<p>My son is a junior in high school and we are new to the college search process. We visited Wesleyan in November because it was an easy day trip and we had heard great things about it–fantastic academics, small class sizes, good contact with profs, liberal student body, not too many required courses, one of the larger liberal arts colleges. We were impressed by the information session and went on the tour, ate lunch in a dining hall, and my son sat in on a class. On the ride home, my son commented that he was disappointed to see that so many of the students looked so “grungy”–lots of matted down or sticking up hair and grungy beards, like they had just rolled out of bed or hadn’t showered in awhile. (tho maybe this is just the “look” they wanted) He felt like he just couldn’t “see himself” at Wes because of this. My son is not at all “preppy”–he has longish hair and mainly wears jeans and t-shirts, as do most of his good friends. We did not get this same impression of the students at Brown, though we’ve heard that similar kids apply to/attend both schools. He definitely felt he could “see himself” at Brown. I know it’s hard to generalize about the “look” of a student body, but did we just hit Wes on a bad day or was this impression pretty accurate?</p>
<p>I think it’s a random phenomenon:
<a href=“http://wso.williams.edu/wiki/index.php/Lice[/url]”>http://wso.williams.edu/wiki/index.php/Lice</a></p>
<p>I had the totally opposite impression when I visited and toured last fall after seeing a bunch of other schols like Cornell, Oberlin, Rochestr, Swat and a couple others. Wesleyan kids looked to me the straightest and cleanest of them all, not what I expected. Prob just a bad day, lol.</p>
<p>I think this really speaks to the arbitrary nature of what kids react to when they visit a college. As i see it, brown and wesleyan attract a lot of the same “types” of kids. Maybe you could visit again after he’s seen some other schools and he’ll see a different crowd of students…</p>
<p>When I visited, I didn’t see any “grungy” at all. I guess it just depends on the day.</p>
<p>I often go over a week without shaving. Too many problem sets, don’t get it around it. It’s pretty common in the physics department. I’m much more on top of it during breaks…</p>
<p>Heh. I know it sounds crazy, but it probably depends what day of the week you visited. Mondays - Wednesdays are likely to have students appearing super-grungy 
I usually shower everyday - but sometimes on Tuesdays, I just don’t have the time I think what it really says about Wesleyan students is that they keep busy, and if personal hygiene takes a dip once in a while to accommodate the million different activities they’re trying to juggle at once, so be it. Also, it depends on the weather. One of the most amazing things to me is how it feels like the whole campus has SAD - on bright sunny days, everyone is happy and excited and literally skipping around, and eating outside. On rainy, grungy days, people kind of mope around to whatever they have to do. Though SUPER rainy days do tend to make for some happy mudsliding on Foss Hill…</p>
<p>Then again, I think most of the time, people on campus generally seem well put-together.</p>
<p>i read some poll that wesleyan was the #5th most fashionable university. </p>
<p>and there are no required classes at wesleyan at all… at least none that i’m aware of.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input–maybe he’ll be interested in taking another look.</p>
<p>try browsing <a href=“http://www.welldressedwes.blogspot.com%5B/url%5D”>www.welldressedwes.blogspot.com</a><br>
the site is a bit over the top, but it will definitely give you an idea of some of the different kind of trends or looks kids are into at wes. And most people really aren’t that grungy…</p>
<p>^ wow, neat site! i wish more colleges did this :)</p>