Wesleyan University Top Questions

I found Wesleyan academics to be extremely rigorous. My friends and I who are in grad school now (many at really elite institutions) all agree that our Wesleyan courses were a lot more challenging than our grad school courses. People work really hard. Olin library's nickname is "Club O" because it's actually a really fun social scene - there are always tons of people there, and you can always find somebody to go take a coffee break and gossip with. I was an anthropology major, and that department pretty much epitomizes the stereotype of Wesleyan academics in that my courses were almost exclusively focused on questions of identity and power. As a white student in those courses, I learned a lot, but they were often really emotionally grueling (white guilt is standard issue). The campus is very consciously non-competitive about grades. In my four years at Wesleyan, I was only asked once what grade I got on an assignment (and in that case, it was by a fellow student who was known to have Asperger's Syndrome and have trouble with social boundaries). In fact, I dated my boyfriend for two years before we found out what kinds of grades we each made.

The good professors are great, the bad ones are horrendous. A professor's standing in the academic world is unrelated to how good a teacher he or she may be, so there's a lot of trial and error. All the profs I've liked have given lots of work, but I've learned a lot. Not sure what that means. The education is "liberal arts" to an extent I consider unhealthy. For example, I tried to sign up for a copyright law class at my semester abroad in Australia, but Wes vetoed it. The reason? I quote my department head: "It's too practical." As far as the students, well, we get out of it what we want. If you don't want to work hard at Wes, you don't really have to, but most students feel some internal need to put in a little effort. You'll probably spend as much time on homework at Wes as you did in high school, but it'll feel like more because you spend so little time in class. Some students have intellectual conversations, but by and large, they're just freshman or College of Social Studies students engaging in mutual intellectual masturbation.

It is the last night of midterms week right now, those who have work are packing the libraries, those who dont are out partying. Students here are frustraightingly non-competitive, coming from a very competitive high school this was very unexpected. I am not sure if I like it or not, since I, myself, am still very competitive.

I love the academic environment here. My biggest class here had about 200 students in it and my professor still tried to learn all our names! The professors always encourage students to come to their office hours and i've met very few who weren't easily approachable. Most students take their work seriously here. the library is often as much social hour as study time. at the same time, i think mostly everyone has a nice balance and i don't know very many study nerds. I like the flexibility of the requirements and the ability to take interdisciplinary majors, but i hate the fact that there are no minors available--although that may be changing for the future.

academically, wesleyan has been great. ive gotten to take amazing and interesting classes but in and outside my major. psychology is a huge major but i have become close to several professors and they are very accessible. wesleyan is much more geared toward "learning for its own sake" than getting a job- in most majors. psych tries to help set students up in research labs, but that's not really what kind of psych everyone is interested in. teach for america and ibanking kind of dominate the wesleyan job market. which is really really too bad. i def dont think wesleyan majors should try to be more "vocational" at all... but i think a better job needs to be done in terms of keeping in touch with alumni in different departments and finding out what kind of jobs they have ten years down the road.

Some professors go the extra mile to learn your name, your interests and help you if you struggle in their courses. Some do not care. I think it varies by department and professor. I'd say the science departments tend to be the one with less hand-holding while the humanities tend to be better in assisting students along their academic progress.

1. Most of my professors know my name. 2. My favourite class is an improvisation class with Professor David Jaffe (who is unfortunately leaving at the end of this year since he is a visiting professor). In it, we act out various scenarios and play numerous games to deepen our creativity and bring out our instincts. My least favourite class is probably the intro to psych class which is just enormous. I feel a lot less engaged simply because it's a straightforward lecture class. 3. Students spend a good deal of their time studying because many are genuinely interested in every course that they take. There is a general love of knowledge on this campus and it is obvious in the amount of work people put into their academics. 4. Students most definitely have intellectual conversations outside of class. 5. Competition here really isn't an issue. Students are motivated but they are not cut throat. In fact, the atmosphere among the students is very supportive. 6. I do spend time with professors outside of class. Many invite students over for dinner as a bonding experience. This is very helpful in fostering a supportive atmosphere in the classroom. 7. Wesleyan's general education requirements are not at all extensive. In fact, they're not even really requirements, just suggestions. 8. Education here is more geared towards learning for its own sake.

Academics are great. I have not had a bad class yet. My first semester of college, my average class size was around 15 or 16 students, which is amazing. I met some great professors. At Wes, professors teach the clsases. My favorite class thus far has been American Sign Language. I find it really neat. Students study a lot. While I have been blessed with a light workload, it isn't uncommon for friends of mine to pull all-nighters. Our awesome libraries provide good places to study. Students are not very competitive. It's a laid-back environment where we help each other. I feel that most students are learning because they want to learn; liberal arts education isn't as career-focused as many more cutthroat technical universities. Intellectual conversations outside of the classroom are quite common and feels very stereotypical of college. A day without Tolstoy being mentioned in everyday conversation is rare among my friend group. The computer science department is very small. I think there are only a dozen or so computer science majors every year. Wesleyan has absolutely no academic requirements. Let me repeat that: Wesleyan has absolutely no academic requirements. There is no "core" set of classes. There are requirements for majors, of course. While Wesleyan offers a liberal-arts education which feels like education for education's sake, it has a very extensive alumni network to help find jobs, coops, and internships, or so I've been told.

Wesleyan academics are great. Classes are challenging and stimulating and teachers expect a lot out of their students. However, most are still able to keep their head above the water and most students are involved in a wide variety of extracurriculars and addictions. Perhaps the hardest part of being a Wesleyan student it reconciling yourself to the fact that you can't take all of the courses offered- they all sound so good.

Except in my lecture classes (Psych 105 and Econ 101), professors know my name. my favorite class first semester was on Chinese philosophy, which was way cool...I got a TON out of it, and it seemed like even the people (of which there were many) who had a better grasp on the subject before entering the class liked it a lot too. In my English and COL classes the discussion is great and the reading interesting, though it's a little overwhelming at times, like right around midterms. we study fairly often...though I haven't been as stressed out, on a whole, as my friends at Columbia, for example. and yeah, class participation is common. most of my classes both semesters have focused on discussion, so if you haven't done the reading closely enough, you're less likely to get something out of the class. intellectual conversations pretty common outside of class. they're interesting, though, because we have no core curriculum so we usually don't talk about a specific book that we've both read on philosophy, or about a specific teacher. the discussions are pretty wide-ranging, though. last week I had a long discussion on the basic tenets of eastern vs. western philosophy, and then a couple days later, about the direction feminism is headed in America. so yeah, intellectual conversation, but not generally about classes. students very not competitive, at least from what I see. everyone wants to help each other out, and no one really discusses grades or feels the need to do better than other people, which is so much nicer than high school. academic requirements...I like that they're kind of bullshit. so I have to take a couple math/science classes (not really my area of interest), but that's probably good for me anyway. the other ones I will definitely fulfill without a problem. our education is definitely not geared towards getting a job, but I like that...at least for my personal interests, I'm not sure how striving to get a major in literature or philosophy will be incredibly helpful in terms of the real world besides helping me learn how to think and write better...but what else is college really for, besides opening your eyes and inundating you with a lot of information?