Admissions h4x0rs Facebook to seduce pre-frosh

Breaking Facebook's Terms of Service by creating an account under the name Stewart Reid House, Admissions has started a Facebook Group called WesAdmits 2013, a place for pre-frosh to gather and talk about how cool and debauched they are.

Just kidding, pre-frosh. We love you. And I'd love you even more if you weren't a constant reminder of how close I am to graduation.

College Confidential: are boys cute at Wes?

Prefrosh solicits opinions on college admissions website College Confidential! We all know how important this question is in the college selection process. Help starbucks08 determine if Wesleyan is the right fit!

"Are boys cute at Wesleyan?"

A little bit of Wes in the summertime

Want to awkwardly help awkward prefrosh feel more comfortable about Wesleyan (and maybe meet some alums, school administrators, etc., too? Hey, networking is always good)?

Find a summer sendoff near you - there will be sendoffs in Boston, MA; Boulder, CO; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Houston, TX; London; Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis, MN; Nantucket, MA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Rye, NY; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; and Washington, D.C. For details info about each of these sendoffs check out the Wesleyan website.

Join members of the Class of 2012, new transfer students, and their families for a casual summer social as they prepare to head to campus. This is an opportunity to meet others new to Wesleyan, as well as some current students and their families, alumni and friends of Wesleyan. If you have any questions about Summer Sendoff, please contact us at sendoffs@wesleyan.edu or by phone at 860/685-3756.

A Computer for College Part 2: Optimizations and Upgrades

First of all, sorry this took me so long to get out--apparently having a full time job takes quite a bit of time out of your schedule, and this went through much more rewriting and revising than my last post on this subject (with a hopefully better organized and better written result). Also, this is what was originally planned for the third post in the series, and is going to deal primarily with ways to keep your old computer running longer--both in terms of optimizing the software end, and in terms of upgrading the hardware end.

(This is the second post in a series. The first can be found here and discusses what you should look for when purchasing a computer. The third should hopefully be coming in the next week or two and will showcase some of the best deals that can be had from the various large manufacturers.)

Optimizations:

The first thing I'm going to discuss is optimization. Operating system installs (especially Windows, which this section primarily deals with) tend to become bloated over time. They'll be filled with old programs you never use, remnants of programs you uninstalled, loads of temporary files, and possibly spyware or viruses.

Option 1: OS reinstallation

The easiest way to deal with this (in terms of time spent actually getting rid of stuff) is to reinstall. You'll need an operating system install CD, and you'll probably want to back up your data first, but reinstalling is otherwise the quickest and least painful (and in the case of some viruses/spyware, the only) method of making your computer run like it did when it was new. It's a good idea to do this every year or so, even if you aren't having problems.

You should be able to follow the instructions included with your operating system/computer or call tech support for specific instructions. The general idea is to insert the OS install media into your optical drive and then boot from the disc: from there you should be able to follow the instructions you're presented with and things will hopefully go smoothly. If your computer is not set to boot from a CD automatically, there should be a button you can press during the initial splash screen that comes up to allow you to choose where to boot from: this is F8 in the case of many PCs.

Before you go ahead and reinstall though, you'll probably want to back up most (or all) of your files. The best option is an external hard drive. If you don't have one, pick one up. You should always keep a recent backup of your hard drive stored somewhere safe. If that's outside of your means, DVDs are probably the cheapest option for physical storage media, and can hold a good deal. If you don't have too much to back up and have a fast internet connection, (free) online backup solutions like Microsoft Live Skydrive (which gives you 5GB--about 1 DVD's worth) of free online storage space might be a good option.

If your computer was purchased from an OEM like Dell or HP your OS installation likely came with some extra software. Manufacturers get paid to sell computers with specific software preinstalled. In most cases there's a reason for this: there's very little reason to use the software in the first case. You should go through and get rid of/uninstall most of it. Really the only useful stuff is the antivirus software, but there are better free (as in beer) antivirus programs--there will be a few recommendations later on.


Option 2: deep cleaning

If an OS reinstallation seems a bit daunting, reread that section anyway: it's by far the easier (and better, in terms of the end result) option. If you are for some reason highly opposed to reinstallation, you can also go through and manually attempt to clean out most of the stuff that is causing performance issues. This is time consuming and not at all guaranteed to succeed--even if you're quite familiar with your computer and know exactly what you're doing. For that reason, I'm going to provide a brief summary of the steps rather than going into detail: if you have specific questions about specific steps I'll be glad to answer them in the comments. Note that this is primarily targetted at Windows, since my experience with OS X is minimal at best (and many of these problems don't affect OS X [or GNU/Linux] nearly as much).

Step 1: Run antivirus and anti-spyware/adware programs and get rid of the problems. (Never run more than one antivirus program at the same time--they can often conflict and Bad Things will happen. Multiple adware/spyware removers should be fine though.) Suggestions for both are listed later in the post.
Step 2: Uninstall all of the programs you don't use or didn't know you had installed. If you've forgotten about something, there's probably a reason.
Step 3: Get rid of temporary files, remnants of uninstalled programs, and clean up unused registry entries (be careful with this). CCleaner can be a great help with this.
Step 4: Disable all but the most essential processes (antivirus, system processes, etc.) from starting on startup. You can do this in Windows with the included 'msconfig' module, but an easier and more powerful solution is Autoruns. There are innumerable resources online that have databases of safe and harmful processes. If you're not sure what something is, Google is your friend.
Step 5: Defragment your hard drive. Windows' built in defragmenter does well enough for this purpose.

Your computer should now (hopefully) be working quite a bit faster. If it's not you either keep very good care of it in the first place or didn't do a very good job of cleaning it.


Upgrades:

If your computer still feels too slow for comfort, you may want to consider upgrading some of the hardware in there. This is quite truly not nearly as complicated as it may seem initially. Except for the processor, which requires a very small bit more know-how (and probably isn't worth upgrading anyway), the general rule is to put stuff where it fits, and not to put it where it doesn't. Your computer is composed of a motherboard that has specific slots for specific types of parts. The general layout is pretty standard. If you're completely lost, your computer probably came with a manual (or has one available online) that can get you started on identifying specific parts and their locations. If you need to see what specific parts look like, Wikipedia is usually a pretty good bet. The harder part is what to upgrade and what to upgrade to, which is what I'll cover here.

What to Upgrade:

You probably could replace nearly every part in your computer if you wanted, but in many cases it simply wouldn't be worth it.

The upgrade that is almost certainly worth it is RAM--memory. It's amazingly cheap and can make a huge difference in system performance if you currently have less than 1GB.

You might also consider adding another hard drive or replacing your current one. A faster hard drive can noticable decrease startup times and load times for applications (provided you replace the drive your operating system is on. And there's the obvious added benefit of extra storage space, which is cheaper than ever. The best deal per gigabyte of storage space right now is

If you play games, you might want to invest in a new graphics card. Even sub-$100 cards right now can get you playing new games at lower settings--and even lower settings look fantasic for many newer games.

While other upgrades are certainly possible, I feel that these give the best balance of price to performance.

Upgrading RAM:

RAM is astoundingly cheap right now. 1GB of DDR1 memory costs about $30, 1GB of DDR2 memory costs about $20. DDR1 and 2 (and 3, although if you have DDR3 RAM you probably shouldn't be looking to upgrade) are standards of memory and are incompatible with each other, so you need to make sure you get the right kind. Unless your computer was built sometime in the last 2-3 years you're probably using DDR1. The easiest place to check is probably the computer or motherboard manual. It is possible that your computer may be too old to be using DDR1, and may be using plain old SDRAM (DDR1/2/3 are variations of this). While it's still available, it's going to be significantly more expensive, and very likely your computer is old enough that upgrading isn't going to be worth it.

There are also different speeds of RAM, and you will also want to get the correct speed. The speed is denoted by 'DDR XXX' or 'PC-XXXX'. They're simply different ways of saying the same thing. For example, DDR 400 is PC-3200. Your motherboard/computer manual is again the best place to find this information.

Upgrading a hard drive:

Hard drives come in two flavors: IDE (or ATA) and SATA (Serial ATA). IDE cables are the big wide ribbon cables and are rarely used anymore (although IDE hard drives are still easy enough to find). SATA is the modern hard drive connection standard. The easiest way to identify which you have is to look inside your case: it should be pretty immediately obvious which you have. (Note that optical drives generally use the same cables.) If you intend to install an additional hard drive (rather than replacing an existing one) You'll need an open IDE slot or open SATA connector on your motherboard. You'll also need an open Molex connector if you intend to install an IDE drive, or an open SATA power connector if you intend to install a SATA drive. If you intend to have multiple IDE hard drives installed, you will likely have to configure one as a master drive, and one as a slave drive. Instructions (all you need to do is move a jumper on the back of the hard drive over a pin or two, which you can do by hand) should come with your new hard drive, or can be found easily enough online. Either type of hard drive require an open hard drive slot inside the case. If you aren't able to satisfy these conditions you might want to check out external hard drives.

Upgrading a Graphics Card:

There are also two types of graphics card connections: AGP and PCI-Express x16. If you don't have an AGP or PCI-E slot, you're not going to be able to get any graphics card upgrades worth having, unfortunately. Identifying which (if any) you have can be done by checking your manual or by opening up your case and taking a look. AGP slots look like this, and PCI-E slots look like this. Because AGP is an older standard in the process of being phased out, selection is a bit limited. Your best value is probably the ATI Radeon 2600 Pro or XT. If you have PCI-E, the best value is probably the NVidia GeForce 8600 GT. All of these should be available for under $100. Unless your computer was built in the last year or two it's probably not worth spending more than that on a new video card. If you do have a newer computer, the NVidia GeForce 9600GT (~$130-140) offers the best performance/price of any card on the market.

Where to Buy:

Unless you want to pay high premiums and talk to salespeople who likely enough don't know much more than you it's easiest by far to shop for hardware online. Just make sure to buy from a reputable source, and make sure that source has an acceptable return/RMA policy. I buy most of my stuff from Newegg, and most of my cables/cable related stuff from Monoprice.

When buying hardware it's also good to find a reseller that will let you return working parts (although most will charge a ~15% restocking fee), since there are times when you may purchase the wrong thing and it's much better to eat a restocking fee than to get nothing back at all.


Other Stuff:

Software:

This list contains some of the most widely used free applications that cover what you need for general computer use pretty well. If you have suggestions for additional categories or programs to be added, leave a comment!

(All of this software is cost-free [applications with additional paid versions are denoted with an asterisk], some of it is free software, and much of it is open source.)

Web Browsing: Firefox, Opera
Productivity: OpenOffice.org, Google Docs
IM Software: Pidgin, Trillian*
Graphics: The Gimp, Irfanview, Paint.NET
Media Players:
-video focused: VLC Media Player, Media Player Classic, mplayer
-music focused: foobar2000, Songbird, Winamp*
Antivirus: Avast! Antivirus*, AVG Anti-Virus* (DO NOT HAVE MULTIPLE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAMS INSTALLED SIMULTANEOUSLY)
Anti-spyware: Ad-aware Free*
Operating Systems: Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSE


Again, I apologize for taking so long with this. If you notice anything that's incorrect, could be expanded, or is unclear, please let me know. I'm pretty tired at the moment and in rewriting this (which I just did) I very well could have missed some things. I may add a few more things to teh end of this as well tomorrow or the day after--I'm pretty sure I was going to write more there, but at the moment my brain isn't working properly and I really wanted to get this out in at least a mostly-finished form.

(As always, neither I nor Wesleying holds any responsibility regarding how you spend your money.)

A Computer for College Part 1: Explanations and General Recommendations

If you're coming to Wesleyan you're likely getting a new computer of some kind. And if you don't obsessively follow computer news and benchmarks you're likely to be at least a bit out of date concerning what to get and why, so I'm going to try to help. I hope this guide can be helpful for both those coming to Wesleyan for the first time, and for those returning.

Since there's so much to cover, I'm going to do it in three parts. The first (this one) is going to cover what the different parts are and what you're likely to need, as well as choosing an operating system. In the second part I'm going to be going through and pricing different laptops from a variety of different manufacturers to see where the best deals may be found, as well as some general tips for keeping the price of your computer down. The third installment is going to be about things you can do to keep your current computer running longer, better if you can't afford/don't want to buy a new one when you come to Wes, as well as some general computing suggestions and software.

Part I:

The Parts:

• Processor: The 'brain' of the computer, a processor is what does general calculations
• Hard Drive: Long-term data storage. There are two types: mechanical hard drives and solid state drives (SSDs). SSDs are new technology and extremely expensive, but they're also much more resistent to abuse. However, given prices, a normal mechanical hard drive is what you'll likely be getting.
• RAM/Memory (Random Access Memory): Short term memory for your computer, RAM access is much faster than hard drive access, and your computer will do its best to keep running programs in RAM.
• Graphics Card: Handles the calculations that display things on your screen. These can be either integrated into the motherboard and sharing system memory or can be discrete--a separate card that's plugged in.
  

Other Things to watch:

• Screen Size: Laptop screens generally range in size from 11-19". If you're looking for any kind of portability get something with a 15.4" screen or smaller. Size is measured along the diagonal. Computer screens are either in a 4:3 (standard) or 16:10 (widescreen) aspect ratio--widescreen offers slightly less screen space for the same diagonal size, but lots of people (me included) prefer it. Screens also come in different resolutions, as well, which denote the number of pixels on the screen (pixels being the little dots of color that form the picture you see). Dimensions are width * length. A common standard aspect ratio resolution is 1280x1024, common widescreen resolutions are 1440x900 and 1680x1050 (although there are many, many more). What you get is your preference and is based mostly on the size of screen you get. Higher resolutions mean smaller, clearer pictures.
• Weight: Your preference. The lighter, the easier it's going to be to carry around.
• Battery Life: How much you want to focus on this is again your preference. But the more the better.
• Warranty: this is pretty self explanatory. The longer, obviously the better, but it's not necessarily worth it to spend extra on longer warranties. Accidental damage protection is also something you may want to get--some manufacturers (ASUS) offer this free for a while, which is very nice.

What to Get:

General User:
This is most people. If you do mostly web browsing and word documents, this is where you should be. If you play only older games (WoW, WCIII, Source engine games, etc.) something with these specs and one of the lower-end graphics cards I suggested here should be fine.

• Processor: Any dual core mobile offering by Intel or AMD should be fine. These will generally range from 1.6 to 2.4GHz. Higher numbers will generally get you better performance, but if you're just performing basic tasks, you're not going to notice it. Note that Intel's processor's will outperform AMD's processors in terms of performance, but AMD's processors are usually cheaper and with any of today's modern processors can handle basic applications like web browsing easily.
• Hard Drive: Everyone's needs are different. However, I'd recommend that you stick with a 5400RPM hard drive (rather than 7200RPM) to keep power consumption and heat down. Size is your choice. 80GB should be the absolute minimum in size, but that will fill up pretty quickly if you plan on storing much media.
• RAM: If you're going Windows Vista get 2gb. If you're going XP, OS X, or any Linux distro you can make do with 1gb. More RAM is nicer, but again, if you're doing basic tasks, you probably won't see any benefit with more than 2gb, even on Vista. Note that you won't be able to use more than 4gb with a 32-bit operating system, which is what you'll almost certainly be getting (see section on OS's below for more on this)
• Graphics Card: Stay with integrated graphics unless you plan on playing games. In that case, I would recommend something like an NVidia 8400GS, 9300GS, or an AMD Mobility Radeon HD 3400, all of which should run older games acceptably (although not always on the highest settings). If you're looking into more serious gaming, you're in the wrong category.
• Screen Size: Under NO circumstances should you go over 15.4" in terms of screen size--there simply is no point based on what you're putting into the computer.
• Battery Life: I would try to buy something with at least 2.5-3 hours. If you're really set on all-day computing without a cord, there are laptops that get 8 or more hours of battery life--although you'll obviously pay a premium.

Prices you can expect:

• You can find a typical basic laptop that will meet most people's needs for $500-1000
  
• Higher priced units will get you things like smaller size, better battery life, and better support

Power User:
If you're playing newer games, doing photo or video manipulation and editing, rendering 3D scenes, or other computation-intensive work you're going to want something more from a computer than a machine created from the specs above is going to give you.

• Processor: get an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, or Core 2 Quad running at at least 2GHz. 2.4GHz is a good compromise between performance and cost in my opinion. AMD's mobile processors are unfortunately don't perform well enough for me to consider them for gaming or other heavy processor work. Note that getting a Core 2 Quad over a Core 2 Duo is probably going to take bad battery life and make it absolutely dismal--for the vast, vast majority of people, a Core 2 Duo (or dual core Core 2 Extreme) should be fine. Processor performance is especially important for picture and video work, although unless you're doing some very serious editing, it's still probably not worth it to take the jump to the much more expensive Core 2 Extreme processor line.
  
• Hard Drive: You can go either 5400 or 7200RPM--higher hard drive speeds will generally get you faster loading (and booting) times, but will run hotter, be louder, and cost more. I do a decent amount of gaming and have run into no problems with a 5400RPM hard drive. Size is up to you here as well. If you have lots of large files you may want to look into an external hard drive with Firewire or eSATA (and buy a laptop with corresponding connections), both of which are much faster than USB 2.0.
  
• RAM: 2GB is the minimum, more is good (although more than 4GB is probably excessive for most gaming use). Keep in mind that if you're running a 32-bit OS, you'll only be able to use 4GB (and this is COMBINED system memory AND graphics card memory). If you want to use more, you may want to look into a 64-bit OS. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see the 'Operating Systems' section below). If you're doing graphics work, you'll want lots--4GB or possibly more (which again, ties you into a 64-bit OS).
  
• Graphics Card: This is the most important part of your computer if you're looking at gaming performance, bar absolutely nothing. Models that will give at least decent performance on newer games are: NVidia GeForce 8600M GS < gt =" 9500M" gt =" 9650M"> 512mb GDDR2. If you're doing other 3D work (AutoCAD, etc.) you're probably going to want a workstation-level graphics card, either from NVidia's Quadro line or AMD's FireGL line. If you're doing video/audio/graphics work, your applications are almost certainly not dependent on a graphics card for performance, and a lower end graphics card, such as an NVidia GeForce 8400M GS or 9300M GS should be fine.
  
• Screen Size: You probably won't be able to get a decent laptop with these kinds of specs in anything smaller than a 15.4" package. I personally recommend very strongly you don't go over 15.4" either--anything larger and mobility will be very much at stake.
• Battery Life: I wouldn't go below 1.5 hours--more is obviously better, but not always feasible given what you're putting into the computer.
  

Prices to expect:

• $1300-1600: medium settings on newer games
• $1600-$2000: high settings on most newer games
• $2000+: high to very high settings on almost everything (I make no promises about Crysis)

Other Notes:

• Since Macs now have Intel processors, gaming on Macs is now feasible. If you're interested, you'll want a MacBook Pro with a dedicated graphics card. To get games to run, you can use Boot Camp or VMWare Fusion or Parrallels Desktop--this will let you install Windows XP or Vista to play games on. You can also try using applications like Wine or Cider to let you play games straight from your OS X install.
• Speaking as someone who has a 15.4" notebook, I can say that if you live close enough that transportation isn't much of a problem, getting both a desktop for gaming and a subnotebook (think EeePC or similar) for taking to class is something you should seriously consider. An $800-1000 desktop will get you gaming performance equivalent or better than a $2000+ notebook, and you can get an EeePC or something like it for ~$400. You'll spend less money, get better gaming performance, and have a much more portable notebook. The only real disadvantages are space (which isn't a huge issue in my opinion) and transportation. If you're going to be flying, taking a desktop isn't going to work. Getting desktops to the LAN parties we hold can be a bit of a pain too, although plenty of people do it.

Operating Systems:
Most people will be going with either Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Macintosh OS X 10.5. This is mostly a matter of personal preference. I personally prefer Vista over XP, but lots of people disagree with me. If you're on a tight budget, you'll get better performance with XP--although realize that the last day XP will be available to be sold is June 30th, 2008, so if you want XP, don't wait too long. If you're unsure, but buying a mid-high range laptop, I would say go with Vista.

Windows or OS X is most certainly a matter of preference--I use Windows, and I think the split is something like 50/50 on campus--both are fully supported by the ITS Helpdesk.

Linux, BSD, or something else is an option as well, but if you're considering any of these, there are much better sources than me for the information--I will say that dual-booting one (or more) of these with either Windows or OS X would be best if you're new to it.

If you're looking at getting 4GB of RAM or more, you're going to want to make sure you get a 64-bit version of whatever operating system you're using. OS's have until recently been built primarily on a 32-bit architecture. However, limitations on that architecture prevent the operating system from addressing more than 4GB of RAM total. To address this (and other issues) 64-bit versions of operating systems are now available and are becoming more widely used. Any modern processor should be capable of running either 32 or 64-bit versions of Windows or any other OS. 64-bit driver support has gotten pretty good lately, and so the only problems you're likely to have are with very old hardware. (OS X is completely 64-bit, and so this is only something you need to worry about with Windows or GNU/Linux.)


If anyone has suggestions, questions, comments, or corrections, please post in the comments. Given the rapidly changing nature of the computer market, this will remain a work in progress!

As a final note, remember that these are simply recommendations and explanations, and neither I nor Wesleying are responsible for what you do with your money.

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

Take care of your vewy own wittle pwefwosh

It's that time again: time to host the hordes of cute little prefrosh staying here for WesFest. Want to give a prospective Wesleyanite some TLC? Maybe a little noogie and some baby talk? Email Miranda Becker '11 at mbecker@wes. Make sure to give her your name, phone number, and the days you'd like to host your prefrosh.

WesFest 2008 runs April 17, 18, and 19.

Host a prefrosh for WesFest '08

Be a tour guide... and a badass!

Claire Kaplan '09 is planning to start a student-run tour group:

I'm interested in starting a student-run alternative to the University tours for the adventurous prefrosh. Tour guides would be unaffiliated with the University and, as such, wouldn't have to worry about what they say, wouldn't have to provide statistics to students, and could even deviate from the classic tour format (e.g. replacing the last part of the tour with a session hanging out on Foss Hill blowing bubbles) assuming they do so in a lawful and tasteful manner. Basically, tours would be an explicitly subjective but hopefully interesting look at the University beyond the traditional tour. The upside here is you get to do whatever you want with your prefrosh ducklings; the obvious downside is, you won't get paid. I mean, I'm certainly not going to pay you.

Interested in being part a part of this operation, tentatively called "Wesleyan All Over You"? Email the illustrious Ms. Kaplan at clkaplan@wes.

Host a Prefrosh!

The Wesfest interns are seeking freshmen and sophomores who love Wesleyan to host prefrosh on Thursday, April 19, Friday, April 20,and Saturday April 21 (sorry, juniors and seniors need not apply).

They'll be signing up students at Mocon this weekend and invading your Sunday night snacks in the dorms. In case you miss them then, they'll be signing people up at the Admissions Office.

Campus Tour Cheat Sheet

Presenting: Everything you will ever learn on a campus tour.

This will be on the exam.

Related:

Oh, geez

Thanks to some enterprising netizen who posted about us over at College Confidential's Wesleyan discussion forum, Wesleying is now terrifying prefrosh in unprecedented numbers.

Hello prefrosh! We apologize for the dearth of Wes-related content. It is Winter Break. We are rotting away at home, recovering from finals, nursing hangovers, playing Snood in our underwear and watching Judge Judy. Feel free to take a look through the archives, which you can find on our handy-dandy sidebar. We'll be back on campus on January 21st. Stay tuned! We love you.

Edit: Now would be a great time for the link to go down, wouldn't it.

Death Rattle of the SAT?

Recent babbles going on in the collegiate world about dropping the SAT as an admissions requirement. At Bates College, they've discovered that the SAT basically means nothing at all. From Inside Higher Ed:

In the years since, Bates has continued to study the data — collecting SAT scores on students who are admitted, so that the college can analyze trends involving those who do and do not submit scores for admissions reviews. Students who don’t submit scores tend to have math and verbal combined SAT scores that are 140 to 160 points below the average for those who do submit. But Mitchell said that the difference in the two groups’ grade-point average while at Bates is 0.05 — hardly anything at all.

Iiiiinteresting.

What Wesleyan ain't doin...

So we've talked the roommate talk quite a bit here at Wesleying. The chances of you not getting along with your freshman co-habitant are kinda high, sorry (but the chances of you loving them are also high, so woo!?).

But at some college across the country, they've turned what Wesleyan does pretty arbitrarily into a pseudo-science...by outsourcing it.

From the NYtimes:

WebRoomz, which fills beds at 20 universities, offers a customizable questionnaire of up to 130 items covering eating habits, social behavior and musical tastes. Such questions, it says, reduce room-change requests by 68 percent the first year.

Colleges have also set up special Web pages so newly accepted students can make connections over the summer. Roughly 10 percent of freshmen at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., have circumvented its residential life office and found their own roommates on the college’s message board. “It’s kind of like dating; I wasn’t really looking, but when I met her I knew she was the perfect roommate,” says Caitlin Patey, of Kennebunk, Me., who will room this fall with another design-obsessed video-gamer, Kerri Donahue of Connecticut. They met on Champlain’s site.

Nytimes also included what a webroomz sample questionnaire would have looked like:

I don't know how this would help anyone at Wesleyan.

• There should definitely be a question about sexual orientation. That just goes without saying.
• "Do you date" should be replaced with, "How many nights a month should your roommate expect to be sexiled?"
  
• Personalties should include "Hipster," "Vegan," and "A capella"
• Hobbies should include "Dungeons and Dragons," "Irony," and "Facebook."
• Adding question "Do you get post-modernism?" would so own this survey.
  

To the class of 2010

Anthropologist's insight in frosh-hood

An anthropology professor at Northern Arizona University enrolled herself as a freshman back in 2002 to study the cultural phenomenon of freshman life (she had earlier studied natives on Tonga Island.) She published a book on her findings (hitting paperback next month) called My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student.

Anyway, from this piece in the NYtimes, a lot of what she found at NAU can be applied to Wesleyan. It's a universal experience and as a sociology major I think her book is a credit to the genre (though, granted a 50+ year-old Ph.D is surely going to have a different experience and a whole different set of cultural insights, biases and filters than a 18-year-old gay guy, but still it's nonetheless interesting).

From the article:

On the academic culture:

"Her book found today’s students “not as elite, not as prepared” for college as earlier generations, she said, and burdened with debt. “They’re more practical in their education,” she said.

Up close, she found that they could be intellectually engaged, but that rather than engaging in political or philosophical discussions, students were more likely to talk about how they pulled off specific assignments, often with a minimum of effort. They saw fitting in to campus culture as crucial, and purely academic or intellectual quests as only tangential to their education.

“I think people are more engaged than the veneer suggests, but there definitely was a push to show one’s disinterest in the academic side of life,” Professor Small said."

Orientation:

Initially, the prospect was frightening. Her first night of orientation, Professor Small said, she took her cue from other students, many of whom packed up their pillows and went to stay with their parents in hotel rooms around town. She headed home.

“I was, like, panicking,” she said, slipping into college-student cadence. “It’s very disorienting to be out of your place.”

A la carte lifestyles:

She also found that the university had unintentionally fragmented the student body by offering a plethora of options on many aspects of student life. Everything from course loads to living arrangements can be tailored to suit individual tastes, but the results reduced the chances that undergraduates would mix with people unlike themselves.

Dorm Doors:

"In her book, Professor Small wrote about the art on dorm room doors, which she sees as personal billboards, advertising the occupants as carefree, spontaneous, fun-loving and sexually adventurous. One door to a women’s dorm room had a sign up board for male classmates to say hi, and condoms for the taking.

On the women’s doors, there was usually a white message board, where notes from friends were seldom erased. Men would post affectionate or saucy letters from women. Each was a way of broadcasting the popularity of the person within, Professor Small said."

Cell Phones:

"She found the students were highly practical, with friends calling on one another for shopping trips, meals and lifts to classes."

Freshman Glue:

And she noticed that most friendships were forged early in the freshman year, so that she, living among upperclassmen, made friends mostly among other outsiders, including transfer and foreign students.

A lot of what she writes about can be applied to any college in America, including Wesleyan. It's an interesting work to look back on as an upperclassmen and see just how er, not unique we were and for up and coming frosh for a glimpse at what's coming.

I recommend taking it with a grain of salt that this how all freshmen act and thus you should act accordingly. I've made some good friends my freshman year, but I've made some equally good friends my sophomore year (with students I never met before, transfers and even foreign students, omg).

Yes, the cell phone thing is true and after every class, you will see the flip phones flip and hear "Where are you? Seriously? Yeah? What? Yeah?" Or now the iPods go in the ears and everyone returns to their own little worlds of one. I recommend you break that habit before it starts and make an effort to talk to people walking out of your class (perhaps about the class?) or keeping your head up when walking across the campus green and saying hi to people.

Be social and you will be liked (by most people; some people are just cranky assholes and don't like anyone). Also, drop Nat Webb's name into any conversation. "I saw Nat Webb riding a stuffed lobster down Foss Hill last year when I visited" or "Nat Webb has a pet hawkmoth named Bojangles." Seriously. Do it. DOOO it.

Talk the talk

Some of these should be obvious, but I can't sleep, so whatever.

You:
Prefrosh are technically prospective students still in high school (other schools call them Prospies, but don't you fucking dare utter that word here), but some people keep calling students who have already matriculated "prefrosh" until the minute they step onto campus during orientation, whereupon they become freshmen. Additionally, you are forever your host's prefrosh no matter what year you are. No, you will not be hazed.

Academics:
PAC is for history/government/poli-sci majors, Fisk is for most humanities, Judd is where psychology majors live, and the Science Center is for science majors. Hall-Atwater, Shanklin and the Science Tower are all separate entities that are referred to as the Science Center. PAC lab is in PAC, STlab is in the Science Tower, and HASlab is in Hall-Atwater, although no one goes there. Never, ever, ever confuse COL (College of Letters) with CSS (College of Social Studies). The administration is all in North College except for the President, who's in South College. The Bell Tower is in South College, the Clock Tower is in Memorial Chapel.

Living:
In Westco specifically, if you live on the second floor, you live in Up, and if you live on the first floor, you live in Down. For example, Westco 214 would be Down 2; Westco 125 would be Up 1. The Westco Cafe is not a cafe. Fauver is divided into Nearside and Farside. "Butterfields" is almost never said in its entirety; instead, it's Butt A, Butt B, Butt C...etc. Open House is the LGBTetc. safe space, not Out House, which is dedicated to enjoying the outdoors and is still not to be confused with Earth House, that seeks to actively preserve the environment.

Leisure:
Duke Day and the Sex Party are in the fall. Zonker Harris Day and Queer Prom are in the spring. Wesfest, Zonker Harris Day and 4/20 are almost always on the same weekend. A Townie is a Middletown resident unaffiliated with the University, but the word has a somewhat negative connotation. The Tunnels can refer to any part of the tunnel system around campus, but the Maintenance Tunnels can be defined separately.

Food:
Mocon is where most of you will eat on a regular basis; the Mocs is the tummy trouble you experience afterwards (pronounced "moques", but this term is rapidly falling out of use in favor of "shitting my brains out"). At Davenport, if you go to eat at the Campus Center, you're eating on the first floor. If you want the second floor, you eat at Montague's, and if you want First Harvest, you eat at Vegan. If you're going to Late Night, you're going to Summerfields after 9pm. S&C is the Star and Crescent, Red & Black can refer to either the Red & Black cafe in Broad Street Books or who you work for if you get a job soliciting alums for money. If you say you're going to Broad Street, it is assumed that you're going to the book store since there's nothing else of interest there.

Feel free to add to this post.