Wellesley is an excellent liberal arts school because, in a nutshell, they teach you how to figure the world out for yourself. They have excellence in everything: faculty, location, students, campus, dining, residential staff, dorms, comprehensive studies, major and minor flexibility, inter-college communication, etc. You're surrounded by girls who are the top in their state and have been up to the national/international level in music, the arts, sports--you name it, you have it. The Wellesley woman is a good speaker, a talented writer, not afraid to ask hard questions, intense, diligent, and a level above other college students. We put our all into not just our academics but everything else as well--while Harvard, MIT, Babson, Olin, and other schools may not work too hard on a culture festival, an orientation event, an intercollegiate party, or an open Boston forum, Wellesley women and faculty take professionalism to a completely new level. Every woman who receives an award, a distinction, an executive position in a club or otherwise, fully deserves it. At Wellesley, you're surrounded by the best of the nation--women who will be great in the future, and who will make their mark. So am I learning a lot? Yes, both in and out of class--and most likely much more out of class. The people you encounter are insanely smart, hard-working, and honest. The students at other schools provide a way for a student of Wellesley to really see the perks of Wellesley and what sets us apart from other schools, whether all-girl or not.
Do you enjoy the experience at your school?
The campus is one of the most beautiful in the nation, is consistently in the top 5 liberal arts schools nationally, and of course, as an all-female school, is a haven for women! Because Wellesley is all-female, the perks of really being able to focus on school are immense. While at co-ed schools you may have to take the higher road and not talk as much in class because there are rowdy boys in the class, or have to deal with the sexism that I have encountered in many boys in my grade, at Wellesley you can be completely free to do what you want and need to do in order to perform at your peak. The small class sizes are a blessing, and being surrounded by girls makes competition and performance that much more intense yet friendly. Even if I theoretically had to leave Wellesley and go to a state university because of tuition costs, I would forever be thankful for my time at Wellesley and remember what a tremendous blessing it was to meet other women who have the same goals and aspirations as me, and who don't get distracted from their goals.
Do you feel you’re getting value for the money you’re spending on college?
Definitely worth the money. The Wellesley experience is incredible. Everyone works so hard--as one of the top in my state, I went to Wellesley and met girls who were the top in their respective states, and met upperclassmen who, in my eyes, were close to achieving rocker status because they had done so many lovely, cool, and commendable things. Seriously try and visit campus and meet some of the students if you can--the prospectives I met all were awed by how much they loved Wellesley and by how nice and great the students were. There is no hierarchy, belittling, or aggression between Wellesley women--just intense yet respectful competition, and it is really every woman against herself. You compete to be better than you thought you could be--if you feel stupid because everyone else around you seems uber smart, guess what? Everyone around you feels the same way. Wellesley women intimidate Wellesley women, and that makes all of us try that much harder. We know how to party, have fun, and take care of ourselves--you do NOT have to do all-nighters if you manage your time well--but we study hard and also form meaningful relationships with faculty and students that you can't get at big universities or even at such an acclaimed school as Harvard. Wellesley is great because it is small, it is all-girls, it is far enough from Boston to be a real college and campus experience but close enough that you aren't in the middle of nowhere, it really tries to meet the needs of each student, and since it is a liberal arts school, will teach you all the skills you need for success as a person, worker, boss, wife, daughter, cousin, politician, lawyer, service worker... whatever your role is!
Do you have any tips for prospective students?
Don't worry too much if you don't have a perfect GPA, perfect standardized test scores, or if you don't have a million extracurriculars. Many girls I know at Wellesley didn't have a stellar academic performance, but were accepted. Just do your best in whatever you can, and write a good essay about why you want to attend! My essay was honestly about my love for Jamba Juice, Asian music, my friends, my fashion sense, and the quirks that my friends will make fun of me for--it showed my personality and wasn't overdone or boring to read (well, in my opinion and my friends' opinions) and I think it really made a different in the acceptance process. And this is from my own observations and others': Wellesley isn't incredibly hard to enter, the way Harvard, Princeton or MIT is, but honestly, it is one of the hardest colleges to graduate from with a good GPA because Wellesley women are so excellent we have to grade-deflate to make some sort of distinction between the good, the excellent, and the outstanding. I have friends at Harvard and they don't work nearly as hard as the average Wellesley women--we take our studies and extracurriculars a lot more seriously than they do. So don't worry too much about acceptance--it's not the hardest school to enter. :)
Which types of students will excel at your college?
Everyone! Honestly, I think one of the biggest strengths of Wellesley is how diverse a Wellesley woman can be. While I am not really a partier and prefer to spend my weekends hanging out in the city with close friends, there are definitely people who know how to party. Certainly there is a mixture of sexual/gender identity, but whether you are straight, lesbian, bi, or identify by something else, you will find others like you and are not disturbed by others. In fact, oftentimes I will be walking to my next class or my dorm and see a girl who will make me wonder how she got into Wellesley or why she applied, since she seems so different from me, and yet I love Wellesley and she does too. But even on opposite sides of the spectrum, Wellesley women truly and wholeheartedly love Wellesley--even the ones who hate it the first year come back and love it in the years following. We especially love the opportunities it offers to study overseas, meet student at other colleges, make up your own major, meet wonderful professors, and become friends with people you wouldn't be caught dead with in high school. Wellesley can sound like a school for bitc*es, or straight-edged uptight and prim girls, or lesbians only, or aggressive and scarily nerdy or smart girls, etc., but the student population will really surprise you. (Please don't take offense by any of my descriptions, I know they are very stereotypical but are only examples!) Don't cross this school off because it is all-girls and you or people around you have negative stereotypes of it--come over for spring open campus and see for yourself! I was hesitant in applying because my sister attended Wellesley and loved it, and since she and I are polar opposites I was highly dubious of whether Wellesley would be a good college fit for me. But after one year at Wellesley, I am ever grateful that I applied and decided to attend--it is really wonderful in so many ways.
Wellesley is an excellent liberal arts school because, in a nutshell, they teach you how to figure the world out for yourself. They have excellence in everything: faculty, location, students, campus, dining, residential staff, dorms, comprehensive studies, major and minor flexibility, inter-college communication, etc. You're surrounded by girls who are the top in their state and have been up to the national/international level in music, the arts, sports--you name it, you have it. The Wellesley woman is a good speaker, a talented writer, not afraid to ask hard questions, intense, diligent, and a level above other college students. We put our all into not just our academics but everything else as well--while Harvard, MIT, Babson, Olin, and other schools may not work too hard on a culture festival, an orientation event, an intercollegiate party, or an open Boston forum, Wellesley women and faculty take professionalism to a completely new level. Every woman who receives an award, a distinction, an executive position in a club or otherwise, fully deserves it. At Wellesley, you're surrounded by the best of the nation--women who will be great in the future, and who will make their mark. So am I learning a lot? Yes, both in and out of class--and most likely much more out of class. The people you encounter are insanely smart, hard-working, and honest. The students at other schools provide a way for a student of Wellesley to really see the perks of Wellesley and what sets us apart from other schools, whether all-girl or not.
The campus is one of the most beautiful in the nation, is consistently in the top 5 liberal arts schools nationally, and of course, as an all-female school, is a haven for women! Because Wellesley is all-female, the perks of really being able to focus on school are immense. While at co-ed schools you may have to take the higher road and not talk as much in class because there are rowdy boys in the class, or have to deal with the sexism that I have encountered in many boys in my grade, at Wellesley you can be completely free to do what you want and need to do in order to perform at your peak. The small class sizes are a blessing, and being surrounded by girls makes competition and performance that much more intense yet friendly. Even if I theoretically had to leave Wellesley and go to a state university because of tuition costs, I would forever be thankful for my time at Wellesley and remember what a tremendous blessing it was to meet other women who have the same goals and aspirations as me, and who don't get distracted from their goals.
Definitely worth the money. The Wellesley experience is incredible. Everyone works so hard--as one of the top in my state, I went to Wellesley and met girls who were the top in their respective states, and met upperclassmen who, in my eyes, were close to achieving rocker status because they had done so many lovely, cool, and commendable things. Seriously try and visit campus and meet some of the students if you can--the prospectives I met all were awed by how much they loved Wellesley and by how nice and great the students were. There is no hierarchy, belittling, or aggression between Wellesley women--just intense yet respectful competition, and it is really every woman against herself. You compete to be better than you thought you could be--if you feel stupid because everyone else around you seems uber smart, guess what? Everyone around you feels the same way. Wellesley women intimidate Wellesley women, and that makes all of us try that much harder. We know how to party, have fun, and take care of ourselves--you do NOT have to do all-nighters if you manage your time well--but we study hard and also form meaningful relationships with faculty and students that you can't get at big universities or even at such an acclaimed school as Harvard. Wellesley is great because it is small, it is all-girls, it is far enough from Boston to be a real college and campus experience but close enough that you aren't in the middle of nowhere, it really tries to meet the needs of each student, and since it is a liberal arts school, will teach you all the skills you need for success as a person, worker, boss, wife, daughter, cousin, politician, lawyer, service worker... whatever your role is!
Don't worry too much if you don't have a perfect GPA, perfect standardized test scores, or if you don't have a million extracurriculars. Many girls I know at Wellesley didn't have a stellar academic performance, but were accepted. Just do your best in whatever you can, and write a good essay about why you want to attend! My essay was honestly about my love for Jamba Juice, Asian music, my friends, my fashion sense, and the quirks that my friends will make fun of me for--it showed my personality and wasn't overdone or boring to read (well, in my opinion and my friends' opinions) and I think it really made a different in the acceptance process. And this is from my own observations and others': Wellesley isn't incredibly hard to enter, the way Harvard, Princeton or MIT is, but honestly, it is one of the hardest colleges to graduate from with a good GPA because Wellesley women are so excellent we have to grade-deflate to make some sort of distinction between the good, the excellent, and the outstanding. I have friends at Harvard and they don't work nearly as hard as the average Wellesley women--we take our studies and extracurriculars a lot more seriously than they do. So don't worry too much about acceptance--it's not the hardest school to enter. :)
Everyone! Honestly, I think one of the biggest strengths of Wellesley is how diverse a Wellesley woman can be. While I am not really a partier and prefer to spend my weekends hanging out in the city with close friends, there are definitely people who know how to party. Certainly there is a mixture of sexual/gender identity, but whether you are straight, lesbian, bi, or identify by something else, you will find others like you and are not disturbed by others. In fact, oftentimes I will be walking to my next class or my dorm and see a girl who will make me wonder how she got into Wellesley or why she applied, since she seems so different from me, and yet I love Wellesley and she does too. But even on opposite sides of the spectrum, Wellesley women truly and wholeheartedly love Wellesley--even the ones who hate it the first year come back and love it in the years following. We especially love the opportunities it offers to study overseas, meet student at other colleges, make up your own major, meet wonderful professors, and become friends with people you wouldn't be caught dead with in high school. Wellesley can sound like a school for bitc*es, or straight-edged uptight and prim girls, or lesbians only, or aggressive and scarily nerdy or smart girls, etc., but the student population will really surprise you. (Please don't take offense by any of my descriptions, I know they are very stereotypical but are only examples!) Don't cross this school off because it is all-girls and you or people around you have negative stereotypes of it--come over for spring open campus and see for yourself! I was hesitant in applying because my sister attended Wellesley and loved it, and since she and I are polar opposites I was highly dubious of whether Wellesley would be a good college fit for me. But after one year at Wellesley, I am ever grateful that I applied and decided to attend--it is really wonderful in so many ways.