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<p>That is funny!!</p>
<p>This is a reason my son applied to a school rather than not, but my son still talks about how he liked the fact that Tufts students wrote in chalk on their sidewalks (club announcements and the like) while he is still disturbed that the notices at Georgetown were all on bulletin boards and perfectly aligned in columns and rows.</p>
<p>mathmom, S1 felt something similar about the department halls at Harvey Mudd vs. Caltech. It said a lot about each schoolâs vibe.</p>
<p>The unconventional clothes and hair styles proudly sported by the women at my daughterâs college said a lot about its vibe. My daughter loved it, I wasnât so keen on it. Would have crossed it right off MY list. </p>
<p>It was her choice, and she was right.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, thatâs because all NU women grow only better with age ;)</p>
<p>Muhlenberg College- My mom LOVED it, she wanted me to apply ED, and as pretty as the school was, I felt no reaction to the school. The dorms were nice, the students who I met were really sweet, and the programs seemed on par with what I wanted. There was no spark though, nothing was pulling me towards it. I visited the school twice. Itâs a very performing arts related school and it does have very good programs. Allentown isnât the best town, but it does have some good stuff within striking distance. Good school, but it wasnât for me.</p>
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<p>Is this really accurate? My D applied to Wellesley and I know that this would bother her. She loves fashion and she always makes an effort to put together a nice looking outfit. The thought that girls would pick up dirty clothes off the floor and go out is disgusting - and something she might find depressing. </p>
<p>Our student tour guide was dressed up in a funky, but cute dress and mary janes - not typical?</p>
<p>I think times have changed a lot in college dressing-- when I was in college and grad school, I wore jeans from the floor and I didnât own a bra. In retrospect it was shockingâat the time it was ordinary. My D wouldnât leave the house looking the way I did! Olive, I expect your D will find plenty of students like herself at Wellesley.</p>
<p>Olive, I went to Wellesley in the early 1970s. Things were different then. 
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<p>I didnât say that the jeans were dirty, btw. Simply that they were on the floor. (Is it normal for 19 yr olds to wash and hang up jeans after every wearing?!?) </p>
<p>Last year I went on a Wellesley student tour with a young relative. The student guide was wearing [apparently clean] jeans and a simple top of some kind and sensible footwear in which one can easily walk backwardâthe same thing worn by the majority of student guides at every school we visited in the last 3 or 4 years. I donât think I saw a female student guide wearing a dress and maryjanes at ANY school, although the female guide at Williams was the best-dressed I saw, wearing a cute funky outfit with a skirt. So I would venture to guess that it is not typical everyday wear at Wellesley or anywhere else.</p>
<p>If your D is going to be depressed unless the majority of the female students get dressed up in dresses and maryjanes and wear makeup every day to go to class she is going to have a hard time finding a fit at any good school in the northern part of the country. But somehow I think she is a hardier flower than that.</p>
<p>I remember about 10 years ago going to my nephewâs graduation from Williams, and thinking that the girls looked and dressed very âunisexâ. Donât know if its still like that but I think Consolationâs right.</p>
<p>Well, my D has the âWellesleyâ gene (jean) inside of her: Iâm sure she wore clothes from the floor. Her room does make me cry. But she also cares about fashion, so she loved being in NYC and attending Barnard. It did get a bit expensive â good thing she earned her own money â but she and her friends went shopping quite a bit.</p>
<p>She did acquire many stylish things, but most are deconstructed items fit for a high fashion scene, not the pearls and nice outfits some might have in mind.</p>
<p>She did not wear makeup at all, except for one line of eye-liner. She said she needs it because she gets such dark circles (she does) she needed to set them off. Hair was mostly pony-tail or just out â no blow drying or styling, except for flat iron to straighten little Parisian bangs. She does have mounds of pre-Raphaelite hair.</p>
<p>Iâm rambling. My point? Barnard did/does have fashion consciousness and so does NYU, but itâs funky and trendy.</p>
<p>Probably more than Wellesley. No pajamas like at Smith.</p>
<p>No diss to any other schools, just matter of preference.</p>
<p>Sad to sad, at Barnard women did carry Marc Jacobs $800.00 purses (not my D thank goodness.) But a lot of her stuff came off ebay. We got good at it. $400 purse for 85 dollars on an ebay auction. That sort of thing.</p>
<p>I just assumed that the clothes were dirty because the floor is dirty - perhaps there is a clean part of the floor? BTW, my Dâs clothes have a closer relationship with the floor than I sometimes like. I just wonder if the atmosphere is crunchy granola generally and how that fits in with the women only environment. My D is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum - certainly not dresses and heels to class, but not unkempt either and always a sense of appropriateness and grooming.</p>
<p>Weâll probably visit one more time while class is in session - our tour was during the summer, so it was difficult to gauge the atmosphere.</p>
<p>I donât think a 19 year old throwing their clothes on the floor is crunch granola and frankly, I know a lot of crunchies that regularly hang up their northface fleece. :)</p>
<p>If a kid really likes to get dressed up every day and is very name conscience, you might try Arizona. Everyone i know who went there or goes there seems to be a fashion plate.</p>
<p>I meant to convey that there isnât necessarily a relationship between throwing clothes on the floor and a more laid back atmosphere generally. All kinds of kids throw their clothes on the floor - sometimes the clothes on the floor and under the bed are very fashionable. </p>
<p>I just wonder if itâs primarily jeans, sweatshirts, no makeup, and little interest in fashion among the majority of girls. If so, it would give us a clue about the culture at Wellesley. </p>
<p>I donât think the level of fashion awareness or lack of it at a particular school is a criteria for my D - sheâs never mentioned it one way or another. I just think it gives us an indication of the particular atmosphere and type of students at a school.</p>
<p>Girls schools are not full of people like that. Sorry. The girls at my high school (all-girls) care a lot about what they look like. For a lot of people, including myself, wearing jeans and a t-shirt is fashionable.</p>
<p>Oy vey. There are students of all âtypesâ at Wellesley. There are jocks, fashionistas, preps, granolas, and people who combine several of the above and more. Some students wear sweats to class, and enjoy dressing in an edgier way for clubbing on the weekends. (Some female students at Harvard and MIT have said in recent years here that Wellesley students are âdressed up.â Apparently they donât realize that most people dress differently when going out on the townâwhich is when they see Wellesley studentsâthan in class at 8 am.) Glancing through recent publications, I see skinny jeans, short and long skirts, cleavage and coverage, scarves, earrings, cropped hair, long hair, and ponytails. I see a girl in a sweater, short skirt, leggings and headband sitting next to one in a t-shirt and jeans. (I donât see a lot of obvious makeup or any Goths, but Iâm sure they are there.)</p>
<p>What they have in common is intelligence and a belief in women. That is what is important at Wellesley.</p>
<p>Thanks ConsolationâŠa mix is a very good thing. Earlier comments made me wonder if it is a monolithic student body. Weâre just looking for an accurate take on the atmosphere.</p>
<p>I can tell you- I crossed off Cornell. I did not like Ithaca at all. I also crossed off the University of Rochester. I just felt like I did not fit in.</p>
<p>(This is a student responding)</p>
<p>A few weeks ago I was at an on-campus funeral at Williams. First thing I noticed was that nobody was overweight at all. Second thing I noticed was that the femalesâ pants/jeans could not have been tighter. Some were quite sporty â quite a few wearing Williams sweatshirts â but nobody looked even slightly sloppy. The healthy, windblown ânaturalâ look seemed to be the ruleâŠvery little noticible makeup.</p>
<p>I decided to ask my daughter about the clothes worn at her college, and if they were a fair, trustworthy indicator of the culture. Hereâs a paraphrased version of what she said.</p>
<p>Smithies are very diverse, not just in the way diversity is typically thought of, but in personality type and interests. The same is true for the clothes.</p>
<p>There is no one style that you will see. A lot of girls wear jeans and sweatshirts. Others will wear nothing but long skirts with tights, and tops that donât seem to match. Another makes her own dresses. Still another wears jeans and t-shirts one day and a pseudo Victorian ensemble complete with corset the next. </p>
<p>There are girls who follow fashion, others who dress really nicely with blouses and suits, like they already think they are the CEO of a company. </p>
<p>Once in a while you will see a kid in her p.j.s. Mostly on the weekends. </p>
<p>We wear whatever the heck we want knowing no one is going to care or judge. If people can wear such a variety of things and not care, it suggests they are accepting of other individual differences. And they are!</p>
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<p>My daughter tells me the clothes did not influence her positive impression of Smith. She loved it because the people there were helpful, friendly and really seemed to want the prospies to learn about the college. She said she only noticed the clothes once she got there. Now she sees they do reflect the accepting and tolerant culture of Smith.</p>
<p>âSome female students at Harvard and MIT have said in recent years here that Wellesley students are âdressed up.â Apparently they donât realize that most people dress differently when going out on the townâwhich is when they see Wellesley studentsâthan in class at 8 am.â</p>
<p>When we say that, weâre comparing the out-on-the-town Wellesley women to the out-on-the-town Harvard women. In that apples to apples comparison, in my experience you could usually tell the difference (unless it was a costume party or a formal). The Wellesley women in the line outside the party were usually wearing less, and often were in skimpy BCBG dresses when the Harvard women were in, say, black booty pants and heels. This was ten years ago, though, so I donât know if thatâs changed.</p>