@desie1 I don’t believe any of the moms or young women who were disappointed by their EE results used the word “entitled” in their posts. And yes, college admissions are “difficult” and also highly emotional, so you will just have to forgive us for our reactions. I am happy that your niece got great news, congratulations to her!
What is Yield Rate?
Of the students that are accepted to that school, the percentage that enroll at that school.
@cleoforshort Perhaps my post came across incorrectly. I wasn’t trying to brag about my niece - she received not so great news from other colleges, but Wellesley came through with positive feedback. I was just really surprised at the “I got a possible. I’m withdrawing” attitude. If it were my daughter, I would just acknolwedge the possible setback, but encourage her to keep trying. Let them know you’re still interested, update them on any new developments… Really wasn’t trying to criticize anybody. Just thought it Wellesley was on the top of the list, perhaps a student could take it as a challenge to get noticed.
@dorkmom Yield in college admissions refers to how many students enroll versus how many are accepted. A higher yield typically indicates a school’s popularity and desirability in a student’s eyes and is often associated with a “first-choice school”.
For example, in 2016 Wellesley accepted 1388 students and 590 enrolled for a yield of 42%. Stanford is one of the yield leaders with an 80%yield.
That’s one reason colleges offer binding Early Decision…the yield rate for those students is nearly 100%. It’s also a reason why some schools decide to reject a student that has qualifications significantly higher than normal…they expect that their school is being treated as a “safety school” with a very low likelihood of the student enrolling.
Like one of the other commenters, I too was reading the Thread out of curiosity. I’m not sure my daughter was aware of this “Early Evaluation” option. It seems like a big headache on both sides, for students and Admissions reps-- this type of “in-between round.” That being said, I agree with the one parent, that during this wait for Spring notifications, my daughter has been drawn to a few safeties that are going out of their way to show her they really want her on their campus. She’s gotten a huge Merit Aid offer and Research Fellow from one school and another women’s college college has gone out of their way to put her in contact with faculty in her Major as well as offering her top Merit Aid. For her, I think there’s an attraction to being at the top and highly recruited from a smaller school, then possibly just being one of 600 equally bright students. It’s a conversation we’ll definitely have come April.
Ugh just got Decision: Possible. After reading my stats, it’d be awesome if someone can give me an idea of how to transform this into and acceptance. I love Wellesley and will be devastated if it’s not even an option. 
Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): did not report
•ACT (breakdown):
33 English
28 Math
35 Reading
30 Science
writing 10
composite 32
•Unweighted GPA: 3.9
•Weighted GPA: weighting is weird at my school but I’d say like around 4.1; most rigorous courseload
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 9/66
•AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (3), AP Global (4), AP Lit (taking Now) P.S. There are only four AP classes at my school
•IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
•Senior Year Course Load:
Photography 101
College Macroeconomics
AP English Lit
College Academic Writing
College Microeconomics
Physics
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): I was most improved in chorus (10), Chorus Leader (11), Area All-State Choir (11,12)
Subjective: •Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): NYS Envirothon Team Member (10-12), Drama Club Member (9, 12), Yearbook (Treasurer and Editor 10 and 11 respectively), Alto in Chorus (9-12), Clarinet 2 in Band (9-12), Violin 1 in Orchestra (9-12), NYSSMA Soloist in Voice (10-12), All-County Chorus General (9-12), All-County Chorus Select (10-12), Area All-State Chorus (11, 12), Community Theater (9, 10), Youth Group Student Leader (9-12), YES! Leads Students against drugs and alcohol (11, 12 Secretary), Class Officer (10-12 Secretary), Soccer (9), Tennis (12), Marching Band (9-12), Pep Band (11, 12), Commencement Band (10), Prom Committee (11)
•Job/Work Experience: McDonald’s (12)
•Volunteer/Community service: Theater Concessions Worker (9-11), Church Nursery Worker (9-12)
•Summer Activities: Student At Cornell University Summer International Debate Camp (10), Summer Camps (9, 10, 11, 12), Camp CIT (Councilor in Training)(12), Domestic Missions Trips (9 and 12)
•Essays: common app essay talked about my experience rock climbing and how it taught me to approach issues methodically with a calm, thoughtful mind. You can see all of my essays for all of my colleges on my **** profile (RachelJoy1999). https://www.****.com/profile-detail/84661
Wellesley 100 talked about The Little Drummer Boy and Nancy Drew…could have been better. I waited until the night Early Evaluation was due to do them. For the little drummer boy, I wrote about how my mother loves music, but was poor when she was younger, so she couldn’t learn piano. She worked really hard to make sure my sisters and I had access to that and that’s what generations off Wellesley women have been doing for women everywhere. I wrote about wanting to be that for someone else someday. For Nancy Drew, I just wrote about how she inspired me to look beyond the surface, think intuitively, and pay attention to the details.
•Teacher Recommendation: AP Global History…knows me really well. I once taught his class, I help grade papers with him, and I was class officer while he was class advisor.
English teacher…was my soccer coach, had me for two years, and was class advisor while I was a class officer. It was really good!!! woohoo
•Counselor Rec: counselor knows me very well since we talk a lot. She is also my Macro and Microeconomics teacher, so I asked her to include that prospective in my letter. It’s probably not AMAZING because we’ve had our moments when we disagreed, but it’s probably decent.
•Additional Rec: n/a
•Interview: Went REALLY WELL. It’s probably the best interview I’ve ever done.
•Supplementary Material (portfolio, etc.): n/a
Other
•Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
•State (if domestic applicant): NY
•School Type: Public
•Ethnicity: Caucasian as they get folks
•Gender: Female
•Income Bracket: $85,000 ish for the year I filed
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I didn’t really have one at all. I’m white and from rural America, so I’m a dime-a-dozen. I wrote my essay about something I loved (rockclimbing) which is an experience most can’t describe and I wrote in the present first person, so it felt like the reader was the one climbing. So, I guess my hook was my writing. In my interview, I tried to spin a “behind the scenes leader” for myself; I said that as the Secretary of my class, I’m actually the one organizing things and talking to potential venues etc. so I think I showed that I was trying to make a difference. Also, I’m as far from first-generation as you could get. My mother’s currently working on her PHD at SUNY Binghamton, my father has his bachelor’s from Cornell University, my older sisters (twins!) both got their bachelors, and one of them got her masters. I think Wellesley’s decision on me really shows that they may be willing to take the average Josephine who just has a lot to contribute in life experience.
Reflection
•Strengths: My Common App Essay was AMAZING. I’m a really good writer and I spent my time on it. I actually ended up tutoring most of my grade on how to write an effective college app essay. (We live in rural upstate NY where there is little access to resources)
•Weaknesses: AP Scores, GPA (I took Calc and didn’t take the AP because I was sure to fail), possibly the supplemental essays weren’t as polished as my common app essay.
•Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I honestly think that I’m pretty average when you look at my scores for Wellesley and my GPA kinda lagged my junior year. I think I didn’t get a straight up “Probably not” because I visited twice, my college mentor went to Wellesley, I interviewed SUPER well, and I think I did a good job of showing that Wellesley is where I want to be. I will be in Boston in April and am planning to appeal in person if I get waitlisted. If I get in, I’ll just visit again.
•Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted to Niagara University RD, Allegheny College EA, Fordham University EA, Suffolk University EA, Nazareth College EA, SUNY Binghamton RD
All of these I knew I was going to get in to. I applied to 17 schools and have been accepted at 6. I am waiting on the other 10, so I haven’t been denied yet. The other 10 are Grinnell, Colby, Carleton, Hamilton, Cornell, Brown, Boston College, Kenyon, SUNY Geneseo, Williams, and (of course) Wellesley. My top choices are probably Wellesley, Kenyon, Williams, and Brown. If I had to choose today, I would go to Nazareth because they gave me the most financial aid.
General Comments:
I love Wellesley and, if they accept me, I am 90% sure I’ll accept (I still have to go somewhere affordable). I’m kinda regretting not being ED for Wellesley. life is hard.
@starjoy8 If you wanted to, you could try to get a higher score on your ACT and let the admissions know about it and you could keep in touch with admissions so they remember you better when the final decisions are made. I can also see that you’re into music, so you could try to get an award or create something around music like a personal project, a philanthropic venture, or an organization. I know my friend started up a charity for girls going into STEM fields. It’s really not as hard as it sounds, it just takes a bit of effort. I wish you the best of luck! You seem like a solid candidate and I hope to see you next year!!! 
Hey everyone! I applied RD and am anxious to hear my admissions decision later this month!
I am headed up to Wellesley in 2 weeks for my spring break. (I live really far away, so it has to be a spring break trip.) I am doing the campus tour, and I’m trying to decide which class to sit in on. My major is up in the air… maybe math, chem, or psych with premed track? I could also flip completely and do polisci with prelaw track.
The classes I’m torn between are chemistry, developmental psych, and logic. Have any of you sat in on these? What was your experience? Is there one that would be better than the other?
Thanks!
@kb13579 PM me the professors and I’ll ask my D if she would recommend one over another for a sit in (she has taken all 3).
i went to an awesome american gov class that was really cool since you mentioned polisci
@WendyWellesley13 Hi Can you say more about the difference between UVA and Wellesley. They seem really different, but why did you change? Do you have a thread about this? I would love to hear your thoughts.Likely for Wellesley.
Hi all! I was in your place last year when I was applying to Wellesley, and I just wanted to wish you all good luck! Let me know if you have any questions about Wellesley; I will definitely try my best to answer them. All of you will do really cool things whether or not you get into Wellesley <3
@ravenclaws That’s terribly generous of you! I received a possible. I know a lot of other people have said that sending in a handwritten letter of intent goes a long way, but what do you think of a person of intent? I will be in the Wellesley area soon and was wondering if it would REALLY show I was interested if I showed up and tried to meet with my admissions counselor.
@CapybaraQueen Thanks for the ideas. I think the ACT thing is a no-go. A) it costs more money and B) That was my second time taking it (the first was a 30), so I don’t think it gets much better than that especially since it was the highest score in my school. I may try doing something with the music though. 
Did they send an email out if you did Early Evaluation letting you know they were posted? I’m only wondering because I initially applied Early Evaluation, but then didn’t do the supplemental essay by the deadline. They emailed me saying I needed to write the supplement for EE, and I did shortly after, but I’m not sure if I applied EE or just regular RD?
If you log in to the Wellesley portal - and you applied EE - there will be a letter there for you. They did not send out emails indicating “go look at the portal.”
@Tothelimit Sure! The biggest issue was the overall environment. I didn’t have very good guidance in high school when I was applying for colleges, so I based my decisions on factors that actually weren’t all that important. For instance, I thought I shouldn’t apply to places without graduate programs. (I don’t even remember why this was. I think someone must have told me that and I just went with it? Bad choices.) I didn’t want to apply to women’s colleges because they sounded restrictive (totally not the case). I also ignored my gut about UVA. It sounded great on paper, but I was always kind of uneasy about it. When I got there, I realized that I wasn’t a good social fit. The social scene revolves very, very strongly around the Greek system and drinking. The school tries to downplay this, but it’s just true. That wasn’t my style at all. I was also disappointed by some of the classes. They tended to be large and impersonal, and there was always some guy trying to condescendingly “explain” the material to me. (Incidentally, that’s why I decided I was totally fine with a women’s college.) I know there were exceptions to what I’m saying. The classes get smaller at the higher levels, and some people socialize without going to frat parties. It just wasn’t that common, and I wasn’t a good fit for the school.
I chose Wellesley because it was the opposite of UVA, where I was miserable: There’s no Greek system, classes tend to be quite small, and it’s full of nerd girls. I was and am a giant nerd girl, so it totally worked out.
Is there something more specific you want to know?
@starjoy8 Hey! I don’t think there’s any harm in doing that:) You should definitely email them and see if you can schedule an appointment. They might be busy since this is a really hectic time of the year. If it doesn’t work out, I think a letter of intent is still fine. I know people who got a possible on EE and is attending Wellesley, so you’re definitely still in the running for Wellesley! Just show your interest and if you have anything new and really exciting that you think would tip the scales, definitely add that in the letter/when you meet the admissions counselor!