A few questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wellesley College
1

<p>I have a few questions (ok more than a few) for you wonderful Wellesley women. </p>

<p>1) What are the most popular gyms? (The ones that fill up the most quickly.) Would you consider sailing popular?</p>

<p>2) Does anyone have any experiences to share about the Wellesley health insurace? </p>

<p>3) Do you consider the people in the infirmary "competent?" and do you trust them with their diagnoses?</p>

<p>4) How does move in day work?</p>

<p>5) What will my OneCard do?</p>

<p>6) How does the meal plan work? Do I pay for a certain number of meals or is it unlimited? If I wanted to take a non Wellesley guest is there a fee?</p>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>Yoga is definitely popular; ballet also fills up rather quickly, as does Zumba and Fusion Fitness. I do not know about sailing. </p>

<p>Most classes have a cap around 10-15, though I think yoga has a cap of 20-something. Waitlists are available in some classes – you must show up on the first day to keep your spot in the class. If you find a class you really want to take but it is full in the fall semester, take it in the spring; the spring semester seems less popular overall than the fall semester imo. </p>

<p>PE registration is online through Banner. You register during the first week of classes for Term 1 or Semester 1 classes. The schedule for the 2009-2010 classes is here:
<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/athletics/newPE/schedules.html[/url]”>http://www.wellesley.edu/athletics/newPE/schedules.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

Move in to the res halls begins at 8am I believe. The res halls will be open so you basically drive up to the entrance of your building, check-in with the people at the bells desk and get your room key and welcome packet, and then find your room and begin moving in. </p>

<p>In the morning you also go to the campus center to get your photo taken and to get your OneCard (your Wellesley ID). The line to get your photo taken can be really long – to avoid waiting for about an hour in the line, you should go right when it opens or come around 11am-noon. Though, waiting in line with everyone else gives you a chance to meet many of your fellow classmates and their families! </p>

<p>There is also a place in the campus center for you to pick up your class t-shirt and your tickets to some of the Orientation events (I think this year there’s some talk about the New England Aquarium, rafting, etc.) </p>

<p>Health services will be open to get last minute immunizations. Financial aid will also be open for questions. </p>

<p>In the afternoon, you will meet with your first year mentor (FYM) group or your transfer mentor group. Parents and families will have the chance to meet your residential director and other members of residential life. Then parents leave, students get dinner with their FYM groups or Transfer groups and the fun begins ;)</p>

<p>You will get a very detailed orientation schedule in the mail in August.</p>

<p>

Your OneCard gives you 24/7 access to the res halls on-campus, the campus center, the science center, and pendleton hall in the academic quad. It is also used to swipe in at the campus center’s 4th floor dining area (the swiping of the card is used by dining services to count the number of people who use the facility). </p>

<p>Also, each semester you are given 50 points to use at the campus center’s 2nd floor emporium (think coffee shop and mini grocery store). Each point is like $1. These points roll-over from the fall to the spring semester but expire at the end of the spring semester. If you run out, you can buy extra points called flex points and those get added to your card. Flex points do not expire. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>The meal plan is unlimited – you can go into any dining hall when it’s open and come in and out as you please and eat as much food as you want. Each semester you are given 15(?) guest passes that can be used at any dining hall – in the campus center, you just swipe your card and tell the dining hall worker you want to use a guest pass; in the other dining halls, you write in your information in the Guest Book. If you run out of guess passes, you can purchase meals for your guest(s) in the campus center’s 4th floor dining area. Prices vary between lunch and dinner there.</p>

3

<p>Are club sports open to everyone? I want to join sailing, and on their team website it said all levels were welcome. But for the PE classes, I saw that you had to have some experience with sailing in order to take the lessons. Is it just that the PE classes are for people with experience?</p>

4

<p>A few questions
I have a few questions (ok more than a few) for you wonderful Wellesley women. </p>

<p>I have a few answers, though some pay be out of date.</p>

<p>1) What are the most popular gyms? (The ones that fill up the most quickly.) Would you consider sailing popular?</p>

<p>I think the dancing ones are popular. Sailing fills and has limited capacity for a reason, but it’s also during the day, which makes it a hard because classes are usually picked first. First semester first year, I arranged my class schedule around taking sailing. Signing up for PE is usually really stressful, but generally works out</p>

<p>Just so you know, there are infinite spots in Snowboarding/Skiing.</p>

<p>2) Does anyone have any experiences to share about the Wellesley health insurace? </p>

<p>Nope.</p>

<p>3) Do you consider the people in the infirmary “competent?” and do you trust them with their diagnoses?</p>

<p>I used them for a bad 24 hour flu, a ripped off fingernail and cramps, so really TLC was the biggest thing I needed. I would say the people who treated me were attentive and kind. There is no longer overnight service.</p>

<p>Stories from friends would have said no, but it may be that the doctors and people are different.</p>

<p>4) How does move in day work?</p>

<p>You show up with your stuff at the appointed time and be a nice student and wait until your roommate shows before you decide who gets which side.</p>

<p>5) What will my OneCard do?
Open doors you are allowed to go through and feed you at the Lulu. Delightfully, this includes other people’s dormitories.</p>

<p>6) How does the meal plan work? Do I pay for a certain number of meals or is it unlimited? If I wanted to take a non Wellesley guest is there a fee?
Unlimited. You can take guests up to 15 times. You sign a book.</p>

<p>Also:
When I took it, the sailing PE classes were strictly for people with no experience. Bonnie told the student who know how to sail she’d be bored so she left.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>PE classes are for students with no experience (unless the course is “Advanced” or something like Ballet 2). </p>

<p>Club sports are open to everyone. The sailing team actually welcomes people without experience, as does the synchronized swimming team and the rugby team. Most club sports are very welcoming to everyone, provided you can actually play the sport decently. Some varsity sports have welcomed people without experience in the past as well, but I believe those spots are becoming fewer and fewer now (sports that come to mind: crew and fencing).</p>

<p>

PE registration did used to be stressful, but now it is online registration through Banner and it is very easy. Honestly if you actually wake up at 8am (or whenever PE registration opens) you can get into the class you want. If you want to take a less popular class (basically not dance or yoga) you can generally still register at 11am and be fine. First semester will probably be more competitive because of all the first years, but after that it’s like people forget about their PE requirement until senior year…</p>

<p>

There are 50 spots in this class, but generally 50 people do not sign up for it. Snowboarding/Skiing is offered Term 2 and Term 3 on Wednesday evenings and is quite a large time commitment compared to the other PE classes that are offered. But, if you want to learn how to ski/snowboard, it’s definitely worth it.</p>

6

<p>My experience with the Health Center and the insurance has been positive. At home I have terrible state insurance, so getting an appointment sometimes requires calling weeks, if not months in advance. I was really pleasantly surprised to get an appointment the same day I called. It’s really easy to see a doctor.</p>

<p>I’ve had positive experiences with the staff. I keep hearing that gynecology is awesome there and probably for good reason. </p>

<p>I wish I used the insurance services more, because it’s really easy just to forget if there’s nothing immediately wrong with you or you’re busy. It takes some work to figure out the vision and dental parts of the plan, which is sort of inconvenient.</p>

<p>All this is pre-health center changes, but someone tell me if I’m wrong that those changes mostly applies to after hours care? I don’t have any experience with being directed to the local hospital when the health center isn’t open and how that works.</p>

7

<p>1) What are the most popular gyms? (The ones that fill up the most quickly.) Would you consider sailing popular?</p>

<p>Sailing is popular, especially because it is only offered term 1 and 4. Yoga, dance, badminton, archery and squash are pretty popular too. Almost all of the pe classes are pretty popular. I would also point out that the time of the class can play an important role of how popular a class is. 8:30 classes are easier to get into then classes later in the day. Your academic schedule will determine what classes you can take. I hated running from an academic class to a pe class and I also hated running from pe to an academic class. So my pe classes were at night or in the middle of a big block of study time.</p>

<p>Also, dorm/class crew count as pe credit. I recommend doing dorm crew in the fall. It is so much fun and I met people from my dorm that I had not really known before. You do not need to have any prior experience, but it is also a lot of fun if you have rowed before.</p>

<p>All club sports are open to new and experienced players. I am a member of the frisbee team and they made my freshman year. It is so nice to have a huge group of friends that is there for you and you spend so much time with them. We have team dinner together almost everynight during the week even when we don’t have practice.</p>

<p>2) Does anyone have any experiences to share about the Wellesley health insurace?</p>

<p>I do not have the Wellesle health insurance. Many people can find it difficult to use the infirmary if you don’t have their health insurance, which made me find a doctor nearby. I also know many people who got wrong diagnosis, which was another reason for me not using the infirmary. This is especially true for orthopedic or sports injuries. You definitely want to get a second opinion. I do have teammates who used the physical therapy that the infirmary provided like 2 afternoons a week. I believe my roommate would have her prescriptions sent to the infirmary and then she would pick them up there. I also know that you can spend a long time there trying to get a diagnosis, especially if its something more complicated. Also, if its not an emergency it can be a few days until you are able to get an appointment or you have to go and wait there until they have time for you which can definitely be hours.</p>

<p>3) Do you consider the people in the infirmary “competent?” and do you trust them with their diagnoses?</p>

<p>I think I answered that question above, but no I don’t. I know plenty of people, including my roommate last year and best friend who had to go back several times, got different (incorrect) diagnosises each time, where if they had gone to an off campus doctor then they probably would have gotten better treatment. My roommate had awful migranes, which weren’t being solved by the infirmary, so I forced her to see a doctor off campus who got her into a specialist same day, which gave her medicine and follow up that got her in good shape for finals and is now working with her for a long term solution. </p>

<p>If you have insurance that will work in MA, keep it. It will save you money and you still have access to the infirmary, but you can also go off campus. </p>

<p>4) How does move in day work?
You can show up as early as 8 or 9. There are tons of upperclasswomen around and lost of Wellesley College staff to help you. You will park in front of your res hall, unload all your stuff to the curb and then your parents (or whoever is driving you) will go park the car so there is room for more cars to drop off. You will go in the front door of your res hall and your RA will show you to your room, give you your key and introduce yourself. You then move all your stuff in. I recommend coordinating with your roommate to get there at the same time so that you can divide the room how you want and rearrange it. It also is nice to have help if you want to bunk or loft your beds, especially in the dorms with older furniture because it can heavy and more difficult to work with. </p>

<p>5) What will my OneCard do?
Your one card is the most important thing you will get. It opens all the dorms, enables you to eat in the lulu, you need to show it to ride free on the bus, gets you into the academic buildings late at night, lets you take stuff out of the libraries and you need to show it to take final exams. You can also use it throughout boston to get student discounts. </p>

<p>6) How does the meal plan work? Do I pay for a certain number of meals or is it unlimited? If I wanted to take a non Wellesley guest is there a fee?</p>

<p>The meal plan is unlimited. All of the dining halls, except the lulu, you just walk in and eat. You can eat as many meals as you want when the dining halls are open. You get so many guest meals a semester where you just sign a book or in the lulu they just swipe your card again. You also get 50 points to use at collins cafe or the convenience store in the lulu. Unused points from the fall roll over to the spring semester.</p>

8

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>