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October 25, 2016

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Wesleyan University a place to shape your own life

AS more and more Chinese students go abroad for higher education, the number of schools they can choose is also increasing. Besides popular comprehensive universities, some students now opt for liberal arts colleges.

The Wesleyan University, a leading private liberal arts college in Connecticut, USA, is seeing a rising number of Chinese applicants, said Michael S Roth, president of the university, in an interview with Shanghai Daily recently.

“When I was a student at Wesleyan in the 1970s, there were few Chinese students,” Roth recalled. “Even in the 1990s, Chinese students were few in number.”

After becoming the president nine years ago, Roth decided to double the portion of international students to keep pace of the trend of globalization. “Now, 15 percent of our students are from outside the United States and the majority of that growth comes from China,” he said. “We receive several hundred applications a year from China and we can accept only 15 percent of the applicants.”

Some students and parents mistake liberal arts colleges as institutions that only offer education in humanities. Wesleyan not only teaches in liberal arts but also in social science and natural science. One of its best known majors is film art. Many of its alumni are famous film artists. Wesleyan is also strong in mathematics and computer science, Roth said.

With an emphasis on undergraduate education, the university also offers graduate and doctoral programs in many disciplines. “Because our small classes allow students to work closely with professors, our graduates have better opportunity for advancement. Many students in chemistry begin to publish things while they are undergraduates,” Roth said, noting that many classes at Wesleyan have only 15 to 20 students.

Wesleyan has a flexible curriculum. Students can choose almost whatever they want. “Much can change when you start college life at age 18. So we think it’s very important to give first-year students intellectual freedom to decide what they are passionate about or interested in, what they are good at and what they are better at,” he said.

Many students take introductory psychology, biology, history, film or music courses to get a feel of different disciplines. By the end of their second year, they will choose some fields of study as their majors.

“At Wesleyan, students tend to choose several fields as they can have more than one major,” said Roth. “In my case many years ago, I was very interested in psychology and history. And then I found philosophy also interesting.”

The school encourages students to find a way to connect their chosen fields of study. As a result, some students are studying theater and biology, computer science and musical composition, economics and literature at the same time.

“More and more Chinese students are interested in liberal arts education because it’s less about learning and memorizing facts for exams, but more about acquiring creative and entrepreneurial skills,” said Roth.

The Wesleyan University has designed a three-year diploma to save the time and money of students, who can take courses during vacations, he added.

So what kind of students is Wesleyan looking for? Roth said they should have three qualities. First is open-mindedness. Students need to be open to the world and willing to learn from people from other places; second is good work ethnics. They should be hard working at school; and the third is the ability to get along with others.

“We really don’t want people who are very competitive with their friends and neighbors, who say I have to do better than you,” the president explained. “This is not healthy for our campus. We want students who would like to be around other successful people, to help and inspire others and be inspired by others. Then everyone thrives.”

“There are three things students must remember when they go to a college: to discover what they really love to do, to get better at it and to learn to share your ideas with other people,” Roth stressed.

He said that it will be a failure if all people care about is their experience at college. “We have to care about what they do after they leave. Education should empower you to do what you want to do.”

Roth said Wesleyan brought tremendous changes to his life and gave him the opportunity to build his own career, instead of following the footsteps of his parents who never went to college.

“Every year new students come with one idea. Then they expand their ideas or change their ideas and feel free to choose their life, and work hard to fulfill their dreams,” he said. “It is really exciting to give them the freedom to do what they want to do and see how their work can contribute to life of others. It’s my pleasure to see students grow.”




 

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