<p>I know Wellesley is a very competitive and rigorous school but is it extremely hard to get As in classes? I'd be a neuroscience major...
I'm a hopeful pre-med student considering several LACs and I don't know if it would be better to attend a more academically manageable school (i.e. Siena College) where there is a greater chance for me to stand out or a more competitive one like Wellesley..
Also, a lot of the all womens colleges seem to say that womens schools are better because you aren't competing with men for opportunities etc., but arent you just competing with women instead?
Does anyone have any thoughts?</p>
<p>My D is also planning on pre-med and is going to Wellesley in the fall. Here is some info we were given at Open Campus that might help you decide.</p>
<p>Wellesley has a grade deflation policy; the grade point average in each course is not supposed to exceed 3.3.</p>
<p>70% of applicants (both current students and those who wait after graduation to apply) get into medical school each year. </p>
<p>There is a medical school advisory committee that will tell students if they have a good shot at acceptance, and if not, what the applicant needs to do in order to improve her chances. However, this committee does not prohibit students from applying. (Some colleges have committees that will refuse recommendations, etc. to students, essentially stopping them from applying; this practice raises the college’s acceptance rate but denies some students the chance to take the fall.) </p>
<p>Wellesley has a pre-med club, the Hippocratic Society, that allows pre-meds the chance to do volunteer work and service trips related to medicine.</p>
<p>My daughter is finishing up her first year at Wellesley, and from what I’ve heard from her, yes, it is extremely hard to get As in classes.</p>
<p>To answer your questions…</p>
<p>Yes, it’s pretty hard to get A’s.
No, this won’t really hurt your chances at med. school.</p>
<p>A lot of prospective Wellesley students I meet with want to be pre-med, so I know the stats: As NJSue noted, Wellesley’s medical school acceptance rate is ~70%, compared to a 45% national average. So clearly, even though Wellesley has a policy of grade deflation, graduate schools of all varieties (not just medical schools) think highly of Wellesley students. The school is very supportive of its pre-med students, and there are lots of opportunities for research and internships. Although you’ll have to work harder than the average college student for your grades, it pays off in the end. :)</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters - Wellesley is a rigorous academic environment. I think the B+ average grade applies to 100 & 200 level classes with at least 10 students. But since most entering students are used to receiving mostly As, it is an adjustment.</p>
<p>My D is the kind who pushes herself regardless. In HS she always did extra credit work if it was offered. Her younger brother doesn’t bother most of the time!</p>
<p>I wonder what happens to the 30% who DON’T get in… How terrible for them to have spent so many years focused on their goal and then not to achieve it. What are some good fall-back plans for Wellesley pre-meds?</p>
<p>Hmmm, life doesn’t always work out exactly how you envisioned, I don’t think it is so terrible in the end. My best friend is probably one of that 30% (she is still on the waitlist for one med school) and she applied to nursing schools simultaneously. So she was admitted and will probably attend one of the best nursing schools in the country and get some sort of combined BSN/MSN degree. Her dream is to be a medical practitioner in women’s health, and so nursing, while not the original dream, still gets her where she wants to go. </p>
<p>Wellesley has a very helpful but no-nonsense pre-med advisor, so my feeling from talking to my best friend is that if you are part of the 30%, you have probably been prepared for the fact that your candidacy to med school is rather a longshot. Of course that can be very difficult to hear/realize, especially in the beginning, but my friend seems to have come to peace with it and I think is very excited about the opportunity she does have.</p>
<p>It’s good to know Sheila B-C would give the students a heads-up in advance. That would help soften the blow.</p>