Illinois Wesleyan University

Date: Oct 06 2010
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
First and foremost, this school is not worth the money unless you are pre-med, which is the only field worth highlighting. Everything else is below U of I quality, which definitely isn't good if tuition is $18,000+ more.

Small class sizes would be helpful if the the students in every single class weren't so freaking afraid of talking, which touches upon the main social problem of the school: if you don't fit in, you're made fun of.

Not fitting in means not being white, Christian, and wealthy. The vast majority of the students at IWU have no idea what diversity is because they grew up either going to private schools or schools in the middle of nowhere where everyone was racist.

I am both white and somewhat wealthy, but felt completely separated from the rest of the school having come from a very diverse and financially humble high school. I felt weird wearing tight corduroys and skate shoes, the former of which I was actually made fun of for on numerous occasions. Tolerance for abnormalities does not exist here. I found myself hating the student body by the end of the year.

The school makes very little effort to provide for students entertainment-wise aside from welcome week. This makes it so there is nothing to do at all besides go to frat parties which end up being the same thing over and over. Thank God ISU is right up the street—it feels great getting off campus to immerse yourself in a place where a social structure doesn't exist, and that usually provides some form of entertainment every weekend.

But on the positive side, the professors are very willing to help students outside of class. They have office hours nearly every day and almost always accept walk-ins, and seem sincerely glad to help.

I am now at U of I—better English program (better every program), better social life, and generally a lot more comfortable because I'd rather be a number than criticized for being a goddamn individual.