Does he have good friendships? Is he a “glass is half empty” type of kid? Could there be some situational depression going on?
I too find it hard to believe that ALL professors at such a reputable institution are bad. Probably something else making your son unhappy.
Final note on 12 colleges…he could tough out one more semester at Wesleyan and take advantage of 12 colleges plan to spend senior year at one of the other fine institutions. Deadline appears to be Feb. 1.
And @pickpocket comes up with the exact solution sought in the OP.
There you go!
@parent24: Many have asked you if you can really take all that your son tells you at face value, and also if he is a glass half-empty/half-full type of person.
I would truly want to think that my well-adjusted, really smart kids could assess any situational upset or disappointment, seek to find a way to do what they needed to do while there, and, if not, actively undertake to find ways to finish successfully whatever term they were in and then move into the next phase of completing their goals elsewhere if necessary. Maybe his reaching out to you is his way of bringing you on board as his partner in this search, but is he looking as well?
Could he simply be using you as his sounding board, knowing you will carry the upset for him? You sound pretty darned upset.
I was at Wesleyan this fall during an open house session when the students completely took over the space set up for parents to have an audience with the president, listening to his philosophy and approach to life at Wesleyan. The students handed out pamphlets to parents wherein they implored that we make inquiries of the president, then encircled the room with their body-sized banners, a bull horn, guterral utterances and interruptions. There was one young lady (a speaker for the group) adorned in the thickest machine link of chain I have ever seen, and I believe it was she who actually spit during the president’s address to parents. I thought that was disgusting. I thought the commandeering of the room disrespectful. I thought the president handled that level of disrespect quite well, until he couldn’t, and walked quietly down the center aisle and out of the door.
Clearly the university is undergoing some deep riffs between the student body and administration. Is that strife something which is wearing on your son? Would it be possible to lessen his tension by lessening your own?
I
So it took me about 2 minutes, but I found the following registration website
https://iasext.wesleyan.edu/regprod/!wesmaps_page.html?crse_list=ENGL&term=1169&offered=Y#fall
He can see who is teaching every class.
He can look on this site and see who is visiting and who is permanent.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/english/people/index.html
He can also go on ratemyprofessors.com to identify inspiring teachers.
I agree this is too strange to be the whole school. It sounds like your son is making excuses or maybe can’t see past his feelings. It is not too late for 12 college exchange. It is not too late to do a semester or two overseas. He isn’t looking. At the very least he should walk down there and talk to someone.
This should be on the Wesleyan subforum so more current students/parents can see this
My daughter is a senior English major at Wesleyan and loves her classes and professors. She purposefully chose that major because of the quality of the professors. To each his own…
@parent24, I suspect you’ve moved on, but I must say, each and every point you made is 180 degrees opposite of my D’s experience there … particularly the part you wrote about nobody being helpful.
In our experience, if anything, Wesleyan would do its students a big favor and make them figure things out for themselves more than they do. That school, like others of its ilk, tend to hover over its students.
You might want to have a heart to heart with your son. Though my D is a physics major, she has raved about the English department at Wes.
“The attitude at Wesleyan is that they don’t want to improve the quality of the teaching.”
Yeah, not to be argumentative, but I don’t think that’s an accurate portrayal of Wesleyan … at all.
Something seems awry. You say your son tried to get the head of the art dept to use models; My son took an ENTRY level drawing class and there were of course models. Obviously your s is unhappy and he needs to do something about it. Maybe the school is a bad fit. Maybe something else is going on. For what it is worth, my S’s experience (2016 grad) was that Wes offered a rigorous and challenging education with a very engaged and intellectual student body. It was a game-changer for him.
I think the OP has left the building, at this point.