I am going to be purposely a little vague with this post, since my daughter is a very private person, but I wanted to give a little information for new and potential Wellesley familes to help them make the hard decisions.
My daughter is a 2015 grad of Wellesley in a STEM major and will be entering grad school in a few weeks at one of the top
schools in her major. She graduated with Latin Honors and did absolutely great throughout her four years. She loves, loves, loves, Wellesley. It is hard to imagine her having a better college experience. Classes were challenging and grading rigorous, but fair. She made great friends, had great professors, had awesome and meaningful internships all three summers. However, she was extremely well prepared coming out of high school, and she is unusually academically focused. Wellesley is a tough school and demands a lot of attention to academics. Being an all women’s college and a little isolated allows the students to focus, and they do. There are a lot of activities and sports to take the student’s minds off of classes, but academics clearly are the main reason for the student’s attendance. Students who want a more broad experience and a more mixed social life may not be as happy at Wellesley as those who are clearly aiming for academic success in a uniquely supportive environment.
As a parent, it was gratifying to see her progress, and grow, and accomplish so much, but there was also huge sticker shock. We are not rich, had little savings to start with, and were quite shocked at the price tag. Not just tuition, fees, housing, but also the other things definitely add up. While Wellesley pledges that every student can get aid, “aid” includes loans. In case you have not investigated this aspect, the usual “Parent Loans” are incredibly bad and should not be used unless there is no other way to pay. My daughter worked all year, every year, with work study and tutoring during the year and well paying internships in summer. She pulled off about $45,000 worth of random scholarships/grants/awards along the way through her diligence, and took out $10,000 in student loans on top of that, so she came up with $55K of her own, and she also paid 100% of her incidentals like clothing, snacks, vacation, etc. by using her work earnings! Unbelievable, and incredibly appreciated. With that said, the total pricetag was close to $240,000 all in, including transportation, fees, books, etc. Boston is a very expensive place to fly to from some areas of the country, it turns out, so that was a major item. In the end we as parents had to come up with about $185,000 for the four years. We did this by refinancing our house, and cutting back dramatically. What we did is not in any financial advisor’s playbook, but it is what it is. We were lucky to have had long and stable employment and good appreciation on our house, or it simply would not not have worked out.
In the end, we would do it again. Initially, we really thought that just about any school would work for her, but she, along with her advisors, suggested aiming higher. We had challenged our daughter to meet her highest potential in high school, and she exceeded by every measure, so while we knew the finances would be a stretch, we also knew the easy path of the state engineering school would not honor her potential. Now, she has virtually unlimited opportunities going forward. I am convinced she would have been a success regardless of where she went to college, but Wellesley is certainly a one-of-a-kind place, it opens doors, and it was a perfect fit for her.
Her friends are having similar launches into great careers or great graduate schools, so her experience is certainly not unique.
If your daughter is academically inclined, focused, doesn’t need constant attention from the opposite sex, and is is OK with what is a bit of an insular environment, Wellesley is a great choice for her future. If you are not rich, it is going to hurt financially, but you only have one chance to launch your kids, you might as well give them the best opportunity possible.