College of Social Studies - Undergraduate

Undergraduate

Wesleyan's 40 undergraduate academic departments offer over 900 courses each semester and more than 900 individual tutorials. Wesleyan also offers fifteen interdisciplinary programs and nine Academic Centers. Undergraduates receive the Bachelor of Arts in one (or more) of 47 major concentrations. As many as a third of these majors are interdisciplinary in structure. Wesleyan began offering minors in February, 2012 and at present offers four minors; more minors are under consideration. Certificates are offered in eleven fields. According to the University, "Certificate programs at Wesleyan supplement (but do not replace) a major. A certificate requires an interdisciplinary set of courses that prepares a student for postgraduate work in a specified interdisciplinary field." In addition, double majors are popular and up to 40% of Wesleyan’s graduates are double majors. Students triple major as well. Undergraduates can also pursue a custom-designed major, known as a University Major. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, "Wesleyan is noted for its undergraduate programs of tutorial instruction and independent study." Approximately 52% of students undertake independent study.

Wesleyan offers 3–2 programs in engineering with the California Institute of Technology and Columbia University's School of Engineering. These programs allow undergraduates to receive degrees in five years from both Wesleyan (B.A.) and Caltech or Columbia (B.Sc., Engineering). Additionally, Wesleyan offers a BA/MA Program in the sciences leading to a Bachelor's degree in the fourth year and a Master's degree in the fifth year. Tuition for the fifth year of the Master's degree is waived. Undergraduates can pursue studies in pre-medicine, pre-law, and pre-business through any major. Most classes at Wesleyan are small; the predominant class size for undergraduates is 10–19 students, and the student to faculty ratio is 9 to 1.

The University has described a set of general principles that define its approach to undergraduate education summed up in ten essential capabilities that the faculty believe every undergraduate should possess when he or she graduates from Wesleyan. Students may acquire these capabilities through numerous courses throughout the curriculum designated by the faculty as satisfying specific capabilities and through extra- or co-curricular activities. Writing is emphasized across the disciplines and 99% of undergraduates participate in Wesleyan's Writing Across the Curriculum program.

Wesleyan does not require undergraduates to take prescribed courses. Freshmen are offered First Year Initiative seminars, which are designed to prepare them for upper level courses by emphasizing writing, analysis, discussion, and critical thinking. Undergraduates are encouraged in the first two years of study to take a minimum of two courses in each of three areas: natural sciences and mathematics, humanities and the arts, and social and behavioral sciences. In the second two years, undergraduates are expected to take one course in each of these three areas. Fulfillment of the General Education Expectations in conjunction with co-curricular activities provides simultaneous acquisition of the ten essential capabilities. "A student who does not meet these expectations by the time of graduation will not be eligible for University honors, Phi Beta Kappa, honors in general scholarship, and for honors in certain departments."