Wow! Thanks everyone for your responses! I have been caught up with school work but finally have a chance to respond. I have had a chance to think about this more deeply over the past few days. I don’t have a problem with the arts. I am a prospective double major with music, regardless of where I end up going or staying. I love making and playing music and have played hundreds of performances in my life. It definitely has a lot to do with fit and I suppose Wesleyan students are …“alternative” would be the right word. From what I see, a lot of Wesleyan students all dress a certain way, want to play in bands with the same genre of music, perhaps “hipster” would be the right word, regardless of whether they are in a artsy major or not and I think @gardenstategal’s comments echoes my thoughts best. They all have a certain mindset of “We have to do theatre and attend protests” and their major has nothing to do with it. There are also very few casual clubs that meet on a weekly basis, most of which are theatre and plays, making it harder to integrate within the student body.
My belief is that this is primarily due to the type of students whom Wesleyan admits (and are interested in applying in the first place), and they are a very specific niche type of student. I thought that I was this type of applicant years ago when I was looking at schools and looking back, I still think I made the right choice to ED. Even if I didn’t apply early, back then, if I had a choice between Wesleyan or its peers, I’m confident the person I was would still have chosen it. I think I have changed so much to the point where I now fit the demographics of a kid who would apply and whose first choice would have been Williams or Hamilton and not one who would have applied or considered Wesleyan. Or that it may be that I have experienced Wesleyan so much that my little knowledge of other schools make it seem like they are better options. Regardless, I feel that I have to try to improve my situation.
As for the political part, it has to do with both the short-sighted views of the students and being too much part of the culture. Politics was not a factor in deciding which colleges to apply to as that was probably the last thing on my mind. My parents have always encouraged me to explore a wide variety of world views and interests, as they had not have the chance or education to do so. My personal view is that Wesleyan students aren’t interested in politics but rather in affirming their own beliefs. I knew that Wesleyan had a reputation for being politically active but I think I waved it off as that they would have more intelligent and open conversations rather than spewing the same three points over and over. My knowledge of politics in universities is that they all seem to shift a certain way but it absolutely is much more louder at Wesleyan when compared to its peer schools where it is much more subtle. Besides, on paper, Wesleyan had too much to offer me from its amazing ethnomusicology program to being very easy to double major in, to being promoted as one of the only universities and LACs to mix arts and academics together. It seemed like the right fit. Nowadays, I know that Wesleyan’s strengths are not exclusive to them and I can have a very similar and top-notch education at other institutions.
This, along with the fact that I have been struggling socially and seeing many of my friends who go to state schools be happy in their friend groups and not have to deal with the same problems I have to made me think to myself “I think I could be happier literally anywhere else”. There are only around 850 students in my grade at Wesleyan and once you factor out the international students, athletes, and artists, who stick to their own groups and make up the vast majority of the school, you’re down to only so few people.
It’s been said that most of the time spent in college and the value of college isn’t in classes or in school work with which you would forget the material once the course is over, but rather who you meet and who you have experiences with. If I really wanted to, I could graduate a year early but I don’t think that’s the point of college. I’m supposed to explore and socialize and grow and I find it hard to do so at Wes. Perhaps, I do crave a larger student body with where “diversity” is more prevalent, just because it is a larger school.
I’m still very conflicted. I have to submit applications soon and I’m still deciding on which schools and have to deal with the troubles of getting transcripts and reccs, etc. I’m not going to make a decision until I get my results back and likely this would be a end of the semester decision. Thanks for your comments everyone! I really appreciate the insight and sometimes I feel like I have no one to talk to about this.