Hello! I thought I’d offer to answer any questions you all might have. I graduated from Wellesley in 2013, so I have a young alumna’s perspective on the school and life after college. I majored in English and history, but I took classes in many different departments. I’ll do my best to answer whatever you ask.
Hi! Would you mind going over my Why Wellesley essay? I’m applying early decision and I’m not quite sure if I’m on the right track or not. Please inbox me if you are willing to help out! Thanks!
Sure! I’ll PM you.
@WendyWellesley13 Heck, yeah, I’ve got questions. (LOL) Are you gainfully employed? In grad school? What was your trajectory?
My daughter is currently a junior, doing the full year Wellesley-in-Aix program. She spent all last summer on a paid (yay!) Wellesley fellowship in Leeds, UK, studying an illuminated manuscript, then went off straight to France. I haven’t seen her since June, although we FB chat and Skype often. She now tells us that she may be spending all of next summer in France doing some kind of internship. Probably unpaid, since she can’t legally work in an EU country. Except for a few teaching jobs, she is the queen of the unpaid internship.
We’re totally thrilled with the education she is receiving (and she has a 3.9+ gpa, so she’s working very hard), but so far, she has no idea of what sort of career she wants. Academia? Writing? She just loves school and would probably stay there forever if she didn’t have to, well, earn money some day.
This is great, but I am a little concerned about what happens after Wellesley. Did you have any classmates who followed this sort of path? What are they doing now and how did they land their work/school positions? So many W women seem to have a much clearer career direction than my daughter does.
I am gainfully employed after finishing grad school. I knew what I wanted to do after maybe my sophomore year of college and planned from there, though I know lots of people from Wellesley who weren’t sure even at graduation, and they ended up fine.
I think a lot of people at Wellesley who aren’t 100% sure of what they want to do pursue various fellowships related to their fields of study. If she hasn’t done so already, I’d recommend your daughter look into the Fulbright Program, the Watson Fellowship, or the Marshall Scholarship. These would all provide funding for her to explore her interests further.
Thank you! I will encourage her to explore these fellowships. I had a good friend who did a Fulbright fellowship and she found it very worthwhile. I’m not familiar with the others, but I’ll mention them to her. Thanks so much!