Illinois Wesleyan University

Date: Aug 28 2010
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
Illinois Wesleyan is an interesting place. Academically it is first rate. The professors are among the best in their field and are extremely accessible. I realize that all colleges say this, but I can say with certainty that there are few colleges on the level that Wesleyan is in terms of this department. If you've come to learn and be challenged, Wesleyan is a good choice.

On the other hand (and this is the reason I ended up leaving Wesleyan), the social life sucks. I'm not extremely outgoing myself, but I tried my best to fit in and make new friends. Sure, everyone is nice. But as other comments have already pointed out, you are very much stuck in this Wesleyan bubble. And it's so easy to be content with the small campus and just staying there all four years. And if you do, you really won't learn much socially.

Going along with this, the Greek life at Wesleyan is huge. If you're not Greek, or do not go to Greek parties, you're going to be pretty bored on weekends. There is hardly anything to do. The school has somewhat tried to change this, but they really haven't made any strides. I'm not a Greek person and wasn't interesting in paying to have friends. I went to a few Greek parties and they just weren't for me. Because of this, I struggled and was extremely bored on weekends and ended up going home much more often.

There is also a problem with extra curriculars. There's really not a whole lot of them on campus. And there didn't seem to be hardly ANY that interested me. This made it even more difficult to get interested and active on campus. Because Wesleyan is such a small school, there is obviously not going to be as many extra curricular's, but I thought Wesleyan's were especially lackluster.

These two social factors lead to a really crappy social experience on Wesleyan.

But, if you're only looking at academics, Wesleyan is top notch and I'd always recommend them. The campus is beautiful and the library is absolutely amazing (I practically lived in there. Not because I was always studying, but because I just loved the place).

For social life, if you're really outgoing, you'll be just fine. But if you're a bit shy and take time to warm up like me, or if you're not much in to Greek life, you're going to struggle. I'll tell you that right now. And for me personally, it didn't matter how great of an academic life Wesleyan had, because the social aspect sucked so bad for me, I had to leave. I was getting depressed and just felt horrible and I knew my grades would suffer because of it.