Wesleyan University Top Questions

Party scene is amazing..parties can be found throughout the week and throughout campus, if you know where to look. Live music and crazy themes are very often part of the party.

music and bands are huge. there's always a show. we get a lot of traveling artists and speakers, and thats amazing. you can go out starting on Wednesday. frats pretty much suck, but they have free beer.

All the parties on campus are usually sponsored by the University which means every student is allowed to go and alcohol can not be served. Generally the parties are dance parties and students pre-game in their apartments/houses/dorms and then go out. We have a new theater which plays movies on Thursdays and Tuesdays I think for 5 dollars. I am convinced that it is the best theater on any college campus anywhere in the world. Micheal Bay, the director of Transformers and Wesleyan alum came and gave a private screening of his movie there. They also play old movies. For example, I saw Fast Times At Ridgemont High there. Off campus there isn't much to do except go to restaurants or go to get ice cream. There's a movie theater, but most people just download movies off the network and watch them on campus.

If you want to socialize you pretty much got to drink.

Wesleyan's student body can be most easily be described as "work hard, play hard." Being out-going, predominantly liberal, and hard working, Wesleyan students seem to be naturals at totally letting loose on the weekends. The Wesleyan bubble on a given weekend is a bit like a carnival. There are plays, films, art shows, dance shows, and concerts every weekend. Most of those events are followed up by parties at either senior residences or fraternities, which, for the most part, play a largely positive role in the social environment. Though not many people join the fraternities, most students seem to benefit from their social offerings, which host concerts, DJs, and dance parties. Wesleyan students hook up. Wesleyan students drink. Many smoke pot, but not all. For the most part, you can do as you please, no pressure to do one thing or another.

The social scene is certainly interesting and probably pretty unique. When it comes to weekends, there isn't a lot of stratification in terms of events. Parties are basically open to everyone. The Wesleyan student body seems to do a great job at balancing work and play. There isn't a ton of weekday partying, but there isn't a shortage of weekend parties either.

We get tons of speakers, athletic events are not the biggest events on campus (our football team is terrible, but soccer and lacrosse get a good amount of attention. So does basketball, even though they're not that good either. Wesleyan is fun. Trust me. You will drink alot and be merry. I have yet to meet someone who has enjoyed their school as much as I enjoyed Wesleyan.

The Wesleyan experience is also incredible outside the classroom. As a varsity athlete, I think that there's a lot of support for athletics. However, I never felt pigeon-holed into a jock stereotype. Some teammates are closest friends, but I also didn't feel any pressure to only hang out with my team. A lot of freshmen make their close friends on their hall in the dorm, but that is typically in freshmen only dorms (like Clark or Fauver). There's always something going on around campus, such as speakers, performances, movie screenings, etc. It's so easy to make friends and find things to do, and the party scene is pretty ideal. From dorms, frats, senior woodframes, and junior apartments, students definitely know how to wind down and have a good time on the weekends. A wide range of interests and lifestyles correlate with the diversity of the student body.

Wesleyan has a plethora of student groups. The largest and most active one I'm involved with is the Environmental Organizers' Network (EON), which regularly attracts about 40 people to its weekly meetings and organizes everything from composting and recycling on campus to a competition among senior houses to reduce electricity use to call-ins to Congress on global climate change issues. If you wanted, you could find an interesting lecture, film or panel discussion to go to every single night of the week, organized by the administration, academic departments, and student groups. You can also choose from any number of parties on the weekends, ranging from a fund-raiser dance party with a popular campus band to a house party mainly focused on drinking. There are also all sorts of performances of theater, dance and music, be it a recital of the Javanese gamelan class, one of the many a cappella groups, or a play put on by the active student theater group, Second Stage. I have met my closest friends in a number of places, including my frosh dorm, the first play I worked on, and the Jewish community. This last group was not one I thought I would be very involved with going into college, but I found it to be a really fun and open group of people, and I ended up living for two years in the Jewish-themed program house.

What really surprised me about college is that most of your friends for the rest of the year (and maybe your college career), you'll find in your freshman dorm if not on your hall. As a result, your social life revolves around your dorm so that sometimes you don't leave at all. If you like drinking, dancing, etc, you can almost always find a party at one of the frats or houses (there are no sororities). Though people often go to one of the four fraternities on weekends, frats will not be a major part of your life unless you want them to be. If you're not into the drinking scene, there are on campus movies, and performances, and when the weather's nice, there are always people socializing (and often smoking) on Foss Hill.

AWESOME!!!!!! So much to do and so many new things to try.

Very campus-based-- Middletown isn't too hot. There is a club or group for anything you can imagine. Pretty big weed habit. A couple loser fraternities and one legitimate frat-house for some good dance parties; from salsa to hip-hop to rave. Don't come to Wesleyan for legendary American college debauchery, though there is always some place to go out, drink, hang, or see a performance.

Wesleyan's theater opportunities are probably the best and most varied in the country. The student-run theater production company, Second Stage, is responsible for producing over 25 shows each year with hundreds of students participating (and most of them aren't theater majors). Second Stage accepts all applications without any artistic judgment, so students have the opportunity to explore any side of production. Additionally, students who take courses in the (fantastic) Theater Department have the opportunity to apply the theories they learn from their studies to practice. There is no better education than doing your own work. What's more, Second Stage runs what is probably the best student space in the country. It's an enormous, newly-renovated black box theater with fantastic technical capabilities, movable seating, and an optional proscenium stage. This facilitates the amazing experimental culture on campus, and theater of *all* kinds is produced.

There are so many groups on campus that it's hard to say that just one or two are the most popular. We're not a Division I school, but many students are involved in sports either on teams or as an extracurricular. My boyfriend, for example, played on the frisbee team, and he's hardly a jock. A capella is huge on campus too, and our fire-spinning group Prometheus always draws a crowd. Honestly, the main thing to say about student groups is that it's really easy to either join an existing one or to start your own, and most students in campus manage to get involved one way or another. Some of our most popular social traditions include Zonker Harris Day, April 20th (I can't really elaborate, but once you're here, you get it), Spring Fling, Queer Prom, and for the incoming freshmen, Foss Cross (a cross-dressing party).

there is nothing to do. by the end of your freshman year you will have slept with everyone worth sleeping with. u would think there is a decent queer scene but everyone is butt fucking ugly. the boys look like bitches. the chicks look like fat lumber jacks. have fun tryna get laid with anyone you wouldnt be ashamed to say you slept with. if youre fucking ugly though and youre just desparate to get laid this is the place for you.

I don't think I'll ever go to a better dance party. where people really just dance to dance. freshmen and sophmores live in dorms together. the dorms have different vibes to them, and many people meet their friends there. at least at first. juniors and seniors live in apartments and houses. lots of people make good use of their kitchens and living rooms. house parties are big. there are some frats and thats a social option but definitely not the most dominant scene. there are a lot of campus bands, a pretty good variety of them, that play at different venues on campus. there are a lot of student organizations, many politically minded groups, like Students for ending the war in Iraq , a group for healthcare justice, environmental groups etc. wesleyan has a student run organic farm. community service projects. tutoring kids in the community.

It makes sense that the social life is as varied as the students. Drinking and drug use is widespread, but it is just as easy not to participate (I have several friends that don't drink and still have a completely normal social life), and there are tons of alternatives for things to do on the weekends- plays, dance parties, bands, and way more. Program houses are great, they put on themed events and parties for whatever your interest may be. The frats throw big parties too every now and then, but Wesleyan has only three frats and unless you are in one, they won't unduly affect your social life.

Wes is not a place for people whose social lives revolve around parties. There are no clubs in town, no big lively bars. On weekends, students generally float around campus with groups of close friends, have a drink in someone's dorm room, go see a movie, or go to one of the more unorthodox parties that happen occasionally (i.e. the naked party, which has no alcohol and no clothes). There are bars in town that are good for chilled-out gatherings of upperclassmen, but most people are content to find creative ways of hanging out around campus during what little free time they have when not working. Lots of people are in clubs (I'm in an a cappella group), which are generally a fun way to pursue an interest without too much of a commitment. There are lots of guest lectures on various topics, guest performances of every kind, and student concerts to go to. To sum up: your social life at Wes will be a break from your academic life, not the other way around.

Well, I met a lot of my friends through being a member of the Swimming & Diving team at Wesleyan. Especially for freshman, the most popular party scene occurs on Frat Row, though the after parties generally occur in the Senior houses of Fountain Ave. If you are not into the athlete crow Psi U holds a lot of concerts and popular parties. For the more crazy left-wingers there is the program house Eclectic which hosts many indie bands and has a "crowd", but the whole student body tends to attend the "Sex Party" that happens every fall semester. Many people I know party hard and will go out Wednesday through Sunday nights if they can. Wednesday night is Bar Night, Thursday's there is generally Beer Pong at Psi U, Friday nights can be a little low key, Saturday nights there is always at least one party on campus, and Sunday nights is karaoke at La Boca (a bar/restaurant on Main St.). I'm not really sure what there is to do on a Saturday night that doesn't involve drinking--the CFA (Center For Arts) generally has movies playing, but most people drink if they go. There is pretty good food in Middletown area and a movie theater, but besides that most of the scoial life occurs on campus.

There are definitely a lot of different clubs on campus, but many are kind of defunct with just a few people going. Many people party A LOT, as in 3-4 nights a week (or more.) But there is a substantial population who doesn't party at all. It seems hard to find a good combination in between. There are always lots of events to go to -- theater, speakers, talks, free food, etc. The frats blow and a lot of freshman go to them and a lot of jocks. But they definitely do not dominate the social scene. Lots of people will just get together with friends and hang out and make food or just talk and watch movies. The dating scene isn't really a 'dating' scene. People either are in serious relationships or are just randomly hooking up with people.