College of Social Studies - Profile - Rankings and Admission

Rankings and Admission

Admission to Wesleyan is among the most selective in the United States. For the class of 2016, 10,503 applications were received and 19.7% of applicants were admitted. The median SAT scores were 720 for Math, 730 for Reading, and 730 for Writing. Additionally, the middle 50 percent of students scored between 30 and 34 (composite) on the ACT. The median SAT score was 2180, and the median ACT score was 32. 49% of the class of 2015 receives financial aid, and 41% are students of color.

In the current U.S. News and World Report rankings, Wesleyan is the No. 17 liberal arts college in the United States. In previous U.S. News rankings, the university has been ranked as high as No. 6 overall. In the current U.S. News High School Counselor Rankings of National Liberal Arts Colleges, the university is ranked No. 13. In the U.S. News 2012 ranking of Most Connected Colleges (access to high speed Internet and free Wifi for both academic and personal use, among other factors), Wesleyan is ranked No. 20 among national research universities and liberal arts colleges and No. 7 among liberal arts colleges only.

Wesleyan holds the No. 13 spot in the 2012 Washington Monthly survey. Wesleyan has been ranked by Newsweek as one of the 25 best colleges in the nation for schools with the most highly decorated students ("Brainiac Schools"—which measures the success of alumni in winning Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Gates-Cambridge, and Fulbright Scholarships--#18 overall, No. 9 among liberal arts colleges), for international "students immigrating to the United States for their higher education" (#18 overall, No. 10 among LACs), for paying back alumni in future earnings and quality experience (#18 overall, No. 12 among LACs), for schools offering an exceptional artistic atmosphere (#13 overall, No. 7 among LACs), and for "Activists" (#6 overall, No. 4 among liberal arts colleges).

In the 2012 Forbes magazine ranking of American colleges, the university is ranked #21. Among liberal arts colleges only, Wesleyan ranks No. 9 in the survey. According to a study entitled "Revealed Preference Ranking" published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Wesleyan ranks No. 22 and No. 5 among liberal arts colleges only. The stated purpose of the NBER study was to produce a ranking system that "would be difficult for a college to manipulate" by basing it on the actual demonstrated preferences of highly meritorious students.

In its 2012 edition, the Princeton Review gave the university an admissions selectivity rating of 98 out of 99 and an academic rating of 98. The university is classified as a "most selective" institution by U.S. News and World Report, and in the U.S. News ranking of "Highest 4-Year Graduation Rates" for all colleges and universities in the nation, Wesleyan is ranked No. 10, In August 2011, the Global Language Monitor ranked Wesleyan as the No. 7 liberal arts college in the U.S.

Wesleyan is ranked very highly in the Washington Monthly's key academic output categories, currently holding first place in the research component among national liberal arts colleges. Business Week's 2011 study of which undergraduate institutions produce graduates who fare best on the GMAT ranked Wesleyan No. 13 in the nation among both national research universities and liberal arts colleges and No. 2 among liberal arts colleges alone. In the Princeton Review's 2011 ranking of the 100 "Best Value Colleges" (a ranking combining national research universities and liberal arts colleges) Wesleyan was named the No. 6 "Best Value" private college in the nation. Overall selection criteria included more than 30 factors in three areas: "academic excellence, financial aid and cost of attendance." According to the Wall Street Journal, the university is one of the top "feeder schools" to elite graduate medical, law, and business schools.

The university is notable for the success of its minority populations. Wesleyan is one of only nine universities with a black graduation rate above 90 percent. In this regard, Black Enterprise has ranked Wesleyan No. 10 overall among the magazine's top 50 universities and colleges for African Americans, and No. 2 among liberal arts colleges alone.

According to a 2003 summary, women constituted 55.3% of Wesleyan's undergraduates who received doctorates. Similarly, "ccording to the 2000 to 2004 Survey of Earned Doctorates, women accounted for nearly 63% of the doctorates received by Wesleyan alumni/ae in the sciences (calculated either including psychology or including both psychology and the social sciences) and earned 53% of the doctorates in the sciences when psychology and the social sciences were excluded."