My son is a junior at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He thinks the teachers in the humanities are HORRIBLE—they are bringing in these hacks as visiting professors in the English dept. who don’t know how to teach and he feels like he is just punching in and out. He can’t bare another semester there–it is too late for him to do junior year abroad next semester. Is there any way he could take classes somewhere else? He said the students at Wesleyan are sitting in classes on their facebook and not having any interest in discussing the subject matter. I want more for him. Please send me ideas for next semester. Could he take classes at Yale or Harvard next semester? Ideas please.
Why is it too late for him to do study abroad? If it’s that a school administrative deadline has passed, then maybe a study abroad program through another university or through a program that Wesleyan would accept?
Or an internship?
Thank you for answering. The school administrative deadline is over but I think they would accept if if he could find a school that would accept him. Internship is not what he wants–he wants to be in classes with teachers that can really teach and and know their subject matter and a school with students that are intellectual.
Not understanding the question. Of course he can transfer if he wants to.
I assume he is an English major then? How close is he to fulfilling the requirements for his major?
I thought I remembered there being some kind of cross registration/exchange thing between some of the NESCAC schools?
One of the nice things about smaller colleges is that there can be less bureaucracy. Has he spoken to the study abroad staff to see if exceptions can be made to the deadline? Many study abroad programs will accept late applicants if capacity hasn’t been met.
according to Wesleyan’s Wikipedia…
Thank you—it is too late for the 12 college exchange —but thank you so much for your ideas…I will try calling the Study Abroad director tomorrow—thank you.
No offense intended but your son should walk himself over to the Study Abroad director and make a direct appeal in person. 
He has and hasn’t really gotten much from the director—no one at that school is helpful.
I’m sorry to hear that your son is unhappy at school. But I find it hard to believe that every single person at the school is unhelpful. And surely every teacher isn’t horrible. Can’t he read reviews of profs and find some classes that are interesting with good teachers for next semester?
I’d also give some thought to whether there is something else going on with him and school or just his mindset if everything at school seems bad to him.
Why doesn’t your son out more effort into choosing better classes? I guess it is because “no one is helpful” there.
Could he do an independent study with a professor as one of his classes next year?
Did he wake up this term and realize every teacher is horrible and no one is helpful? How did he let the study abroad sign ups pass? There is something else going on here with your son.
He has been trying to take classes that sound interesting for the last 3 years–these visiting “professors” are absolutely horrible—they come unprepared, they know nothing about the subject matter, they are unprofessional ----I am horrified by this because I am an alum and the quality fo the professors were much better 30 years ago. The school is trying to save money by having these visiting “professors” who don’t have a clue how to teach and inspire. I keep encouraging him and I am shocked at hearing how these teachers act. When he asked the head of the art department whether they would consider having a figure drawing class with models, the head of the art dept. said that he has been head for 30 years and he (my son) should consider going somewhere else. The attitude at Wesleyan is that they don’t want to improve the quality of the teaching. At $65K/year, I am disgusted as a parent and an alum. Architecture was taught by an architect who had no clue about how to teach.
He is an English major and is very busy with work and finally realized after the 4 horrible teachers he has this semester, that he couldn’t bare to come back next semester. At that point, the deadline for study abroad was over.
He wants to find students who are intellectual, but the focus at Wesleyan is students doing facebook and tinder during class, and outside of class drinking and “hooking up”. There must be students somewhere that aren’t that way.
It should be noted that the students have been protesting to fire President Roth–he earns $950K/year and when parents try to call him, he doesn’t return calls. Disgusting! I agree that he should be fired–he is worthless!
Your son should either transfer out or pull his britches up and tough it out. I can’t believe he questioned the curriculum to the Director.
Do they not incorporate figure drawing into their painting and drawing classes? If not and no figure drawing, I don’t think there is anything wrong with questioning the Department Head. All college fine arts programs should incorporate it unless you go to someplace like BYU or Liberty where you probably wouldn’t expect to find nude models. My kids go to smaller LACs than Wesleyan and you’ll find figure drawing there. I know it is incporporaed into classes, not sure if it is a separate class all its own.
There must be some classes in the English Dept offered by full-time, non-visiting profs?
"He wants to find students who are intellectual, but the focus at Wesleyan is students doing facebook and tinder during class, and outside of class drinking and “hooking up”.
Welcome to college life! I think students can be intellectuals and still use social media (preferably not in class) and drink and hook up, too.
Sorry, but IMHO, it may be your son who may be the problem. Yes, every school may have a few “problem” professors that many students don’t like, but it seems your son is unhappy with most or all of his. You say that the quality of profs 30 years ago when you attended were better, that you are horrified. On what do you base that? Are you sitting in on current classes or just going off what your son tells you? I know as a parent you want to take what your child says at face value, but in this instance I would have to question what he perceives to be the truth.