Tag Archives: class of 2012

Peace Out, 2012!

Bennet ’87 to 2012: “Your generation has so many more opportunities to lead, to make change, than the Class of 1987 ever did.” Also, tear down those walls. Like Reagan. Sort of.

Congratulations, Wesleyan Class of 2012! Now go tear down some walls. Or something.

In case you’ve somehow missed it, a whopping 713 members of the senior class graduated on Andrus Field this morning after remarks by President Michael Roth ’78 (featuring references to WesRave, the ACB, and, err, “hipster pessimism”), a senior class welcome from Kennedy Odede ’12, and a stirring, historically heavy Commencement Address from Senator (and presidential heir) Michael Bennet ’87, who instructed one and all to “bring down those walls” and embrace “some period of public service” as the debt for the privilege of attending Wesleyan. “You will transform American politics for this new age,” said Bennet, “because otherwise it will become as irrelevant as the British parliament in 1776.”  Meanwhile, about halfway through Roth’s speech, a few unidentified students dropped a banner from nearby Clark denouncing ongoing changes to Wesleyan’s need-blind admissions practices. From my vantage point, the silent protest offered a large-scale complement to the “Keep Wes Need Blind” stickers I saw affixed to the shirts of student workers, graduates, alums, and even a few parents all day (more on this later). But what say you?

Seniors, you’ll be missed. But for now, go hug your grandparents. I’ve been driving them around all day on golf carts, and they’re totally psyched. (You can wait until tomorrow, I guess.)

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EVENT
Senior Class Open House

Trying to figure out what’s next after graduation?

Whether you’re still searching, just beginning your search or haven’t started, this event is for you! Counseling staff will be on hand to answer your questions, and give you their advice. Best of all, refreshments will be served!

Make the most of your senior spring, it’s time to celebrate YOU, Class of 2012!

A short program will start at 4:30, teaching you how to make the most of your senior spring, how to network as an alumni, and how to continue your search for post-grad life as you transition from Wesleyan to the “Real World”. We’re here to help, come on in!

Time: Today, 4-5:30 p.m.
Place: Olson Commons, Career Center

We Are Wesleyan

Are you Wesleyan?

Do you contemplate infinity for the fun of it? I don’t know how much of us actually do because the administration doesn’t keep stats on it, but there’s plenty they do keep.

The Class of 2014 Profile is out, detailing aspects of those admitted to the Class of 2014 on the front and those enrolled in 2010-2014 for the first year on the back.  Averaging out the Classes of 2011-2014, here’s what the Wesleyan population looks like:

Click here to view the PDF version because the site keeps unformatting the table here.

If you’re too lazy to view the document, it says that the Wesleyan student is a Caucasian female from the Mid-Atlantic who went to public school but is rich enough to pay full tuition.  She’s taken Calc, Bio, Chem, Physics, and 4 years of a foreign language.  She was in the top 10% of her high school class and scored 700 on each section of her SATs.  She is Wesleyan.  Or no, not necessarily.  There’s plenty of people who fit the description on campus, but not necessarily.  Simply skim the PDF to get a better view of the Wesleyan population.

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EVENT
Sophomore Night at Red and Black Café

rb_web_logo[1]This Friday, from 5-8 pm, all sophomores will get a free iced latte at the Red and Black Café.

Also, the Red and Black Cafe is available as a venue for groups to hold open mics – for poetry, music, comedy, etc., it is a great venue.  Contact Rob or Karen at Red and Black if you are interested.

No playboy for Wesleyan?

“I’m trying to stay away from really earthy schools… Like, I wanted to apply to Bard, but from what it said, it was a really granola school. Wesleyan is, like, academically rigorous.“

–Marston Hefner, son of Hugh. from here. 

Earlier we heard that Marston wanted to come to Wesleyan. I can’t tell if the above quote is meant to put Wesleyan together with Bard as a “earthy” school to stay away from or in contrast to Bard as a non-granola. Thoughts? 

Playboy Heir, Class of ’12?

Ian Pylvainen ’10 sends us this GQ feature about Marston Hefner, son of Hugh, who is apparently graduating high school and names Wesleyan as his top college choice:

Marston has been busy lately filling out his college applications, deciding where he wants to go. (He’s thinking Wesleyan. “I’m trying to stay away from really earthy schools,” he says. “Like, I wanted to apply to Bard, but from what it said, it was a really granola school. Wesleyan is, like, academically rigorous.”).

It sure is! So, is there a possibility of the elder Hefner showing up on a Parents’ weekend as an involved parent ’12? Maybe pointless speculation, but hey, it’s already in the public domain.

Hefner Jr. seems remarkably grounded considering what you might expect from a kid who grew up in the shadow of Hef Sr.:

For a kid who spent the first eight years of his life in the Playboy Mansion, the mythical home of American male sexuality, Marston seems to keep this place at arm’s length, as though he is from this world but not of it. He seems to have no interest in, say, scoping chicks with Bill Maher at the Midsummer Night’s Dream party. He does not wear silk. He is a former leader of the Human Rights Student Task Force and has strong opinions on Darfur.

…“My, like, expectancy for what girl I’m going to get is, like, so fucked-up. I’ve just been around really hot women my entire life, so the average high school girl won’t do it for me. But instead of making me really care about looks, I look for the personality and a personal connection. Because I’ve been around looks all my life, and it’s like, if I can’t talk to her…”

Watch out, ladies!

Links:
GQ: Next of Skin

2012 wants to know: Are you down?

Sheek’s recent post on the incoming class of 2012 highlighted the Facebook group that’s been established for high school seniors lucky enough to be coming to Wes. One thing that quickly surfaced in the comments was a reference to a particular thread on the discussion board of said group, titled “are you down?”

The thread begins with a prefrosh who writes:

for the past four years i have lived a life of crazy debauchery, including everything from vodka dorm room parties to drinking wine in the afternoon along with the californian favorite pot. lets just say i wouldnt have it any other way. and i am just wondering who else is down with whatever whenever…

Amid the cheers of, “I’m completely with you on this! I’m totally down,” and, “love to get fuckedu p.. any1 else love old e?” I’m left to wonder… how did the anti-party stereotype of Wesleyan that caused this person to create this thread get introduced to the prefrosh, anyway?

Did WesFest fail to impress? Has Admissions hypnotized them into thinking we don’t party? Or is there something unspeakably depraved about sipping wine in the afternoon that I just don’t know about?

Anyway, I don’t want to burst any prefrosh’s bubble—after all, sipping wine in the afternoon and drinking vodka at a dorm party is so totally debauched! But, I do want to give a hearty, if early, welcome to the class of 2012, because one of you got it right:

Hey all this is Wesleyan. Don’t worry. It’s going to be craaazy.

Meet the Class of 2012 (Pending Waitlist)

2008 has been the most competitive year ever for admissions to top colleges, but according to the NYTimes, the most desirable schools are also admitting more students off wait lists than usual this year due to significant upheavals like changes in EA and ED programs, as well as expansion of financial aid options at top schools.

Wesleyan is a pretty desirable school, but no word on how this is affecting us as well until the Office of Admissions releases some info about the retention rate of admitted students.

What we do know are some cold hard facts about those already admitted into the class of 2012, courtesy of the Argus. Wes managed to admit 27% of applicants this year (1% more than last year) despite a surge in the number of applications:

With an applicant pool of 8,250, the University has admitted 2,242 students for the prospective class of 2012.

…Though the University is waiting to hear back from the majority of admitted students, 269 have already committed through the early decision program. Nearly 46 percent of the early decision applicants were accepted.

More than one-third of the students offered admission are students of color from the U.S. and abroad. Ten percent speak English as a second language and 14 percent are the first generation of their family to attend college. The University also admitted more students from outside of New England and international students this year.

Seems like a more heterogeneous group than usual (i.e. not mostly upper-middle-class white kids from the vicinities of New York/L.A./Boston), but these are only preliminary statistics about those admitted, not about who will actually be here in the fall. Though this year’s WesFest was apparently highly attended, indicating that these prefrosh are an enthusiastic bunch.

And with 535 members already in the Facebook group, which boasts 117 lively discussion topics (i.e. “Why Wes > Harvard“, “Polaroids, anyone?“, “protein synthesis“) before they’re even out of high school, this is clearly an ambitious group.

[edit] By popular demand, here is a gem from the “Are you down?” Facebook thread:

“for the past four years i have lived a life of crazy debauchery including everything from vodka dorm room parties to drinking wine in the afternoon along with the californian favorite pot
lets just say i wouldnt have it any other way
and i am just wondering who else is down with whatever whenever…”

Have no fear, debauched Californian – here at Wesleyan, being “down like a clown, Charlie Brown” will almost certainly guarantee you a place… somewhere. Although once you’re past orientation week you might want to maybe reconsider the benefits of speaking about your excesses in rhyme, and also quickly jot down a list of where you see yourself in four years. Just sayin’.

NYTimes: Top Colleges Dig Deeper Into Wait Lists for Students
Argus: Acceptance rate rises with class of 2012
Facebook: Wesleyan Class of 2012

College Admissions Low As Ever

Many elite college admission notifications went out this week, and apparently this year they’ve got the lowest admission rates yet – even steeper than last year’s record low percentage of admissions.

Fortunately for your younger siblings, they might not have to put away those Ivy League (or uh, Wesleyan) sweatshirts prematurely – demographic math suggests that next year or the year after, the number of high school graduates in the country will peak at around 2.9 million after 15 years of steadily climbing, which means a downturn in college applicants in the years to come and less competition with super-applicants of the above left type:

“The demographic changes include sharp geographic, social and economic variations. Experts anticipate, for example, a decline in affluent high school graduates, and an increase in poor and working-class ones. In response, colleges and universities are already increasing their recruitment of students in high-growth states and expanding their financial-aid offerings to low-income students with academic potential.

While many admissions deans expect to look nostalgically on what has become, for them at least, a golden era in college admissions, some say that a letup in the admissions craze might not be so bad.”

No shit! Huge congratulations to those of you in the Class of 2012 who’ve made it so far, clearly you faced odds worse than those of us already here did.