I am extremely interested in Wellesley and had a few questions about the college.
I plan to pursue law school, hopefully Yale, so one of the most worrying things was the grade deflation. I actually am extremely interested in an academically challenging environment and that’s why I applied to Wellesley. But I can’t help but worry about the effect of that on my gpa. I am interested in studying international relations.
How hard would it be to achieve a 3.7+ gpa while maintaining a social life and enjoying extracurricular activities?
Are 5-6 hours of studying enough? Is it less or more?
I’m the mother of a current sophomore, but from what I can see, that so-called “grade deflation” is one of the most over-hyped things about Wellesley. Yes, there are some profs who grade on a curve, but in general if you deserve an A, you’ll get an A. If you’ve just coasted through high school, doing the minimum work required to get an A or B, you’re in for a shock, but if you have good study habits, can tolerate heavy reading assignments, and slog your way through long problem sets, you will get good grades. What’s challenging is the intense pressure to do well. You’ll feel it, according to my daughter, but you just have to keep your head down and do your work, without worrying that “oh, my roommate is up until 3 studying and shouldn’t I be doing that, too?”