Wesleyan University

what is wesleyan university known for

Degrees Offered by Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University appears in our ranking of America’s 50 Top Colleges with the Best Recycling Programs.

Wesleyan University has a wide array of degrees offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Wesleyan campus is comprised of six colleges:

  • College of East Asian Studies
  • College of the Environment
  • College of Film and the Moving Image
  • College of Integrative Sciences
  • College of Letters
  • College of Social Studies

Within these colleges, students can pursue any one of 45 undergraduate programs, 20 minors, 12 certificates or a small number of graduate options. Majors are varied but include offerings such as African American Studies, Government, Film Studies, Archaeology, History, Mathematics and many more.

Students attending Wesleyan University can choose to attend in the traditional manner on a four-year track to earning a BA or BS. Those who wish to finish early may take a full load each summer semester. Likewise, Wesleyan University offers condensed full-semester courses during the two-week winter break.

The school provides options for students to study abroad as well. Students may study abroad through the Fries Center for Global Studies regardless of their choice of major. Wesleyan programs are offered in Italy, Spain, and France. Pre-approved programs that have been vetted by Wesleyan University faculty and staff may take students to places like New Zealand, Botswana, Taiwan or Nepal.

About Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college with close ties to the Methodist church. The school was founded in 1831. Fifty years later, Wesleyan University began to be known as part of the Little Three along with Amherst College and Williams College. It was nearly 150 years since its founding that the school allowed women to earn degrees.

Wesleyan University is a prestigious college that is noted for excellence in education. Despite its relatively small student body of roughly 3,000, the school has been home to multiple Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winners. It has also served as the educational institution for many CEOs and government officials. Some of the notable alums of Wesleyan University include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Joss Whedon, Bradley Whitford, Candace Nelson, Robert Ludlum, Bill Belichick, Jeff Galoway and many others.

The university has repeatedly received a high ranking in academia. U.S. News and World Report ranks Wesleyan 17th in its category, though at times it has been ranked as high as number two. Kiplinger and Forbes rank the school at 21st and 40th in the nation, respectively.

Wesleyan University Accreditation Details

Wesleyan University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. The accreditation covers all graduate, undergraduate and certificate programs.

Wesleyan University Application Requirements

Students who wish to attend Wesleyan University must meet strict guidelines. All incoming freshmen must have completed high school with a minimum of four English credits, four history or social sciences credits, four years of a single foreign language, three laboratory sciences, and mathematics through calculus.

The university encourages but does not require, applicants to provide supplemental materials that display outstanding skills or talents. These materials might include scientific research, art projects, film clips or essays. Students are also encouraged to take part in an on-campus interview. All applicants must provide college entrance test scores and high school transcripts.

About 17 percent of those who apply to Wesleyan University are accepted. Those students who are offered entry into Wesleyan have an average ACT score of 32 and rank in the top 20 percent of their graduating classes.

Wesleyan University transfers a maximum of two AP courses regardless of the number of AP courses a student may have taken in high school.

Tuition and Financial Aid

The cost of tuition at Wesleyan University is about $57,000 per year. Students must also pay fees and residence charges if they are living on campus. The university estimates that the full cost of attending Wesleyan University is about $75,000 each year.

Most students who are accepted at Wesleyan receive some type of financial aid or scholarship. About half of all students receive aid that totals $55,000 or more. Students must begin by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The FAFSA supplies the Wesleyan financial aid office with the information they need to determine if a student is eligible for grants, work-study, and certain scholarships. The FAFSA is also used by the federal and state governments to supply those who qualify with funds to supplement the cost of college.

Wesleyan offers an interest-free payment plan for those who cannot pay the full cost of tuition upfront. The university also offers financial wellness services for students. This helps to teach them how to manage money, helps them to understand the uses of debit and credit cards and encourages students to set up both a checking and savings account.

The university has a number of grants, scholarships, and fellowships that offset the cost of tuition. Many scholarships and fellowships are provided to students who are pursuing particular areas of study. For instance, the Horace Reed Baldwin Fellowship is only open to law students. The Bertman Prize is offered only the physics majors. The Erness Body Prize is available only to those students majoring in African American studies. In addition, a number of awards and prizes are offered to students for outstanding research and essays. Fellowships are even awarded specifically for existing students who wish to study abroad.

Wesleyan University encourages its applicants to apply for as many internal and outside scholarships as possible. The school will accept outside scholarships to pay for tuition. It will also consider these scholarships when determining the amount of aid a student will receive.

Students may take out loans through Wesleyan. The university offers a No Loan program that uses grants in place of the typical loan package for those students who qualify. Other loan programs also offset some of the cost with grants or summer fellowships.

Learn more about Wesleyan University by visiting the college’s website.