<p>I was doing a search and wound up reading this on epionions.com. Please take a look at the section under Safety. If a Wellesley student or alumnus/a could comment I'd really appreciate it. Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, Wellesley struggles to confront and cope with mental health problems on campus. What the epinions poster did not mention was that mental health is a major concern at the most colleges and universities: at Wellesley, people actually talk about it, making it more readily apparent. </p>
<p>Yes, one student died each year for five years, but the epinions poster also didn't acknowledge that the decision to release cause-of-death information belongs to the parents of the student--not to the school. Some parents wanted the campus to know, to raise mental-health awareness. Some parents prefer to keep private information to themselves. The school can only comply with their wishes. </p>
<p>While I was at Wellesley, I saw friends struggle with depression. I struggled with depression. These problems, however, rarely stemmed from the campus being too competitive (I highly disagree with that characterization) but often arose from students putting too much pressure on themselves. Could the school do more to support students and ease the self-inflicted tension? Yes. The Stone center needs more staff--I agree with that. But they do the best job they can, under the circumstances. </p>
<p>Take all reviews with a grain of salt. There's always a back-story, and you're just as likely to hear the next reviewer say exactly the opposite of the first.</p>
<p>The mental health issues will exist at any campus full of bright students who put pressure on themselves.<br>
Of more concern is the hyperPC atmosphere where anyone who disagrees with you is not only incorrect but is ignorant and maybe even evil. My daughter reacts strongly to any group that assumes that they have "the truth". Going to a conservative Christian school has made her something of a liberal. Maybe going to Wellesley will make her into a conservative.</p>
<p>just keep in mind that this is the opinion of just ONE person so it does not constitute what "Wellesley" is, however, as much as I love Wellesley, I will keep this Wellesley student's opinion in mind because they may be some truth to some of her comments</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for the info. Yes I would agree that all campuses deal with mental health issues, but do all colleges have a death every year for five years? Where there's smoke...</p>
<p>Not to bring a sense of concern to any of these other campuses but according to this article some of the top schools also battle the problem of suicide, not just Wellesley. This article is a few years old though so the current status may not be the same, but it is a light to some of the other schools' troubles also. It is not just Wellesley.</p>
<p>I'm largely unsympathetic to this woman's review. Though unfortunate, I don't know that I really find the 1 death/year thing personally alarming (as others have said, this is an unfortunate constant among competitive colleges), and while I find her depiction of Wellesley as an overly PC institution displeasing, I'm not sure how much I believe it--this is not a concern that I have seen raised amongst other sources. I also tend to doubt that she and her fellow College Republican's are all just nice, quiet, polite women who are being totally bullied and brutalized by the big bad liberals. When I have been in similarly heated political debates, BOTH groups of people were, in general, less upstanding than good manners/healthy debate would normally demand. </p>
<p>I really couldn't care less about her religious issues--last time I checked, Wellesley is not a religious institution and it bears no responsiblity to coddle her Christianity at all times. I'm also surprised (re: extremely doubtful) of her conclustion that the Wellesley culture does not support independence, intellectual curiosity, creativity, or interaction with students from other colleges--these characterization runs directly counter to almost everything I've heard about Wellesley students. </p>
<p>Obviously someone with an axe to grind.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the article. MIT, Harvard, Johns Hopkins and Wellesley are all high-pressure schools. All except Johns Hopkins are on princetonreview.com's top 20 list of schools where students "Never Stop Studying" (I'm surprised Hopkins didn't make the list; I read the studying is very strenuous there and that A's are hard to come by.)</p>
<p>But it is true...Hopkins kids do come up for lots of air...They manage to have lots of fun, although they must study for their grades.</p>
<p>Wellesley is not a institution and should not coddle ANY religions... including animist/pagan rituals</p>
<p>religious institution</p>
<p>I'm a Wellesley alum. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that this person is so upset that any religion other than her own is recognized as legitimate says it all about her complete lack of intellectual and social perspective. I remember back in the 70s when a similarly right-wing student raised a big stink about the fact that the health services hired a gynecologist--GASP!--and started to prescribe BIRTH CONTROL. Double Gasp!! Sounds to me as if she should have gone to Bob Jones University, where she would have fit in perfectly.</p>