CT College Visits - Day 2

Day two of our Connecticut adventure brought us to Connecticut College and Wesleyan University.

Connecticut College was originally founded as a women's college when Wesleyan stopped admitting women in the early 1900s, a nice little piece of trivia dig at their NESAC neighbor ;). It is now co-ed and with under 2,000 students and it is the smallest school we are seeing on this trip. It can be hard for students to visualize what that means - but to put it in perspective, it is less than four times the size of ElRo and their Intro to Psych class has 35 students in it. I would say the typical small liberal arts colleges has intro classes that usually max out around 100 - so if you value class size, Conn College has you covered. A friendly and open minded community, Conn has 98% of students living on campus and students are guaranteed to have a single room their junior and senior year. My favorite feature of this school though is probably that they promise to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted students. This is a sign of both the health of their endowment and their commitment to not having families overextend themselves financially in order to attend. According to the Admissions office, the students who have the best luck in the admissions process at Conn College have a strong voice. I was struck by the huge open space in the center of campus, much larger than I was expecting for a school of this size. The facilities we saw were in good condition and our tour guide seemed genuinely thrilled to be in such a supportive community of learners.

In the afternoon, we went to Wesleyan University. Wesleyan is the only school that we are seeing that is a re-visit for me. But it is always nice to see a school with a fresh pair of eyes. Wesleyan has about 3,800 undergraduate students and about 200 graduate students (hence, the 'University' part of the name) so there is a clear focus on the Bachelor's Degree. In an interesting juxtaposition, Wes is most well known for Film/Fine Arts and the sciences - it seems fair to assume that their open curriculum really does run the gamut of student academic interests. Students that thrive at Wes are intellectual activists - students who have deep passions and aren't afraid to show it. Probably the most significant change since my visit four years ago is that Wes will be going test-optional next year. One of my favorite parts of the campus was the fact that the different eras of architecture have really been well integrated. Sometimes campuses can feel disjointed, but here it felt like old and new were well connected. Like Conn College, Wesleyan will pledge to meet 100% of demonstrated need for admitted students, though be aware that could include federal loans. The most fun thing we saw on the tour was the Metronaps pod in the library where students can pop in for a power nap. Love!