<p>Son is interested in attending a LAC. He is a well-rounded academically oriented athlete. He is somewhat conservative by most college standards and is not that politically-oriented or involved in community service. Enjoys life, school, sports, and friends. Is a strong student and interested in international relations and pehaps investment banking. He is fairly conventional in lifestyle and outlook, and defintely not quirky. Wes has a reputation of attracting artsy and/or socially active kids. Would son fit in?</p>
<p>It depends on what you mean by, “fit in”. Are athletes respected and, do they fulfill an important role in the Wesleyan social fabric? Yes. Are they the “straw that stirs the drink” of the Wesleyan experience? Probably not. There are too many choices available. He’ll certainly find people who fit his profile. Just remember that, <em>no one</em> thinks there are enough people just like them at Wesleyan. That goes for gays, for peace activists, Moslems, poor people, students from working-class families, preppies, People From The South, as well people who want (or, can afford) to go into college teaching. But, my suspicion is all that is true for a lot of elite colleges.</p>
<p>there is a very strong bond here among the athletes. would your son be interested in fraternities? i know athletes in them who have enjoyed their frat experience here</p>
<p>Thanks. Will be visiting during spring break. Obviously, it is good to have experience meeting and learning from a wide range of classmates. Just wanted to know whether he might find similar students as well. Son does not drink. Is that a signficant part of the fraternity experience? </p>
<p>Suspect he may bond with teamates but just wanted to see how he might be perceived and received by other classmates. He is extraverted which certainly helps and has h.s. friends that are non-athletes. They are multiethnic but tend to be more conventional (?boring to some adcoms), academically focused, play computer games, hangout, pursue more traditional school, community, or religious activities, etc. Basically, good solid kids but not particularly involved in creative activities or politics, although they probably would be considered moderate, perhaps slightly conservative (by college stds). Obviously, that can change in college.</p>
<p>The word I hear, over and over again, in describing Wesleyan students is “awkward”. If your son is as extroverted as you say, he is, he may already have a significant advantage. :)</p>
<p>My sense is that there are plenty of Wes students with your son’s attitude and interests. My S certainly seems to know a bunch of them. Best advice is to have him visit and wander around campus on a nice spring day. He’ll figure out pretty quickly if it’s a good fit.</p>
<p>I think the “Wes is weird” argument is overstated. For the most part, Wes is full of kids that have self-worth (occassionally to a fault, but for the most part people are nice) and individuality. A considerable number of the people I meet here are not very different from those where I came from (a city in a southern state). So that’s saying something, since on a whole southern big-city kids are really…“normal.”</p>
<p>The Wesleyan experience almost inevitably involves becoming slightly less straight, and more political. He probably won’t leave Wesleyan with the same perspective he has in high school. And he may have a drink or five.</p>
<p>apolitical? Isn’t Wesleyan (in general) really liberal (almost hippy liberal), and really proud of it?</p>
<p>if you are responding to me - I’m saying, yes - it is liberal, and proud of it, and a few years at the school generally swerves people slightly, both in terms of sexuality and politics</p>
<p>So far I find the students overall between liberal and middle of the road, similar to most schools in the Northeast or West, based on my friends’ colleges. There are conservatives, a minority, but they’re usually not shouted down or anything.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree- wesleyan is a lot more mainstream than most make it out to be. this isn’t to say whether that’s a good or bad thing, but there is a definite minority that gives wes its über-liberal reputation. the school is liberal, no doubt there, but not abnormally so in most regards…</p>
<p>Now don’t you all start yelling at me all at once, but I’ve also heard that Wesleyan is a huge stoner school. And College *******'s guide along with other lesser popular online guides have confirmed this. So that’s kind of why I got the hippy liberal thing going. It’s also what some other friends of mine say. So is this all more or less true?</p>
<p>Sure, a lot of kids here do pot, probably a higher precent than at more “mainstream schools” (more people chose to do pot instead of alchohal, for instance). But Wes also has a student body that is very focused on respecting individual choice in all sorts of matters, and that extends to the choice NOT to smoke. So, if you want it, it’s totally here. If you don’t want it, but don’t mind being around it, that’s very easy. Even if you DO mind being around it, that’s not a problem, unless you somehow manage to only make friends with huge stoners, which would be hard to do.</p>
<p>^Oh yeah, I know, that’s how it is in all stoner schools, like Oberlin, Hampshire, and Bard too. I was just saying that since it has the reputation of a stoner school, it’s probably much more liberal than mainstream as well, as are the other stoner schools that I just mentioned. Which I’m not saying is a bad thing, but it certainly is a factor to consider for the OP, who may want a school that is more “straight, well-rounded, [and] apolitical.”</p>
<p>^I can see you’re not interested in nuance, here. ;)</p>
<p>I didn’t think it was necessary.</p>
<p>aBeautifulMind, I think you have a point. While certainly not everyone at Wesleyan is liberal and certainly not everyone at Wesleyan smokes marijuana (in fact, I would say the vast majority do not), Wesleyan has a certain reputation and its reputation isn’t completely unwarranted. The overall atmosphere at Wesleyan is passionate, political, liberal, and interested in community service (I would guess that more alums go work for nonprofits than go into investment banking…) So in terms of environment and “fit,” it’s possible that it’s not the place for pmyen’s son. Still, one shouldn’t just rule it out; like others have said, visit the campus, maybe do an overnight, and just see if it feels right.</p>
<p>I think nuance has its uses. For example, as far as I have been able to observe the biggest difference between Williams and Wesleyan, as far as marijuana use is concerned, is that Williams students tend to use beer and hard liquor as a “chaser”. In fact, that’s probably how most pot busts occur up there; the person is observed as intoxicated and only then is the pot discovered on them. At Wesleyan, there’s more of a reluctance to be “stoned and stupid” at the same time.</p>
<p>My .02.</p>
<p>Absolutely right johnwesley! I think that is the case with many “stoner” schools (I hate that term, but “stoned and stupid” is pretty funny!) People smoke pot, but don’t drink, or at least that much, whereas at other schools they are also doing both, but with drinking tipping the balance and therefore more noticeable. It really bothers me that heavy drinking in college is expected, and therefore somewhat condoned, when it is by far the more dangerous activity of the two for both the user (possible death from overdose, driving) and those around them (date rape, driving, and other very poor judgement activities). I have tried both, but don’t really do either, so I am not coming from a biased point of view. And yet the “stoner” schools get kind of a bad rap, and the drinking schools are considered “well rounded” </p>
<p>That said, it is true that the schools that aren’t so much about drinking, but where the students smoke more pot, do tend to be the more liberal ones.</p>