<p>Hi I was wondering how rigorous the workload is at Wellesley-especially in a science major. (how many hours a day are spent). Also I have read about serious grade deflation at the college. In addition, how is the graduate placement for pre-med/pre-dental students at the school even with the grade deflation (if there is any)?</p>
<p>In general, regardless of major, the workload at Wellesley is high. Students are expected to do quite a bit of work outside of class meetings and there aren’t many (if any?) “easy” classes. Professors have high expectations (as they should) and students work hard. I’d say it’s a toss-up in terms of whether or not science majors have more work than non-science majors. I was a bio major at Wellesley. All classes meet twice a week for a 70 minute session each. Science classes have an additional lab section once a week for 3.5 hours. So let’s say you’re taking 4 courses in a semester (the typically course load), of which one is a science lab. You’d be spending 70 min x 4 classes x 2 times a week = 9hr20min of class, plus 3.5 hrs of lab, so that’s 12hr50min of class time a week total. However, as a bio major, there will be semesters where you’ll have to take 2 lab science classes at the same time, so tack on an extra 3.5 hours of class there. How much homework/reading/writing/problem sets/lab work you have can vary greatly. If I remember correctly, I’d say I had a minimum of 5 hrs a night. Other science majors, please feel free to chime in.</p>
<p>I’d be really curious to know what you mean by having “read about serious grade deflation.” Where have you read these things? What do they say? I was a student when the big conversation about changing the grading policy happened on campus. I will tell you straight out - the grading policy needed to change. I remember going to Senate (that’s the College Government meeting) for those conversations and seeing the list of colleges and universities and the associated average GPA at each school. I think a lot of students were shocked to see just how high the Wellesley GPA was - the highest on that list. It really gave light to the situation and there was consensus among the students that no one wanted Wellesley to have the reputation as a place where everyone got A’s and thus GPAs had no meaning. </p>
<p>They enacted the grading policy change my senior year and no one’s grades were “deflated” in the sense that they got a grade lower than they deserved. The grading policy is such that the average grade in 100 and 200 level classes with more than 10 people should be a B+. So small classes are exempted from that average and a professor could write an explanatory letter to some grading committee (I don’t remember the official name) if they had a super class where the average grade was higher than a B+.</p>
<p>Look, I’ll be honest. A lot of science majors welcomed the grading change because it addressed another problem at Wellesley at the time, which was how much higher GPAs were in non science departments. Again, at Senate, the administration showed data of what the average GPAs were for different majors at Wellesley and all the lowest averages were in the sciences. Every. Single. One. And the difference was big - I’m talking like half a grade for the spread between the extremes.</p>
<p>I went to grad school. My friends went to med school, law school, grad school, nursing school, business school - whatever school you can think of. All of the info I’ve seen since (in the alumnae magazine, on the school website, etc.) says that there hasn’t been any change in acceptance rates for post graduate education/programs. You might be a cynic and think, “Well of course Wellesley is going to say that students have been just as successful as before.” I’m sure if there was a big drop in any of those metrics, there would have been a big hullabaloo about it. I have not heard any such hullabaloo.</p>
<p>Current students, feel free to chime in.</p>
<p>I agree with jacinth_ambrose. I’m not a science major (rather, English and History), but I like the grade deflation policy. The A’s you get a really meaningful and exciting.</p>
<p>Regarding graduate school acceptance rates, Wellesley has very high ones. ~70% of Wellesley students who apply to medical school get in (compare that to a 45% national average). For law school, the acceptance rate is somewhere around 85% (60% national average for other schools). Generally speaking, graduate schools understand that Wellesley is a demanding college and know that its students tend to be very hard-working. Our post-graduate acceptance rates reflect that.</p>
<p>Oh my - my freshman D is taking two sciences with labs, calc II and a sociology first semester! Will be able to report how this goes later in the semester.</p>
<p>maidenMom, I’m surprised that no one tried to advise your daughter with a different course load, especially as a first semester first year! That’s a tough load and I know they used to really discourage first years from taking more than 1 science lab class in the fall. Not outright deny them from doing it, but heavily discouraged it because of the work load.</p>
<p>Hope things go well for her!</p>
<p>At Wellesley, like most other schools, there is more grade deflation in the sciences than the humanities. I agree with the other posters that the sciences are very demanding at Wellesley. I will say that at Wellesley, a B (or even lower) can be a very good grade.</p>
<p>She was advised by many against it - not sure what her adviser said b/c she didn’t tell me, but he is a chem prof (her two sciences with labs are chem and bio).</p>
<p>She only said she also heard reason TO take them this semester so I am wondering if since she has her freshman writing and seminar next semester plus in-season for her sport, if she didn’t power through it now, she might have to wait a whole year to take them (or one of them) and she is considering biochem.</p>
<p>I think she will make it work - she sounds determined.</p>
<p>Also, she has Calc II - but a couple hours after registering, the Calc prof emailed her and said she should really take multivariable - she explained she didn’t think that was a good idea with two labs - so she is in Calc II - maybe that will make the whole semester a little more doable?</p>
<p>Hi! I’m currently a freshman at Wellesley and I’m thinking of doing a biology or biochemistry major. I’m obviously pretty new to the school so I can’t address the biology major as a whole, but what I can tell you is that introduction to cellular biology (BISC 110) will kick your butt. I’m currently taking it and I’ve talked to many upperclassmen who have agreed that it’s a LOT of work. It meets twice a week for 70 minutes each and has a 3.5 lab component. However, plan on studying at least 4-6 hours outside of class doing the assignments or studying the textbook. The class moves at a very fast pace (even for someone who has taken AP Biology in high school). The lab takes a fair amount of time outside of class as well, especially towards the end of the semester when you start doing formal lab reports. I’m not trying to scare you, but be prepared to dedicate yourself to the class.</p>
Hi, I am going to be a freshman at Wellesley in the fall. I’m not quite sure if I want to pursue Biology as a major but I do love bio and I plan on just taking the introductory classes as a start. For my first semester classes, I plan on taking bio 110, french 101, statistics, and an english class. Does that sound doable? I would really appreciate any feedback!
Hi Cate - Congrats on joining the Wellesley community!
I’m currently a first-year, and am a Biology major. I think the schedule you proposed is really balanced. I normally take at least one humanities course per semester, to balance out my sciences/math. Last semester I did Bio 113, Calc 1, an English class, and American Studies.
But there’ll be plenty of people to help put together the best schedule for you once you’re here!