<p>So for any incoming freshmen or students who attend or attended Wesleyan, which schools did you choose Wesleyan over and why? On the reverse side, if you chose a school over Wesleyan, tell us about that and the choice that was made there.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>My son chose Wesleyan over Swarthmore, after having spent a weekend at Swarthmore, which at that point was his first choice. He felt that he would fit in better at Wesleyan overall. Wesleyan is about twice the size of Swat, which was a primary factor, as it seemed that Swat could be a bit too insular and offering a more limited range of relationships. He also had a horrible interview at Swat, where the student interviewer opened the meeting by asking, “What’s your opinion about diversity?”. My son asked him to define diversity, and the interviewer asked him to offer his own definition, and it seemed that the interview went downhill from there. Two years into Wesleyan, he has absolutely no regrets. Coincidentally, when he arrived at Wesleyan, one of his first friends was another student who had spent his freshman year at Swarthmore, didn’t like it because of the limited social opportunities, and transferred to Wes. Funny how that worked out.</p>
<p>He also chose Wesleyan over Hamilton (which in his mind was a tougher choice), Amherst (because of the obnoxious and arrogant admissions dean who gave the information session and focused so much on test scores and GPA), Williams (too small a town and too remote), Bowdoin (too far north), Tufts (too impersonal), Haverford (too small), Colgate (student interviewer took him to his sister’s dormitory room where on that cold winter afternon she was drunk after polishing off half a bottle of Jack Daniels on her desk), Northwestern (not impressed by classes he sat in), UChicago (too cerebral), Trinity (scary urban hood right in front of the campus), Cornell (not impressed with classes he attended, too impersonal and students disconnected), and Occidental (admissions reps seemed to be pushing too hard to impress and he was not impressed with what Oxy had to offer in range of classes and intellectual depth).</p>
<p>Nearly all the folks I know who had the choice, chose Swarthmore over Wesleyan, so that is a bit unusual. S is a bit better known, a bit better ranked, in a major city, and yet simiilar to W.</p>
<p>The schools that were on the list and declined tended to be Union, Hamilton, Oberlin, Kenyon, Grinnell, Dickinson, Gettysburg, any number of the smaller Catholic, former all female schools and liberal arts college that are not quite up there in ranking, recognition and reputation. Kid will tend to choose W over more schools than not. Really there are not that many schools that a kid will choose over W when money is not an issue. That list would be a heck of a lot shorter.</p>
<p>I was accepted to Wes this year and I genuinely love the school, but I chose Villanova over Wesleyan for financial purposes. I feel like I would have fit in better at Wesleyan and that Wesleyan has more diversity as well as better academics, but Villanova was head over heels the better deal when it come down to the numbers. Also, I grew up in Connecticut, and Philadelphia will provide a better social life and experience than Middletown. If money was not a factor, it would have been a tough choice between Villanova and Wesleyan. Wesleyan ended up number 2 for me, ahead of Colby, Holy Cross, and some other lesser schools.</p>
<p>Well, as long as adults are playing, I found this on the Revealed Preference thread.Someone duplicated one of rankings from the Caroline Hoxby study: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1464313-no-they-didnt-one-more-new-ranking.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1464313-no-they-didnt-one-more-new-ranking.html</a>
I believe this one is from 2006, but whatever reason, Wesleyan does well in all of the ones I’ve seen:
</p>
<p>I would imagine that Vassar is Wes’s closest rival, just like Amherst in Williams. The above study not withstanding, I was seen statistics on a 50-50 split in both cases.</p>
<p>Interesting Wes tidbit: my kid was wait listed at Wesleyan. He was asked off the wait list the day after the admission decisions were received before anyone could even seen in commitments. I have no idea of what that was about. I think it must have been a mistake. He was already committed to Williams.</p>
<p>I think there are some things about Wes that would have been better for him and some things about Williams that were better. </p>
<p>FWIW I visited Wes many times and I like Middletown, although I know it gets a bad rap. Still, it isn’t Philadelphia.</p>
<p>There were also many young women at Barnard which my daughter attended who had transferred from Wesleyan, just as there are women at Barnard who transfer to Wesleyan. I think they also have many cross-admits.</p>
<p>Divergent preferences about Swarthmore and Wesleyan are bound to arise. One thing, however, that does not fall into the category of opinion is the location of Swarthmore – and that most decidedly is not Philadelphia. Certainly, the College is not located in a major city. True, Swarthmore is only a 20-25 minute drive (if traffic is on your side) and perhaps a 25 minute train ride to Philadelphia. But the character of the bucolic (and incidentally dry) Swarthmore could not be more different from gritty, if not lovable, Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Its certainly not only liberal arts colleges in competition for these students. W draws pretty well from California, so there are a number of kids who choose Wes over Berkeley and UCLA (and of course, vice versa). S’s good friend for one choose W over Berkeley. S was ED1 so he chose W over everyone and no one – although prior to his ED acceptance he was accepted early at U. of Michigan which he had no regrets turning down (and withdrawing his other apps) when he got his ED acceptance. To respond to a prior poster who talked about the rankings, I’ve no doubt rankings are a thought in the mix, but as I’ve talked to parents whose kids turned down Hamilton, MIT and Georgetown, I think there is often a very personal decision as to fit with the kinds of kids attacted to Wes and simple numbers - espicially when dealing with fine institutions - are not necesssarily going to carry the decision.</p>
<p>I personally chose to attend Wesleyan over offers at Macalester and Oberlin, and chose not to pursue getting off the waitlist at Emory, CMC, and Middlebury. Wesleyan seemed much more genuinely intellectual, out-of-the-box, and engaging than Mac or Oberlin. People here seemed, based on my visits, more intellectually curious, engaged, and knowledgeable than at either of the other two both in AND out of the classroom. After attending Wesleyan’s admitted students weekend, I was pretty much sold on the community and the environment here, so I didn’t pursue waitlist spots at my three waitlist schools, especially as I hadn’t visited either CMC or Emory. I have personally found Wes to be the perfect fit for me, though of course this is different for every student, and haven’t looked back since!</p>