.
This may not come under the heading of “derogatory”, but for a while, Wesleyan persisted in playing the old Amherst fight song at Homecoming events despite the fact that “Lord Geoffrey” was no longer that school’s official mascot: Old College Medley - The Wesleyan Spirits a cappella (youtube.com)
Basically, it’s whichever of the old Little Three rivals whose turn it is to compete that weekend that receives the brunt of the ribbing. The same is true when Wes travels to Western Massachusetts; the old standard, “Someday You’ll Work For Us” chant has been known to issue forth from the Williams bleachers after the ephs receive a particularly humiliating drubbing.
People familiar with the history of professional baseball will understand the context for this incident involving Jeffrey Maier, a former Wesleyan outfielder: