<p>What great information! My daughter is really hoping she gets in, and this post was so helpful. The admission office should be paying you as a resource for prospies and their families.</p>
<p>is the gender studies/women’s studies major popular at wellesley? just wondering</p>
<p>I’m also curious – How is the Media Arts & Sciences (MAS) major? From what I know, it’s a recent interdisciplinary major and a very hardcore one at that.</p>
<p>@kendrickgirl – I somehow don’t know too much about the women’s/gender studies department so I’ll let someone else speak to that. </p>
<p>@scathefire – The MAS major is pretty hardcore, but it’s a really cool department! You’re basically combining computer science with digital arts/media, which generally sets you up for some cool jobs in the digital arts, advertising, user experience, web design, etc. I know a lot of people who were MAS majors and have now started careers at Google, Apple, Facebook, and the like. It is a time consuming major because coding takes up lots of time and art takes up lots of time, but the people who do it absolutely love it and the professors are awesome! </p>
<p>On a related note, there are also lots of opportunities through MAS/CS departments to do research on-campus. The Human Computer Interaction (HCI) lab for one was doing some neat research in the tablet space a few years back and it gives you the opportunity as an undergrad to be hands-on in a research setting. You might even get a few published research papers out of it too (that’s a huge plus for grad school applications)! </p>
<p>[Wellesley</a> College HCI Lab](<a href=“http://cs.wellesley.edu/~hcilab/]Wellesley”>Wellesley College HCI Lab)</p>
<p>Aha! Your response is amazing and informative; it really clarified what the MAS major was like. And that lab is so cool, so thank you for sharing. :)</p>
<p>If you bring in 4 AP credits, do you have to pick your major earlier?</p>
<p>glido–NO!!! 
Once you get your AP credits they go on your transcript and are never mentioned again. Have nothing to do with when you declare your major. However, if you want to study abroad during your junior year, you have to declare in December of your sophomore year. Otherwise you declare spring of your sophomore year.</p>
<p>Thanks Advant, but when the AP credits are applied, couldn’t that push your calendar ahead? Or does it just free up your schedule?</p>
<p>The major declaration deadline depends only on your class year and if you want to study abroad. The only thing I can think of that pushes your schedule forward is if you want to graduate in 3 years, but that’s a very particular circumstance and I don’t really know anything about it, besides that it happens but only pretty rarely. At Wellesley AP credits really do just kind of sit around on your transcript. They count towards your overall credit count and thus can come in handy later if you want to take only 3 classes in a semester without falling behind on your graduation credits (you need 32 credits to graduate, so if you come in with max AP credits that’s 4 “free” credits). In some departments your AP score can place you out of lower level classes, but a lot of those departments use placement tests for everyone anyways. </p>
<p>I came in with the max 4 AP credits and basically I just ended up with a lot more than 32 credits–39.75, actually. The biggest benefit was the lack of stress with studying abroad, since I didn’t have to worry about whether or not every single one of my credits was going to transfer, etc (the credits transferred fine anyway, but I didn’t have to worry about it).</p>
<p>Thanks so much Advan - that is very helpful info. I really appreciate you taking the time.</p>
<p>I won’t hear anything from Wellesley until Monday (eeek!), but I’d still like to ask about majors. I’ve heard that it makes the most sense to double major in majors that are closely related, but I would really love to double in Econ and Enviro. Alternately, I could major in Econ and minor in Enviro or Sustainability or something. I was just wondering if anyone on this thread knows anything about those majors and/or if it would be realistic to want to double in those. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi Economiss, </p>
<p>I double majored in Econ and Math. That fits with your “related areas” idea but I think you should double in whatever you want. Besides, the nature of Econ (and the whole liberal arts ideal) is that almost ANYTHING could be complementary to Econ, or vice versa. Easy to think of people in environmental public policy benefiting from an econ background. In fact, the director of the Environmental Studies program, Beth DeSombre, is a PhD in Poli Sci. Here’s her page: [Beth</a> DeSombre | Wellesley College - Wellesley College](<a href=“http://new.wellesley.edu/environmentalstudies/facstaff/desombre]Beth”>http://new.wellesley.edu/environmentalstudies/facstaff/desombre)</p>
<p>Econ is not a particularly strenuous major in terms of number of credits needed–the major is 9 credits (1 credit = 1 class), which is the norm and the minimum at Wellesley. (Some majors require more than 9 credits). Here’s the major/minor page for Environmental Studies: [Major</a> & Minor | Wellesley College - Wellesley College](<a href=“http://new.wellesley.edu/environmentalstudies/major]Major”>http://new.wellesley.edu/environmentalstudies/major)</p>
<p>It’s a 10 credit major, so scheduling wise Econ + Enviro should be no problem. There’s also an Enviro minor which is only 5 credits, so that’s an option as well if you end up not going for the full major. </p>
<p>I don’t know anything specific about Environmental Studies, sorry. Econ is a great department and some interesting faculty have been added since I graduated. It is the most popular major on campus–tends to be about 100 students per year (remember class size is about 600 students!!!). Perhaps because of its size the department feels very dynamic. Right now it doesn’t look like I will end up directly using my econ major in my professional life but if I had it to do all over again I would ABSOLUTELY major in econ again.</p>
<p>OH and good luck on Monday!!! I was admitted Early Evaluation and it was one of the best things that has happened in my life thus far!</p>
<p>Advantagious, </p>
<p>Thank you so much. That really helps. I’m so nervous about Monday, but, if the news is good, I can’t wait to explore these fields at Wellesley. You’re totally right, Econ and Enviro are very much related. I’m really involved in the local and organic food movement in my city, thus my interest in both of these fields. </p>
<p>It’s so nice to hear this information from a real alumna.
Thank you for your response!</p>