Following your story. I know a runner at Colgate who is very very happy, and very gifted academically. She was recruited for running and the aid was good, which she needed. She loves everything about it. She calls it summer camp with school. The professors are very engaged and she is doing research already as a freshman. I think you will be happy there so I’m hoping for that one!
3 Likes
D was accepted! Very excited and grateful.
Hugs to everyone who got bad news tonight- you will land where you are meant to be.
9 Likes
Three kids at my child’s very small HS were accepted ED, so probably shouldn’t be surprised at this WL result for RD (with high stats and strong ECs)
1 Like
I’m a college professor, Ph.D Columbia, taught at Columbia, Barnard and now at sn NJ state school. Listen: DONT SWEAT IT. Just be determined to be a star whoever you land. Your safety is still a very strong school!
9 Likes
Son was accepted at Wesleyan. We are surprised, since a lot of nyc kids apply there ED, 3 or 4 accepted ED from his school this year. We had NOT expected him to get in.
Can someone tell me: What’s to love about Wesleyan? He had his heart set on Claremont McKenna (rejected ED) and current acceptances are Wesleyan (no $) Grinnell, Macalester ($100-$120k over 4 years) and Occidental (80kover 4). I’m a bit stunned- we had gone all IN on CMC… he’s NOT interested in finance. More law, government, politics and STEM/public health/policy…
?
2 Likes
Congratulations! My kid got in to Wes ED, and for him it’s the size (wanted a LAC but one that was bigger than his HS), the open curriculum, the four years of on-campus housing (including the wood frame houses for senior year, which seem really great), and the culture/vibe (friendly, artsy, intellectual, engaged). (He also got 100K to Mac and would likely have gone there if Wes hadn’t come through.)
You should consider attending WesFest, which I understand is really fun and does a great job of selling the school. Wishing your son good luck with his decision!
2 Likes
I have toured Wes twice, with D22 and D25. I think they nail their tour! Each time it’s very clear how much they love their school, the community and how much mentorship there is.
Having said that, what always stands out is how intellectually engaged and interesting each student is. Every one seems to have the oddest combination of majors. Two, sometimes three. My kids are pretty intellectual with a broad range of interests and that is very appealing. The story is always I took a class, found it really interesting, decided to stick with it.
On the more practical side, as much as we love the residential college system of Yale and the likes, Wes housing system is pretty cool.
7 Likes
-
The College of Social Studies, a groundbreaking interdisciplinary coalescing of the Government, History and Economics Depts. that was the heart and soul of the place back in 1959. It still has a lot of cachet due to its intense rigor. AND it has moved into some spanking new classrooms.
-
The Wesleyan Media Project - A widely followed data and information service that tracks and analyzes political advertising at the federal and gubernatorial level and operates largely out of Wesleyan, Bowdoin and Washington State University. Lots of opportunities for student coding and data analysis.
-
The Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreurship - Offers seed money as well as practical instruction in how to get community-focused projects off the ground.
Wesleyan is sort of like the Claremont Consortium in miniature. Fun fact: CMC’s president is a Wes alum.
3 Likes
My son got in ED2! It was always a stand out for him because of the creative atmosphere things like “play in a day”, being a bigger LAC, how you can walk right into town, the housing structure, all the double major students. And the tour guides really won him over they seemed genuine and authentic. My daughter (his twin) ED’s to Middlebury and got in but she also loved Wesleyan. It was one of three schools that they both really loved. She also loved her (different) tour guides, the interdisciplinary aspects, the cool vibe…They are both creative and intellectual kids and socially it felt good to both of them, like artsy-ish but not too much so, it felt balanced to them I think in the range of kids and offerings. FWIW, the other school on your acceptance list that they both loved was Occidental. But we are in Philly and they cut the Cali schools in the end.
7 Likes
I think this is it for us too.
2 Likes
This is helpful!! thanks so much. MY WORRY: That it’s all the same kids he want to HIgh school with: NYC kids who are already OH SO cool and not a great opportunity to meet kids form all over the country (like Macalester?). SO SO many NYC kids go to Wesleyan. In my day (graduated HS in 1986 - kids from my NYC high school made up 10% of the incoming class that year at Wesleyan.
He is doing a GAP year and will be spending half of it in South Africa so maybe he’ll alrady have had a big world experience?
BUt I guess My question is: Does Wesleyan have a DIVERSE student body?? diverse in geography, politics, interests, and so on? I think he should be exposed to world outside of the NYC liberal BUBBLE…?
2 Likes
My kid is NOT “artsy” - even though his mom is an Art history Ph.D and dad is a former tech guy turned fiction writer! S is interested in politics, science, and policy as well as fields like Geography, environmental science. I could see him ending up being a law professor or plicy guy. Intelletural but PRACTICAL. My worry about Wesleyan is that the kids who go there from NYC are all very much of a type. Liberal artsy, nose piercing types who think the rest of the country is not worth their time? . Which is FINE = very NEW York attitude (it’s what we tell ourselves sometimes to deal with the BS of living here) but he knows that crowd already - that is his High School. Is Wesleyan going to be a repeat of that? Or is it diverse? At Mac I felt like he’d meet kids from all over the country…
3 Likes
Where is a good hotel to stay at in the town at the foot of Wesleyan? I’m not a great driver! Coming for Wesfest bc DD got in. Hoping to be able to park and walk. Or have short drive somewhere.
FWIW - diversity - kids from our tiny rural public school go every year to Wes. You will indeed get NYC’ers at all these elite east coast schools. I can’t say if they dominate there - I only have been on a few tours.
3 Likes
My NYC public HS grad D had the same concerns about Wes (and she fits the description of the students at your son’s school). She described Wes as her HS 2.0. One of her BFFs goes to Wes , loves it, and my D has visited a few times and always has fun. She also says that when she visits she always sees people she knows from HS, MS, camp, etc. Ultimately she didn’t get in, so she didn’t have to make a choice, but she was accepted to Vassar which she did turn down in large part because of similar concerns.
3 Likes
You want to get your reservations right NOW at The Inn:
Inn at Middletown in Middletown, Connecticut - ReservationCounter.com
2 Likes
I don’t know what NYC public high schools you are in touch with, but the kids at Wesleyan don’t really resemble them at all. Only about 15% of all NYC public high schoolers are white whereas Wesleyan is at least 50% white and overwhelmingly suburban upper-middle-class in my estimation.
IMO, Wesleyan (for a very-privileged and need-aware school) works as intentionally toward real diversity as anybody. IS IT diverse, truly? How could it be? But their Pell Grad Rates are very strong, and they try their ass off at it, and nearly always have. William Chace’s book 100 Semesters describes it well. D24 got waitlisted at Wes, and will be elsewhere next fall … but this place tries super-hard to get a diverse student body and change the world. Idealistic and earnest in the extreme. (“Nearly always” is hyperbole. It should say since about 1960.)
3 Likes
Did he mention public school? I was assuming he was talking about NYC privates.
My take was similar to @gotham_mom’s:
I guess the real question is what private NYC high school could have sent 75 kids to Wesleyan in 1986?
Sounds like CollegeprofNJ went to Hunter (or maybe Stuyvesant), so I think we’re either talking about a private school or a magnet school that is very white/Asian.