Wesleyan University

Located in Middletown, Connecticut; Wesleyan University is a small liberal arts college with 2,900 full time undergrads and 200 graduate students on a 316 acre campus.  It was founded in 1831 by Methodists and named for John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.  Wesleyan is among the oldest of the originally Methodist institutions of higher education in the United States.

Wesleyan is highly selective, with more than 10,000 applicants for 800 seats each year.  The median SAT score is 2100.  This selectivity does not come cheap.  The all in annual cost of a full time student is $57,932 (up from $36 back in 1831).  Just this year, Wesleyan abandoned its Need Blind admission policy in favor for a selectively Need Aware one.  Acceptance is need blind up to a point, and then the remaining seats are filled with students who can demonstrate the ability to pay.  This trend in need blind institutions going need aware is gaining momentum as even the elite east coast schools such as Cornell University are morphing their grants into loans due to these recessionary times. 

Wesleyan students were all male, primarily Methodist, and almost exclusively white.  From 1872 to 1912, Wesleyan was a pioneer in the field of coeducation, admitting a limited number of women to study. Coeducation succumbed to the pressure of male alumni, some of whom believed that it lowered Wesleyan’s standing amongst its academic peers.  In 1911, some of Wesleyan’s alumnae helped to found the Connecticut College for women in New London, Connecticut, to help fill the void left when Wesleyan closed its doors to women.  By 1968, women were again admitted as exchange or transfer students.  In 1970, the first female students were once again admitted to Wesleyan’s freshman class since 1909.  Wesleyan is actively recruiting students of color with the Freeman Asian Scholars program providing merit and need-based aid to eleven incoming students from select countries each year.

We found the students at Wesleyan self-important and snobbish, which probably stems from having the reputation of being a "Little Ivy" or a “poor man's Brown.”  I think I’d prefer a school with less social climbing.

Students who applied to Wesleyan University also applied to Vassar College, Connecticut College, and Yale University.

For more information on Wesleyan University, visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/.
Wesleyan University is located at 70 Wylls Avenue Middletown, CT  06459 (860) 685-3000