Hi all! Congratulations to those of you who made it into Wellesley! I’m a current first year (class of 2021), and I definitely remember how hard the college process can be. If any of you have any questions about student life, academics, or really just anything Wellesley, I’d be more than happy to help! Have a great rest of the school year, and we hope to see you on campus in the fall.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread. The reason is that the OPs in “ask me” threads" tend to disappear and not respond to questions.
I know this question has been exhausted many times over, but how easy/common is it to go into boston for parties and social activities, and socialize with people from other schools? How do people go about doing this?
Also, is there anything you wish you’d brought with you to college, and do you have any packing recommendations?
@ pinecone483: I try to go into Boston once a month to hang out with a friend from home who goes to Northeastern, but I’d say it’s very much what you make of it. Some people go into the city every weekend, and some people don’t go at all. I will say that the bus (to Harvard, MIT, and Boston) costs $3 in tokens to go one-way on the weekends, so it can add up, and the bus isn’t always the most reliable. But it is possible, and sometimes orgs will have mixers and other events on Wellesley’s campus with other schools, so that’s also a possibility.
Definitely bring a fan- the dorms aren’t air-conditioned, and it gets really warm in September and October. I would also recommend waiting to get all of the little stuff until you get here. I bought my shower stuff, school supplies, pillows, and other random stuff once I got here, and I think that saved room in my suitcase
Do you happen to know any students who have gotten suspended during high school? If you do, what did they do? And how did they manage to get in with the record on them?
@ Muad_dib: I’d say that your community at Wellesley is what you make of it. To preface this, I’m not a conservative Christian by any means, so I’ll never know what that experience is really like here, but this is all based on what I’ve seen so far. There are orgs for Republicans/conservative students on campus and pretty active Christian fellowship groups, so you definitely won’t be alone among the student body. That said, Wellesley is a liberal environment, and people here don’t take politics lightly, because it directly affects the reality of so many students. From what I’ve seen, if you can sit down and listen to and respect other people and their beliefs, they will do the same for you
@ WorriedDude: I don’t happen to know of any? But I think it would depend on what the suspension was for and in what context it was in. This might be something to further explain on the “additional information” section of the Wellesley application if you think it’s appropriate, just so admissions knows. I would also ask someone on the admissions team, they’ll be able to answer this far better than I can
@emsmag Hi! I’m of class of 2023 and right now super interested in applying to Wellesley for ED2. However I’m pretty worried since there are videos on youtube that mentioned the grading policy of Wellesley and the “wokeness” as well as the Freedom Project. Has the policy changed in any ways? And is the “wokeness” really that intense?
I went to Wellesley back in the '80s, i.e. when rocks were soft.
Do the dorms still have distinct personalities? I lived in Beebe and it was the jock dorm. What dorm do you live in, and do dorm personalities persist?
Whether you’ve just been admitted ED, will be applying later this year, or if you’re still in the college search process, I want to help answer some of your questions. I remember my own college admissions process (a little too much sometimes,) and I’d love to help y’all out. I’m a first-year international student-athlete, so I’m pretty versed in those topics but AMA! Most of my own knowledge is about athletics, being an international student, orgs and E-Boards, ORSL, and housing/food. Feel free to ask about anything; if I don’t know, I’ll find someone that does.
**Moderator’s note: anyone is welcome to ask questions, and other students/parents of students are welcome to answer questions as well! I’ll do my best to try to keep up with everything.
@ninakatarina I think that some of the dorms definitely do have certain “types” of people in the dorms. I’m in Munger this year - I was randomly placed, being a first year. While my room is (very) small, my roommate and I have gotten used to it, both love the community, and will likely both be returning to Munger next year. From what I have found, a lot of the athletes live in the Quad. The majority of my team (who chose where they would live) is in the Quad. This could definitely be a convenience thing - when you’ve got to be in the KSC at 6:15am, it’s easier to walk five minutes vs across campus. I know that there are a lot of members of the athletic community who have blocked on the top two floors of Beebe this year - I doubt that Beebe itself gives off an extremely athletic vibe, but it’s location is preferable for athletes. East side is home to a lot of STEM majors, since it’s so much closer to Sci. But, it’s also filled with people who were placed there first year and really enjoyed the community, so they ended up there in later years. I’m not quite sure about Tower Court and Stone-D, but let me see if I can find someone who might have a better opinion on those two…
It’s in the works. Our Provost announced at convocation that Wellesley would be evaluating the grading policy. Here is a section from the Senate minutes from last month concerning it:
"At the time (of implementation, 2004), we had two concerns concerning grades: Firstly, we had the highest grades in COFHE - COFHE is a consortium of the top 35 private colleges and universities in the U.S. Because of this we thought that the high grades would not be taken seriously by the outside community, especially when these grades came from a historically women’s college. We also thought that this would decrease the value of our degrees. Our second concern was the high variability between academic departments. We saw a trend that the lowest grading departments’s (STEM departments and Econ department) average grades were 2/3rds of a grade point lower than the highest grading departments. We thought that sent a message saying that STEM and Econ was harder than humanities and the social
sciences. When in reality, they are equally as hard.
So, we implemented the policy for two main reasons: To slow the rate of grades, and therefore, make our grades
more comparable to our peers, and to lessen the amount of disparity between academic departments. After the policy was implemented, we saw that the grading policy has lessened the gap between STEM majors’ grades and Humanities majors’ grades from 2/3rds of a grade point to 1/3 rd of a grade point. Rates of grades have slowed down. The grading policy, in some respects, has been effective and we did not hear any student complaints in the first couple of years.
Admin has never called this policy a grade deflation policy, although students do."
Anyways, they think it’s time for a (possible) change. Things are in the works. From the student end, we don’t know much as it is currently being evaluated. As I have shadow grading this semester, this hasn’t personally affected me yet, but it soon will.
Very much in progress. We've been in the modulars for labs this fall - I was definitely skeptical about that at first, but they're nice. The science center is being worked on in sections - they are currently working on the L wing - I'm guessing that we might be back in the labs come fall, but don't quote me on that. I think that Sci might be fully finished for the 2021-2022 year? Though, the greenhouse will be finished in time for next fall. There is a website somewhere that has updates, but I'm not sure what it is.
I applied for Wellesley in the ED II program but am worried that asking for financial aid may hurt my application (I really need the aid). Can anyone please advise if Wellesley gives you the required financial aid (As long as you deserve it of course)
Also, I’m excited! I hope I get accepted in the YELLOW class!
@bookboozer Wellesley is need-blind when it comes to domestic first-year applicants, worry not! (Unless you’re an international, transfer, or davis applicant.)
