Questions for Wellesley Students (Grade deflation, social life, etc)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wellesley College
1

Hi! I was just accepted into Wellesley for the class of 2022, and I have a few questions based on research that I’ve done.

  1. Stress culture — From reviews I've read online, it seems that Wellesley has a competitive stress culture and does little to mitigate it. Is this accurate? If so, does it inhibit the sense of community at Wellesley? Do you believe it would pose a significant challenge to an individual with anxiety?
  2. a) Grade deflation — The Wellesley website says that this is only applied to intro-level classes. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Is it a significant factor that increases competition, stress, and workload? Because it's hard to get a high GPA at Wellesley, is it hard to get into grad school (or do the grad schools know about Wellesley's grade deflation policy)?
  3. Social life — I've heard that the social life is lacking — lots of orgs have apps and most people just stay in studying during the weekends. Is this true? Obviously, because I applied to Wellesley, I'm not looking to spend every weekday partying, BUT parties are generally an integral part of college social life/community. How accessible are they? Is it conceivable to balance fun with school?
  4. Here it is. The Boy Question: do Harvard boys really sit around in sweater-vests drinking scotch and debating the merits of golf? I'm kidding (sort of). Mainly, are boys who come to Wellesley to hang out/party just there to exploit the gender ratio? How accessible are boys (preferably not the kind in sweater-vests, but I'll take what I can get)? How prevalent is the LGBTQ culture/cute lesbian girls? (I'm bisexual, and the lesbian stereotype of women's colleges is one I hope to be true.)
  5. What's the stereotype of Wellesley women? Is it damaging? Avoidable? Irrelevant? I've heard conflicting reports.
  6. How would you rate the food on a scale of 1-10? The mental health services? The relationships between students and administration?

Thanks so much! I think it says a lot that these were essentially the only critiques I came across, and even then they were often disputed. Please don’t feel like you have to answer all my questions - my priorities are the first few. :slight_smile:

(Also, wowzer, I didn’t mean to ask that many questions ahh.)

2

My daughter is a 1st year at Wellesley and we’ve discussed most of these so I’ll weigh in. Another place to get feedback is in the Class of 2022 Facebook group, which includes current students not just the Class of 2022. If you ask these questions there I’m sure you’ll get more input/discussion.

  1. Stress culture — So far, the classroom culture has been supportive and encourages teamwork and cooperation. Professors are very approachable and eager to meet their students and help them thrive.
  2. a) Grade deflation — Yes, the grading policy applies to 100 and 200 level classes only, and only those classes that are larger (>=10 students). Each professors requires varying levels of workload and a class being subject to the "grade deflation policy" doesn't seem to alter the conduct in the classroom. A large percent of Wellesley alumnae go to grad school, and grad schools are definitely aware of Wellesley grading policy. https://www.wellesley.edu/admission/why/after
  3. Social life — There's lots of social activities but no pressure to participate, so each student finds their own balance. Some stay in and study all weekend and some go out most nights of the week.
  4. The Boy/Girl Question - There are 250,000+ college students in the Boston area. If you want to meet someone, it's easy. On campus, there is a large and visible LGBTQ community with regularly scheduled events.
  5. Stereotype of Wellesley women - Go meet your classmates in the 2022 Facebook group and at Spring Open Campus. What are your impressions? The women I've met have been smart, involved, and supportive of their Wellesley siblings.

5.a. How would you rate the food? Good variety (each dining room has a different theme) and good quality. Though it’s never as good as the memories of your favorite meals at home so you’ll always get a craving for your favorites.

5.b. The mental health services? Well-publicized and easy to access, though depending on your class (and work) schedule the hours might not always be convenient.
https://www.wellesley.edu/counseling

5.c. The relationships between students and administration? The school leadership make themselves visible and available. President Johnson visited my daughter’s room on move-in day just to say hi! That being said, students always find things that they want more of, less of, faster this or slower that. As a parent, I’m very impressed with the administration and feel completely confident that they are taking good care of my daughter.

Good luck!

3

Wellesley senior here. If you have more questions, I’m happy to answer them!

  1. Yes, Wellesley is very competitive, and not in a healthy way, in my opinion. To be honest, I had a hard time adjusting to college life, because I did not feel there was much sense of community here. With regard to anxiety, I can only say that though I was perfectly healthy before college, I asked for counselling help three times during my time here due to excessive stress.

1a. Grade deflation only applies to 100 and 200-level classes, and I personally feel that it is a big factor that increases competition and stress. Quite a lot of people go to grad school, and I think Wellesley explains its grade deflation policy in every transcript it sends to graduate programs.

  1. I don't really go to many parties, but I have the impression that students who are willing to commute to Boston find it pretty easy to join parties.
  2. Again I'm no expert here, but I think most guys who come to the campus are either family members or boyfriends of the students here. LGBTQ is a prevalent culture.
  3. I think the stereotype is a hard-working (sometimes excessively so), business, tech or politics oriented successful woman.
  4. The food is ok. I'm not a huge fan, but I get ice creams every day so I'm not too disappointed. The staff in the counselling center are very nice, but I didn't find their services too helpful. I don't have a lot of experiences with the admins. I think they are helpful for routine questions regarding academics or life on an individual level, but it seems to me that with regard to bigger questions, e.g. academics in the whole college, the admins are probably not going to discuss a lot with the students.

As you can see, my experiences have been largely negative. It of course depends on what kind of college experience and what kind of person you want to be when you are out of college. Wellesley has a very pre-professional environment in my view. If you hope to go to investment banks or big tech companies and are able to handle the stress culture on campus, I think you might just do great here. But if you are someone like me who wants a liberal arts education, then at least I was really disappointed.

4

For anyone considering Wellesley, keep in mind that a lot of the anonymous complaints you see online are from a minority of frustrated students. Many truly happy students don’t need a place to vent. The sample of comments on College Confidential and college review sites will be skewed negative becuase of this. (Not to say that the complaints in the comments aren’t valid, they just might not reflect how the student body feels as a whole.) I am a current junior at Wellesley, so I’ll give my input on your questions:

  1. Wellesley does have a "stress culture". Students will complain about how much work they have to do. With that being said, the stress culture is less severe than it was at my average public high school. I think the people taken aback by the stress culture aren't used to this at their schools, but I don't think it's anything vastly out of the ordinary. Students are very collaborative in most respects. Much of the stress culture comes from the pressure of being around so many impressive women all the time!

1a. As others have said, the grade grade deflation policy is implemented for all intro and intermediate level classes over 10 students. This will be the vast majority of classes you take at Wellesley. The grade deflation policy just says that the average grade can’t be higher than a B+. It’s not that hard for professors to give a higher average grade if they can explain that they have an especially impressive class. Professors hold students to very high standards, but I don’t personally feel like my grades are being “deflated”. The policy was actually partially enacted to draw students to STEM fields, where the average grade has not changed since the implementation of the policy. Students were choosing non-STEM majors partially to boost their GPA, and Wellesley wanted to stop this. Grad school know about the policy, but do they care? I don’t know. I don’t think that the policy is keeping Wellesley students out of top grad school and from top employment opportunities, though.

  1. Point blank, there are not a lot of typical college parties on campus. If you are okay with going to Boston, then you can find plenty of frat parties. It irks me when people say that Wellesley has a bad "social life" becuase there are not a lot of parties. The friends I have made here are simply incredible. We don't like to party per se, but we have a good time ordering Dominos and drinking together on weekends. Some clubs and organizations require an application or audition, but most do not. There are plenty of tight-knight performance groups, sports teams, and cultural organizations that anyone can join.
  2. I don't know much about boys. A lot of people have boyfriends. I think most straight people meet their partners on apps like Tindr. I LOVE being gay here. There is actually a chance that the cute girl in your class is also into girls, which is amazing. About 40% of the student body identifies as LGBTQ. (Campus is small though, so dating can get weird if you see your ex all the time.)
  3. Once an MIT faculty member told me he prefers working with Wellesley students over MIT students. My boss at my internship for next summer (very competitive to get) said that he loves working with Wellesley alums. Wellesley has a reputation that will follow you, in a good way.
  4. The food is decent. People who complain about it have clearly never tried the food at most public universities, becuase it's great in comparison.

People also criticize on-campus mental health services, but I don’t think it’s justified. The Stone Center serves more than 600 students per year, and I think that, unfortunately, campus is small enough for people who are unhappy with it to spread their horror stories. If you have a history of mental health problems, I would recommend trying to see a permanent staff member instead of an intern. After a few sessions, they should be able to refer you to an off campus provider, most of whom take Wellesley insurance. Again, the mental health services aren’t perfect, but much better than those at other institutions.

Sometimes things are tense between students and the higher-ups in the administration. However, the admin who have a lot of contact with students are AMAZING. The class deans are super willing to help if you run into any kind of trouble during the semester (whether it be mental, physical, etc.) They help you arrange plans to turn in work late with professors, connect you with the necessary resources, and advocate for you in administrative settings.

Overall: Wellesley isn’t for everyone. Personally, I would choose it again in a heartbeat. As frustrated as I get with Wellesley as an institution at times, it has given me unparalleled academic opportunities, the campus is stunning, and my friends are great. If you know what to expect, and go in without setting your hopes to high (this is true for any college), then Wellesley is incredible.