Greetings!
Last week, you received an email containing your Wesleyan email, username and information about the WesPortal. The New Student Checklist contained in the WesPortal will keep you informed about upcoming deadlines, such as the Health Forms, due on June 15. Please note that the Health Forms Packet dropbox link has changed to https://webapps.wesleyan.edu/dropbox/health_services.
It would be a good idea to dedicate this next week to completing as many of the items on the New Student Checklist assoon as possible. Besides the Academic Interest Questionnaire, there are several other items that will require your attention by July 1.
If you have documented accessibility needs, please complete the Disability Notification and Accommodation Form.
Take the Placement Tests for Math, Foreign Language, and/or Music Theory if there is any chance that you will take a course in that area during your Wesleyan career. If you plan to study abroad, you may need to be proficient in that country’s language; please look over the programs and requirements here.
You’ll select your Wesleyan meal plan soon; information about the details will be sent out next week.
If you are an incoming transfer student, sign up to be paired with an upper-level transfer student with the Transfer Connections Form. Past participants have reported great satisfaction from being able to discuss their experiences with other transfer students at Wes.
The Learning & Living Seminar for first-year students is an opportunity to live with your classmates from that course in the same residential hall and cultivate a greater intellectual and social community. Given that your course selection and housing are determined by your Learning & Living seminar, please understand that this is not only an incredible opportunity but a commitment to the program as well. For more information and registration, click here.
Be sure to submit a photo for your WesID card before the deadline. You will need it to gain access to meals, residences, and other vital campus facilities and events.
Finally, Wesleyan’s First Year Matters (FYM) program engages new students in meaningful dialogue through a common reading. This shared experience serves as an introduction to intellectual life at Wesleyan with an address by the author followed by a Q&A and small group conversations. All new students are required to provide a written response to the reading over the summer as well as participate in sustained dialogues throughout the first semester. An electronic version of Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss and Hope in an African Slum by Kennedy Odede ’12 and Jessica Posner ’09 will be available to you in the next two weeks.
Academic Highlights
Academic Advising as a Partnership between Faculty and Students
The Academic Interest Questionnaire (AIQ) is used to gain insight into your academic and personal interests, motivations, and challenges. You need to submit the AIQ by July 1. Students have found these exercises beneficial in getting their thoughts and hearts ready for the college journey, and your responses will help us to assign you a faculty advisor.
Your advisor and your class dean are looking forward to learning more about your hopes and interests. We want to cultivate a relationship of openness and trust with you so that you will feel comfortable discussing with us your educational goals, course-related issues, career interests, and adjustment to campus life. If we cannot answer your questions, we will refer you to resources that can support your success, including faculty with the discipline-specific knowledge you seek. While the faculty will be available all year long, they also will be available at the Academic Forum during Orientation to answer your questions before you begin the fall semester.
Your advisor and class dean encourage you to explore a range of disciplines and interests—from the personal and professional value of studying languages and cultural immersion to the wonders of the cell and outer space to the beauty of form, color and the word to the power struggles across the globe—and all that’s in between and beyond. We will work with you to make sure that your schedule is balanced across the disciplines, in the kind of work and assessments your courses demand, and the times at which they offered. It will be important to allocate time for study, self-reflection, and socializing.
Language Learning at Wesleyan
Wesleyan University places high value on multilingual proficiency and strongly encourages you to study other languages and live abroad.
There are 15 languages taught at Wesleyan—in order to be placed at the right level for a language you have studied already (other than English), you can use your AP or IB score or take a Wesleyan online Placement Test, which is available through your WesPortal. If you are considering learning or maintaining a language not taught at Wesleyan, there are several independent study options for you, available through the Fries Center for Global Studies.
Make study abroad a keystone experience while at Wesleyan—plan ahead by checking out the many choices of programs all over the world, some of them Wesleyan-run, and the language prerequisites for programs in countries where English is not the first language.
Make your Wesleyan years a global experience by gaining linguistic and intercultural competence!
Information about Insurance Requirement
Please look this information over as soon as possible, as action is required. Insurance FAQs and the Fall 2019 insurance invoice are also available.
Message from the Orientation Interns
Hello class of 2023 and Transfers!
We’re sure you’re very excited about all the new information you’ve been receiving from Wes. The most thrilling of all, of course, are those health forms due on June 15th. They can also be a little overwhelming, so let’s talk a little about the health resources available on campus.
The Davison Health Center, Wesleyan’s on-campus health clinic, offers a variety of services to students, including lab services, immunizations, sexual health services, and general check-ups. Visits are free and most services are offered at a reduced price than that of off-campus medical facilities. On the second floor of the Davison Health Center, you’ll find Counseling and Psychological Services—or CAPS, for short. CAPS runs mental wellness events and group meditation programs. CAPS maintains confidentiality, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them —especially through free individual counseling sessions — as you cope with the challenges posed by a new academic environment. Davison also houses the Survivor Advocacy and Community Education office (SACE), which is available as a confidential resource to students who have experienced sexual assault, stalking and dating violence or other forms of intimate partner violence.
In August, as you can see on the New Student Checklist in your WesPortal, all students will be prompted either to accept Wesleyan’s on-campus health insurance using Cigna as the Preferred Provider, or to decline this insurance in favor of another. Luckily, there are forms of subsidized health insurance in CT—such as National General, United Healthcare, and Husky Health CT—for those who cannot afford Gallagher. Husky D, which is equivalent to Medicaid, is the subsidized insurance of choice for many of Wesleyan’s low-income students that are nineteen years old or older. REMEMBER: it is important to start looking into insurance options now because the process of applying can be a long and stressful one.
Read more about The Davison Health Center
Read more about CAPS
Read more about SACE
As always, have a good week! GO WES!
The Orientation Interns
Naraa Altai ’22
Ivanie Cedeño ’22
Michelle Lei ’21
Ariana Baez ’22
Anya Kisicki ’22
orientation@wesleyan.edu
(860) 685 5666
Summer Sendoff Schedule
Sunday, July 21: Bay Area, CA
Wednesday, July 31: Mamaroneck, NY
Sunday, August 4: Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, August 11: Chicago, IL
More information is available here.
I know that this is a lot of information to process, so take your time and go through everything item by item, prioritizing each thing by their respective deadlines. Be sure to explore the landing page for entering students and pay attention to the checklist deadlines.
Have a great week! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Best,
Dean Wood