I consider Wesleyan a reach. Agree, or is there something about their stats I don’t fully get?
Any take on the athletic culture there?
I think you can’t state what is what - without a test - but with a 34 and with strong rigor, it’s certainly attainable - whether or not the student got in.
It’s got a 21% admit rate - so low but not super low - but obviously ED impacts that some. It’s yield is not high - so that helps for acceptance. Take out ED, it’s really sort or normal but last year only 30% including ED and a low 13.6% non ED. In other words, if your student is a stud and at least academically it sounds like he is (don’t know about outside of class), Wes needs him more than he needs them.
It’s ok to have reaches as long as you have the sure things too. But depending on the overall profile, it may not be a reach - maybe a solid target.
The ESF is an interesting look. It’s a stand alone and focused school, but if you want the resources, it shares some of Syracuse U, a much bigger greek and athletic school. You don’t need to be a part - you may just use Bird Library and nothing else - but it’s the best of both worlds.
I’m seeing different acceptance rates being reported for Wesleyan which makes it confusing. Last April, the campus newspaper reported that the official number from the administration was 16%. On their common data set, they reported 28%, but that was from an applicant pool of only 6879 while the campus newspaper reported a record high number of applicants in excess of 14,000. I would tend to go with the 16% number because they’ve pretty consistently been in the 14-17% range in recent years.
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This analysis placed Wesleyan as the 47th most selective school in the nation, information that will allow you to estimate its admission difficulty in relation to those of other colleges and universities:
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Wesleyan is a reach in the sense that any school with a sub-20% acceptance rate is considered a reach for anyone simply because in that 80+% of students who are being rejected are many students just as qualified as those who have been accepted.
However, your son definitely has the credentials of the kind of student that Wesleyan is looking for. And I don’t think that it is shock & awe that they are looking for. His essay is important. It’s his opportunity to introduce himself to them. What they are looking for is authenticity and genuineness in an essay written in his own voice.
The fact that he is interested in environmental studies is a plus. Wesleyan has emphasized this as a priority since the 1990s. The fact that he is looking for a campus where students are collaborative and are highly engaged in academics is a plus. That’s what they are looking for! He should explain why this is important to him. I think that if he visited the campus so that he could write about how he could contribute to the campus culture, that would be a plus. For example, would he like to work on the campus’s student run farm? If he could begin to refine his ideas regarding a career of involvement with environmental issue so that he could write about it in his essay that would be a plus - particularly if he could explain how he might integrate his interests in sustainability with Wesleyan’s approach in their Bailey College of the Environment.
Wesleyan is not an impossible acceptance. It does not require a hook. They are in fact looking for applicants just like your son. With an 80+% rejection rate, there are no guarantees, but they are definitely worth applying to.
One additional note is that Wesleyan requires SAT subject area tests but they do not require the basic aptitude portion of the test.
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Please note that College Board discontinued SAT Subject Tests.
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Kind of hard for current high school students to take the SAT subject tests that were discontinued around 2020.
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I also immediately thought of Macalester.
Hobart and William Smith might be a little too small, but they have a really popular Environmental Studies program, and what I would consider to be a potentially great location, and robust merit program:
Yes, and they also have an excellent summer program for environmental studies for high school students as well.
Thanks. I took that off the Wesleyan common data set. Eek!
This is from their website.
If you go to the cds, 825 enrolled of 2370. But 502 of 825 enrollees were ED.
Many say - you must ED to get accepted.
But no
323 non ED enrolled but that’s of 2068 non ED acceptances.
Anyway, I think the point being, if the student has a 33/34 ACT, it’s certainly a realistic app even if you still want to call it a reach.
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Not sure of the % but I believe HWS has substantive Greek life. OP doesn’t want.
About 200 or so of those ED acceptances are athletes. There are probably another 40-50 who have some other kind of hook. So, that’s about half of the ED acceptances who has some kind of hook, which amounts to about 30% of the freshman class.
I agree with you that there are still a lot of seats available for those who are applying RD.
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Only one of six non ED admits attend.
Many times people think - over half of admits are ED. But they don’t realize how many are saying no !! Lots !!
And I think the no merit schools will be seeing higher rates of decline as families grasp with affordability.
All that says, yes, if the school fits, it’s reasonable but OP asked about sports culture, so maybe someone can address. It’s interesting you brought up the athlete count which is perhaps why they are asking.
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My first thought was Pitzer, so long as you are truly okay with a full-pay private. (They do give merit but only in four-figure amounts that don’t make much of a dent in the sticker price.) It’s a fantastic place for enviro analysis, with multiple tracks as tsbna noted. There are a lot of possible emphases, with coursework as wide-ranging as studio classes in the design of public spaces, taught by landscape architects, to art clases based in the nature preserve, to classes focusing on history, econ, public policy, education and strategies for social change, not to mention of course enviro science. There are great opportunities through the Redford Conservancy and also through CASA - tons of community involvement. The ease of registering throughout the consortium gives access to an even wider range of academic options. The faculty are top-notch and very supportive. My Scripps student was an EA major; she initially had a Pitzer advisor but ended up deciding that the way Pomona structures the major fit her interests better, so she switched to the Pomona-based version. If you’re a Pitzer student, you don’t have that flexibility, so make sure you like the curriculum… but there’s a lot to like. The acceptance rate is relatively low at 25%, but your son’s stats are comfortably above median, plus the school is need-aware, so I’d be quite optimistic admissions-wise. Pomona would be worth an application too but it’s much more of a long shot.
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As far as I’m aware, Wesleyan has no supplemental essay where you could write about this. I think you’d have to customize your common app essay if you want to convey anything specific.
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It might be worth clarifying that Wesleyan offers a lot (>2,000) of RD acceptances. The number of RD seats it leaves available is pretty small though.
Is this because Pitzer has the environmental majors and Scripps doesn’t or some other reason? Not to hijack the thread but my D26 is applying to both schools and has both in her top 5 choices so just trying to understand the nuance here.
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But they know a small percentage accept. If they had a high yield, they’d have worry. But they don’t.
I also looked at the last three years - all three pulled from the WL although last year only 5, the years b4 much much higher.
Also, it’s hard to see if they are need blind or aware. I’ve read they went to aware in 2012 but on their website, it also says they try to admit 90% need blind. Either way, full pay is a win. And yes, less than half get aid - which is likely attributed to such a high ED count (the wealthy apply ED) and Questbridge app (likely a good percentage of those receiving aid). In short, it’s like many other high end privates, a school for the rich.
No one is denigrating Wes. But the stats are the stats.
The point is simply that if OP’s student likes it, it’s a reasonable RD app. Not safe but certainly reasonable. As I noted, they need kids like OP’s student more than vice versa.
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This particular major is shared by multiple colleges (Pitzer, Scripps, and Pomona, I think). So no matter which college you attend, you’re effectively getting the same major. It’s pretty seamless – for example, there’s no residence requirement that mandates a certain number of classes in the major taken at one’s own institution. (My D23 was accepted to both Scripps and Pitzer and was strongly considering this major, so unless things have changed in the last couple of years, that’s how it works.)