This might be a couple days premature, but my D returned from 2 days of WesFest as an ED admit and was completely underwhelmed. She hung with other ED attendees (all already love Wes and have committed!), and the general consensus was that the school did very little to convince RD attendees to commit. They saw no reason why any RD attendee would feel “loved” or swayed by the school’s hospitality and commit after WesFest.
How important are these revisit experiences to sealing the deal for RD admits? This is her first (and only) revisit, so her only points of comparison are friends who have revisited or are revisiting other LACs. When comparing the schedule of activities, level of engagement by staff/students and event “freebies”, she felt Wes’s offering came up woefully short. However, she enjoyed meeting the ED students and reconnecting with the campus again, so her love for the school remained strong!
Curious what other students’ experiences were like this week…
I can’t speak for anyone else, and to be honest I haven’t really paid attention to WesFest, but I hosted a prefrosh last night. We hung around in the lounge area with some people from my dorm and had a very nice and long conversation that lasted pretty late into the evening. They seemed quite set on committing to Wes by the end - fingers crossed.
My D18 was at Wesfest. However this was her first trip to Wesleyan, but she also attended the SOC event in the days leading up to WesFest. She is as chill as they come. She is pragmatic when approaching decisions and she has some excellent choices before her. I spoke with her briefly this morning as she was headed to Amherst College for their Admit day. She loved Wesleyan. She loved the prospective students she met. This is the most excited she has been after a visit. It was a wonderful time. I am really hoping that she has an excellent time at Amherst as well. I want it to be a tough decision. These are the kinds of problems we should all have.
My DD, who was also considering Bowdoin and Haverford, loved Wesleyan. She thoroughly enjoyed Wesfest. She thought that the students, faculty and administrators were engaging, down to earth, bright , enthusiastic and very friendly. Most of the other prospective students seemed equally impressed and were certain that they wanted to attend Wesleyan. Those that were undecided were also considering schools like Yale and Brown. Overall, she is very excited about Wesleyan. After attending Wesfest, I now share her enthusiasm! I hope others are equally excited about their options and decisions.
@Meddy , did D18 get back from Amherst alright?
@circuitrider Yes! Thanks for asking. She and some other Amherst visitors made the last flight to MN only to have to spend the night there. This morning, when they were in the queue heading for take off, a passenger had what appeared to be a heart attack and they quickly called for an on board doc, pulled out the defib and turned around and headed for emergency personnel at the gate. It was an adventure for sure and she is sound asleep now. She loved Amherst btw. It’s been a very good run so far. <:-P
It’s been a couple years now, but my daughter, who also had a few nice choices, loved Wesfest and thought it compared very favorably to admitted students programs at the other highly selective liberal arts colleges she was considering. As one other poster suggested, my daughter’s impression was greatly colored by what she perceived to be a very healthy proportion of “down to earth” people. At one or two other tippy top liberal arts colleges, she perceived a little more snootiness than she encountered at Wesleyan. That may have just been a “that day” or “that group” accident. I don’t know. One thing I do remember, is that she came home with a lot of swag. I remember thinking to myself how much money it must cost to give away all of that stuff to people who might not even attend. It’s crazy. But there you have it.
As a parent, I was much less concerned with how she was being wooed, and much more concerned with what the various schools are good at and what they’re not good at. As we were crunching through the decision, I had come to the distinct conclusion that Wesleyan compares very favorably to all of its peers in terms of the depth and breadth of the things at which they excel. That, to me, is the most important thing. I can tell you she’s had a great experience, and a lot of opportunities have come her way. I can say unequivocally that she has not been disappointed thus far after her three years. It really is a great school.
@worelyclan My D had the same feeling hanging out with current students and the ED group she stuck with during the weekend. She was very impressed by their intellect and backgrounds and so pleased to find everyone is incredibly nice and “real”.
@ClassOf2018P
Glad to hear that. There are several good choices out there. I honestly don’t think that your daughter will regret her choice. It would be great to have you check back here in about a years time and let us know how things are going. Is she playing a sport by chance?
@worelyclan She is not playing a sport but is a big writer, anthropology and public service/policy person. She thinks she’ll somehow get sucked into the Film School side of things either through writing or another avenue, since it’s so strong at Wes. We’ll see how it all turns out. I’m pretty excited at how the curriculum seems to allow the students to find what they love to do and create their school experience around it.