Ohio Wesleyan students claim no religious affiliation. The student-faculty ratio is 11:1 and faculty members teach all classes. Excluding independent studies and senior theses, nearly 60% of Ohio Wesleyan's class sections have fewer than twenty students enrolled. Ohio Wesleyan is generally known for a strong "left-leaning" student body and an administration with a "permissive" attitude. In 2007, 60% of OWU students favored the Democratic Party. In its 2015 edition of U.S. college rankings, Niche (company) ranked Ohio Wesleyan 56th (out of 880 colleges) most politically liberal college in the U.S. Ohio Wesleyan admits students of all cultures, lifestyles, and socio-economic backgrounds. An index examining gay-friendly policies places OWU among the nation's gay-friendly colleges, and the university enacts policies to meet the six criteria developed by the Campus-Pride organization for recruiting and supporting students from a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. Nearly 18% of students at Ohio Wesleyan receive Federal Pell Grants, which mostly go to students whose family incomes are below $40,000. This measure indicates the degree to which economically disadvantaged groups are represented at OWU. The faculty consists of 142 tenured members. As of 2010, all the university's tenured or tenure-track faculty members hold a PhD or other terminal degree. The faculty is 37% female and 63% male, with 10% from underrepresented groups. Also as of 2006, women constitute 37% of the tenured professors and earn 94% of what male professors earn – numbers which suggest favorable gender circumstances. Curriculum, degrees and majors Freshmen are paired early in their first year with academic advisors who oversee their students' academic progress. Upon completing 34 units of coursework, students may earn diplomas in Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or Bachelor of Music. Ohio Wesleyan has research departments and teaching faculties in most academic disciplines; as of 2019, OWU offered nearly 90 majors. In its early days, OWU's curriculum began with classical studies, for the course catalogue maintained that "the classical course in Greek and Latin and pure mathematics bring correctness in mental processes that an applied art, or a living and slightly inflected language, do not permit." Scientific courses were added to Ohio Wesleyan's curriculum in 1849, and since then, scientific subjects have become a foundation to the liberal arts curriculum. OWU also has a highly respected music department. Its most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: Zoology/Animal Biology (23) Psychology (21) Sports, Kinesiology,