I am a biracial (asian/white), gay, middle income female who lives in Oregon, originally born in France. I go to a competitive public high school, at least for the surrounding area.
AP calculus (did pretty poorly in this though, still passed)
GPA, unweighted: 3.7
Extracurriculars:
-Robotics, team captain (spend most of my time at robotics)
-National Honor Society
-Art Club co-founder
-Animal rights club co-founder
-Girls in science club president
Volunteering:
teaching tech classes to girls in community
community girls in STEM campaign, activism
cat rescue
NHS volunteering projects
Work/Internships:
interned in a chem lab as undergrad researcher for a summer
@tabcat Your ACT scores place you in the top 25% of applicants, but your UW GPA is probably lower than many applicants since 81% were in the top 10% of their class. Overall, I’d say you are well-qualified and have as good a chance as other well-qualified women, given the selectivity of the school. Refer to the 2020 class profile here: http://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/assets/departments/admission/pdf/admission_report2016.pdf
Are you a Junior or a Senior? The ED1 portion of the class of 2021 has already been selected so ~25% of the class has been chosen.
A word of caution. Your scores and accomplishments are excellent. You will be a match for Wellesley speaking purely in terms of numbers and CV. But beware you may not get in or be placed in wait list, unless you truly show interest.
Wellesley is looking for not just high achievers in terms of scores but the whole person. The person who wants to get in to Wellesley [those with lower scores do not give up hope]. You will get in to many good schools but you have to show Wellesley the reason to select you over others, as in you want to go to Wellesley and not to another highly ranked school.
@tamtiger Wellesley is definitely my number one choice. I had an alum interview a few weeks ago, but I haven’t gotten a chance to visit the campus or anything. Should I just make sure that my “why wellesley” essay is really convincing? Thank you!
@tabcat Since W is your #1 choice, have you considered applying ED2? This is the first year they’ve offered a second ED round so it’s unknown how many students will apply / be selected from that pool, but the acceptance rate may very well be higher than the RD pool.
It appears that the ED1 was a similar size as last year with approx 160 accepted, which implies that the RD acceptance rate may reach a record low this year since the ED2 pool will enlarge the portion of the class accepted early.
Hey, I’m apart of the Red Class, 2020, and your stats are great. Don’t worry about not having visited the campus before. I applied RD for the same reason. If u want any help, hmu
@magtf1@RerunGirl Thank you guys so much! Do you guys know if those rejected ED2 are deferred to regular decision? Basically I think I can make my common app essay better with the extra time that regular decision gives me but I know that early has a greater acceptance rate, and also I would know my decision earlier (assuming no deferral). Thanks again
@tabcat For ED1, an applicant will have one of three outcomes: accepted, rejected, or deferred to the RD round. It’s unclear if ED2 will defer applicants to RD or not. That’s prbly a question for Admissions. The only info I found applied to ED1: http://www.wellesley.edu/admission/faq#EDI%20defer
@tabcat
Let me clarify. You have a very good chance of getting in to W. But almost every year we see students with your stats get in to some IVYs [see last year’s admission thread, at least 2 got in to Yale and were wait listed at W] and be wait listed at Wellesley. I think W, does not want to be used as a fall back???
As magtf1 said, “IF” Wellesley is your first choice apply ED2, unless you come across as arrogant and have no clue about W, you will get in to W.
Let us say for various reasons you want to go RD. You still have several things going in your favor, “scores, rigor of curriculum AND geographic advantage [You are from the west coast]”. So the chances of getting in RD is almost 95 to 99%. But I am cautioning you because they will look at you as some one who may get in to other highly ranked schools and may not necessarily want to come to W.
You have done the right things by attending the alumni interview. I will PM you with more suggestions.
I’m pretty sure all the application deadlines for this cycle have passed, but I just wanted to drop this here for any future applicants-- Please, please don’t apply ED (or EDII) unless you are 100% confident that Wellesley is the college you wish to attend more than any other school. Applying early is a great option if you know for certain you want to attend Wellesley, because you get to hear back sooner and can adjust your college plans accordingly. Please don’t apply early just because you think it gives you a greater chance of admission. I promise you it doesn’t.
If you’re a great fit for the school and you love it back, you’ll get your spot no matter when you apply. If you’re not 100% sure Wellesley’s your #1, it’s totally okay to wait until the regular pool. You’ll find your way to the right college for you, and you won’t be penalized based on when you applied.
