Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, offers instruction in 39 departments and 46 major fields of study and awards the bachelor of arts and graduate degrees. The master of arts degree and the doctor of philosophy are regularly awarded in six fields of study. Students may choose from more than 900 courses each year and may be counted upon to devise, with the faculty, some 900 individual tutorials and lessons.

The student body is made up of approximately 2,700 full-time undergraduates and 200 graduate students, as well as more than 400 part-time students in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program. An ongoing faculty of more than 300 is joined each semester by a distinguished group of visiting artists and professors. But despite Wesleyan’s growth, today’s student/instructor ratio remains at 9 to 1, and about two thirds of all courses enroll fewer than 20 students.