In a recent year about 16% of the RD applicants accepted at Wesleyan chose to attend, which appears to support your premise of a perceived lack of desirability by some high school students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wes alum here - Go Wes!
I was a molecular biology major - and actually did the molecular biophysics concentration of which OP speaks.
Now a professor at a med school, and have met several other Wes alumni in my speciality.

I know that Wes has a hippie-dippy reputation, but we got outstanding training in sciences, I had an easy time finding a lab to work in as an undergrad, and I also had some fantastic non-science classes - many of which continue to inform the way I look at the world (political science, art history, social psychology, “Ibsen & Shaw”, sociology, and prose writing immediately come to mind)

The people from my frosh (I.e. freshman) hall have gone on to do some pretty darn impressive things in law, business/finance, non-profits, and academia/humanities.

Also, my spouse hired a Wes alum 2 years ago, and says she’s great - super smart, great writer, and a hard worker.

So yeah, Wes has a kind of lousy reputation on this board, but it does seem to a much better reputation in the NYC/new England area and amongst academics. If your kids ends up having to go to Wes, please don’t despair - they will do just fine!

The issue are that the humanities are no longer something you can major in and lead a successful career from. Of course, Wesleyan has amazing science programs (need a phd afterwards) and economics, but that leaves little for the students who want to major in writing.

Wes alum back (I’m on call tonight). I disagree that the liberal arts majors won’t get a job. I don’t know what everyone is up to now, but I do know that 3 people from my hall with liberal arts degrees went to T14 law schools. Two are very successful lawyers, and the third lawyer is a stay at home mom with a wealthy husband. Another person from my hall with a liberal arts degree does casting in Hollywood. One majored in music, and works in the financial office of regional Symphony. Another majored in Econ & got an MBA, and does something in business/consulting. There’s also a liberal arts major who got a PhD and became an english professor. Another English major got further training and is now a psychologist. There were three of us with science degrees. One got a PhD in physics and is a professor. I got an MD, and a third (bio/econ double major) got a masters degree in molecular biology and now works in biotech/finance.

I think most people who go to academically intense colleges are going to get some further training - ie an MBA, MD, JD, etc. Some of the people on my hall were independently, wealthy, so they had some more of a cushion, but those who were not independently wealthy (like me) were fine.

Honestly, given the rise of AI, I think it might be scarier to be graduating with a computer science degree than with a liberal arts degree.

Wesleyan, Bates, Oberlin are lefty liberal woke havens.

Several family members are Wesleyan graduates. We visited with DD, who liked the school itself a lot, until we visited. Middletown/Wesleyan is a bastian of liberalism in the smallest, middle-of-nowhere, Trumpers

Anonymous wrote:Wes alum here - Go Wes!
I was a molecular biology major - and actually did the molecular biophysics concentration of which OP speaks.
Now a professor at a med school, and have met several other Wes alumni in my speciality.

I know that Wes has a hippie-dippy reputation, but we got outstanding training in sciences, I had an easy time finding a lab to work in as an undergrad, and I also had some fantastic non-science classes - many of which continue to inform the way I look at the world (political science, art history, social psychology, “Ibsen & Shaw”, sociology, and prose writing immediately come to mind)

The people from my frosh (I.e. freshman) hall have gone on to do some pretty darn impressive things in law, business/finance, non-profits, and academia/humanities.

Also, my spouse hired a Wes alum 2 years ago, and says she’s great - super smart, great writer, and a hard worker.

So yeah, Wes has a kind of lousy reputation on this board, but it does seem to a much better reputation in the NYC/new England area and amongst academics. If your kids ends up having to go to Wes, please don’t despair - they will do just fine!

The issue are that the humanities are no longer something you can major in and lead a successful career from. Of course, Wesleyan has amazing science programs (need a phd afterwards) and economics, but that leaves little for the students who want to major in writing.

Way way too liberal has been for over 50 years. No thanks!

Wes alum here - Go Wes!
I was a molecular biology major - and actually did the molecular biophysics concentration of which OP speaks.
Now a professor at a med school, and have met several other Wes alumni in my speciality.

I know that Wes has a hippie-dippy reputation, but we got outstanding training in sciences, I had an easy time finding a lab to work in as an undergrad, and I also had some fantastic non-science classes - many of which continue to inform the way I look at the world (political science, art history, social psychology, “Ibsen & Shaw”, sociology, and prose writing immediately come to mind)

The people from my frosh (I.e. freshman) hall have gone on to do some pretty darn impressive things in law, business/finance, non-profits, and academia/humanities.

Also, my spouse hired a Wes alum 2 years ago, and says she’s great - super smart, great writer, and a hard worker.

So yeah, Wes has a kind of lousy reputation on this board, but it does seem to a much better reputation in the NYC/new England area and amongst academics. If your kids ends up having to go to Wes, please don’t despair - they will do just fine!

I had the pleasure of meeting Michael Roth at a Scripps College Event, and it was so amazing to talk to a president who truly cared about his institution beyond the dollars. He clearly understands what makes Wesleyan great and doesn't muddy that with ridiculous corporate messaging about academia.

You shouldn't tell everyone the secrets

Thank you for the Wesleyan advertising.

Doesn't Wesleyan already have a low acceptance rate?

LACs, being small, don't typically have the same volume of applicants as mid size and larger universities. That doesn't mean they need MORE applicants than they are currently getting.

Wesleyan is proof, in my opinion, that the other top lacs are extremely greedy. Wesleyan has the finances to have 3000 students (1000 more than Williams, nearly 2000 more than Pomona and Swarthmore), graduate programs, advanced labs, new facilities, full financial aid, no legacy, and less than half the endowment of all of them. Mind you, they offer similar programs like tutorials! It really should be a T5 institution.

How do you conclude it's behind? DMV may not be a high application/high yield market.

Shhh, don’t tell! Iykyk…

Seriously- I think it is one of the best schools out there, much better than the top LACs due to the sheer DIVERSITY of academics one can take part in- Along with the typical liberal arts subjects, Wesleyan allows study in the College of Letters/Social Science, Molecular Biophysics (the sole undergraduate liberal arts college to be designated a Molecular Biophysics Predoctoral Research Training Center), Design and Engineering Studies, Integrative Sciences, and a fully-equipped Science and Technology Studies program. It gives students both the option to graduate in 3 years of 5 years with an MA, has a writing dorm community known as Writer's Block, has an amazing Public Affairs Center with very active programming with students, is constructing a new massive science center rivaling Amherst College, a new integrative arts lab, and most importantly the president is very level-headed and improving faculty diversity of thought and campus speech invites.

It is a much larger LAC (~3000 undergrads), has faculty with phd level projects, and it overall is a much more dynamic and diverse lab than the ones being propped up. What's keeping it behind?