Hiii!! I got accepted both into BU and Wellesley but I’m torn on where I should go. I wish to study neuroscience and am aware that Wellesley is a liberal arts school. However, if I were to go to Wellesley I would probably take some classes and conduct research at MIT. On the other hand, BU is well known for their wide and intensive research. Which do you think would be better to go to? I am also afraid of BU because I heard they have grade deflation so getting an A is pretty difficult. Any suggestions as to which you believe would be better?
One is a women’s school, one isn’t.
One is a traditional campus I believe; the other dominates an urban street.
One is large; one is small.
These are the things i’d be looking at - your day to day life.
Both are fine schools. But you have to live there four years…day after day.
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What route are you thinking of taking? Are you thinking of a PhD, or working in a lab with a Master’s degree?
I wouldn’t worry about doing research at Wellesley. My daughter is a junior at Middlebury, and her research portfolio is strong enough for any direction.
In general, both are excellent schools, so it really comes down to which you would prefer.
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LACs are often very strong in biology and related subfields. Amherst, for example, developed the first undergraduate neuroscience major in the U.S. Wellesley, too, offers top-level programs in the biological sciences.
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Can you list the net cost, calculating
(tuition, fees, room, board) - (scholarship, grant) =?
for each, and listing below so we can evaluate them in terms of value?
I wouldn’t worry about research at Wellesley, it’s a top-notch university and professors include undergrads in their research.
Do you want a campus environment close to a city or many buildings in a city?
Is a women’s college appealing to you?
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Yes! I unfortunately did not get like any financial aid from either college. So the costs are about the same at 80k.
I like Wellesley but my main concern is that it is a women’s college. Don’t get me wrong an all-girls environment sounds nice and comforting, but what also interests me is meeting some other guys? I know that this is probably a stupid concern lol. But I heard from other Wellesley students that it is not that difficult to meet guys through parties and maybe cross register classes at MIT. ALSO, my older sister goes to Wellesley and i’m afraid that i’m constantly going to be compared to her again like I was during high school. I want to be able to be my different people ig if that makes sense ??? Those are my concerns about Wellesley but I honestly do prefer the smaller class sizes so I can get to know my professors rather than huge class sizes at BU.
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So, I agree that Wellesley has a campus environment close-ish to a city, I disagree with the description of BU as “many buildings in a city”. BU has a campus, it is a city campus, so not your traditional LAC campus with quads and gothic or colonial architecture, but it is far more of a defined campus than NYU for example. Pretty much everything (every building, every blade of grass, every tree) between Storrow drive and the Mass Pike and between Kenmore Square and the BU Bridge belongs to Boston University. That includes Bay State Road, Comm Ave, and Cummington, Marsh Plaza, the BU Beach, and the GSU for central campus) There may be a few businesses (barely any) a barber shop here or a restaurant there, but pretty much everything is BU. Yes, there are some buildings that go beyond Kenmore Square and there is South Campus on the other side of the Mass Pike, but the central part of campus is pretty well contained and defined. On the other side of the bridge (west campus there is the old west campus, the Booth Theatre, and the new student village and many of the other buildings are also owned by BU, but west campus has always felt a little looser. Pretty much the North side of Comm Ave is BU, the South side is mixed). Besides, Storrow Drive and the Mass Pike make better walls for campus than bricks do. 
Plus on the other side of Storrow drive is the Charles River, which gives a nice view.
To the central question - BU vs Wellesley - I would look closely at BU Neuro vs Wellesley Neuro, including research opportunities. Yes, Wellesley is one of the top 5 (I think) LACs and BU is what, I think 42 uni? But who is going to provide better opportunities for Neuro and better opportunities post graduation if you don’t want to immediately go to med school or grad school? My D is looking at Neuro too and BU is one of her choices as is a different top 5 LAC, as well as a couple other schools. These next two weeks are going to be interesting.
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- I wouldn’t assume getting an A at Wellesley is any easier than getting one at BU. In fact, if I had to make a guess, I’d assume Wellesley is a bit more rigorous.
- Only you can answer the all-women’s college piece. I thought my D was a perfect fit for W, and while she had a great official visit (she was an athletic recruit), it was a hard “no” in part for this very reason. I didn’t go to school there and neither did she, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think the “it’s easy to meet guys because of MIT” is something to dig into. I’ve been to Wellesley numerous times and it looks and feels like a quiet school in a suburban park. You’re not going to ride a bike into Boston or Cambridge. Men are not going to be a common sight on campus other than faculty/admin/family visitors. Compare/contrast with Bryn Mawr, where the school is right in the middle of a busy suburb of Philly, close to 3 other co-ed colleges and because of how the schools compliment one another, men from Haverford, for example, are on the BM campus all the time. To major in certain things, they have to go there. It’s very different at Wellesley.
- Research - you will have more research opportunity at Wellesley than you’ll know what to do with, and that doesn’t mean because of MIT. It means because of Wellesley. My D who attended a LAC boasted a pretty impressive list of research experiences and outcomes on her resume when applying to grad school. That’s a non-issue. OTOH, if BU is some center of gravity for neuroscience, about which I would not know, then that’s something to maybe consider.
If money were close and I didn’t mind the all-female part of it, I myself would choose Wellesley over BU, but that’s me. You really need to figure out the meeting guys part. I don’t see that there as a common thing. You’re going to have to get off campus just like the Mount Holyoke and Smith girls do. Wellesley is a bit out west in Boston. Lovely suburb, but not busy like the Maine Line area in Philly, and the W campus is set off as I said in a very park-like setting. It’s not on the way to anything.
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I would think long and hard about going to the same college as your sister. I’m sure it works great for some siblings but I think it would be a huge negative for my daughters and would not have been good for my sister and me. When my D22 chose her school, I could see the look of relief on her sister’s face because the other school she was considering is one D24 is very interested in (and likely a better fit for her).
I strongly support this recommendation from @AnonDad2026.
When I look at the 2 websites, I come away with very different feelings about the 2 departments. Not that one is better than the other, but that they’re very different.
BU Neuroscience has been at this for a very long time. They began studying neuroscience almost 60 years ago. Their PhD program almost 40 years old, so their department was well established by that time. Wellesley’s department is 20 years old.
The BU Neuroscience Department is huge with 111 faculty members. There are 11 faculty in the Wellesley program. To be sure, many of the BU faculty never meet an undergrad. Some may not even teach either undergrads or graduate students and might just be engaged in research full time. I found it interesting just to read through the list of faculty at each school and see their area of specialty.
BU requires 17 courses to complete the major. Wellesley requires 14. Of course more courses can be taken at either school. Fewer course requirements allows more flexibility in taking other courses outside the major or in developing a minor or 2nd major.
There are more than 40 upper level neuroscience electives available at BU. I could only find 17 courses listed as being offered this year in neuroscience at Wellesley. I may have missed some and the ay be tins in ther departments since eurscience is an interdisciplinary major.
These are just t differences which I can enumerate, but reading through the pages on the 2 websites, I just get a different feel for the departments at the 2 schools. Bigger is not necessarily better. Will you have the opportunity to develop relationships with professors at a big department like BU? Will you ever have the same prof for more than 1 course?
I would ask an Admissions Officer at each college to set up a phone call or face time with a representative of the Neuroscience Department and ask them to tell you about their department. Have a Q&A. I might even ask to speak with a current student from each department.
With regard to the topic of meeting guys, MIT isn’t nearby. Easy enough to get to, but each time you go, it’s at least an hour round trip. OTOH, Babson College and Olin College of Engineering are at the other end of town, about 2 miles away, and there is cross registration with both. Babson’s enrollment is 55:45 male:female.
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