<p>I mean, when visiting colleges, I always say to trust your gut. If your son’s gut was saying that this wasn’t the place for him, trust it.</p>
<p>That said, I’m also puzzled by the reaction and Middletown’s “run-down”-ness. I just graduated, and now I live next to Columbia University in NYC. Like Wesleyan, the immediate area surrounding Columbia is all very nice and “polished” for the upper-middle-class students to feel comfortable. But walk a few blocks north and east, and you get into territory that’s decidedly unpolished (though, in my opinion, still a fun and nice place to be - but again, I guess I’m not the sort of person who prefers the polished). At Wesleyan, it’s similar but not nearly as extreme as Columbia. There are parts of town that aren’t upper middle class and where upper middle class kids may feel uncomfortable. There are poor people walking around, and the police don’t immediately chase them away for being poor (most of the time). But I can’t think of anyplace that Wes students regularly go that I’d describe as “run-down” - even the north end of Main St.</p>
<p>Johnwesley, you forgot to add Eli Cannon’s to that list 
Yum.</p>