<p>Friends daughter is considering Wellesley as her safety. She is a top grade 2200 plus successful kid. How safe does this make it? She is interested in the option of taking business classes at MIT and Babson. Does anyone know how hard it is to get those classes? Can anyone comment on the social life for the girls? How strong is the gay influence? </p>
<p>Any info on the college much appreciated.</p>
<p>I would think that Wellesley is competitive enough that no applicant should regard it as a "safety" school. A "match" school, sure, but not a totally safe choice.</p>
<p>I have heard, though I am not sure how true it is, that Wellesley greatly values diversity of all kinds (ethnic, geographic, academic interests, extracurricular interests, etc.) in its student body. Thus, an applicant with excellent credentials might be turned down simply because there happen to be too many other young women similar to her in that particular year's applicant pool.</p>
<p>D was also top student, math ace, 2300 SAT, talented musician, strong recs, etc.; Wellesley was first choice, great interview, followup. She was waitlisted, ultimately denied. Wellesley is nobody's safety.</p>
<p>I agree that Wellesley is not a good safety. Admission is pretty competitive.</p>
<p>A few of my good friends go to Wellesley (I'm at MIT). They're straight, since you asked about that, though the school appears to be pretty LGBT-friendly. It seems to be largely liberal with a non-negligable conservative minority. Relations between those on different ends of the political spectrum are pretty decent, I think - the pro-choice and pro-life groups run a joint program dedicated to helping impoverished young mothers.</p>
<p>The social life varies. The stereotype is the girl who rides the shuttle to MIT on the weekends for the frat parties, but there are also much quieter/less party-ish girls, and there are a number of girls who are really into the hardcore geek culture (these are the ones I tend to know - my closest Wellesley friend is an astrophysics major who works for the college's tech support group :)). There seems to be a niche for most people, but some have to work harder to find it than others.</p>
<p>My Wellesley friends have not had trouble getting into MIT classes, but the business classes are through the Sloan school and registration procedures are different for them - I don't know how different.</p>
<p>My impression from my D's experience and that of her friends is that the [5] Sisters women's colleges are suspicious of being used as safeties, and will turn down or waitlist girls with great numbers, whom they suspect will ultimately go elsewhere, in favor of girls with less "perfect" applications.</p>
<p>A good previous thread on Wellesley:</p>
<p>OK, so even with a 45% acceptance rate Wellesley would not be a safety? To give a bit more info, this girl is a top student at a top NYC private. Scattergrams at her school show kids with MUCH lower stats get in. In fact, no one from her school was rejected in the last 4 years (12 applicants, 2 enrolled). How do you truly identify safeties? Will the low number that went effect future applicants?</p>
<p>What would be a good safety for this child who wants to study economics and business?</p>
<p>Celloguy, where did your DD end up? I have such a hard time believing they didn't welcome her with open arms.</p>
<p>Four girls from my son's class (Minnesota private school) will enter Wellesley in the fall. Though all are good students, none were in the top 20% of the class. Wellesley is considered one of the best all-women's colleges but yet the all-women thing seems a bit of a hard sell these days, thus the 45% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>kirmum, the 45% acceptance rate thing is misleading. i thought the same thing--'it isn't that selective..."
but actually that's because the applicant pool is small and self-selected. wellesley is actually quite strong.
this is just an example to explain: if you have 10,000 applications for 2000 spots, then your acceptance rate is 20%. if you have 20,000 applications for 2000 spots, your acceptance rate is 10%. it all comes down to number of applications, basically.</p>
<p>Wellesley - a safety??? I don't think Wellesley could be considered a "safety" for anyone, even a valedictorian with a 2400 SAT, much less a 2200. A match, yes; a safety, no.</p>
<p>If your friend's daughter is interested in smaller Eastern schools (as her interest in Wellesley suggests), Bucknell might be worth investigating as a possible safety school. It's one of the few smaller colleges with a business major.</p>
<p>Many flagship state universities have good business programs. I'm from Maryland, and I know that many kids here have been pleased with the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland at College Park. The applicant you're discussing would have a good chance of admission even from out of state.</p>
<p>Another business program that's sometimes overlooked (by people outside of New York state) is the undergraduate business program at Cornell, which is (rather oddly) part of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. But this would be a match, not a safety.</p>
<p>If your friend's daughter does apply to Wellesley, it might be best if she expressed interest in the college's economics major, since Wellesley is renowned for its top program in this field, rather than focusing exclusively on her desire to also take classes elsewhere.</p>
<p>This is interesting. I pulled out Fiske to gain some understanding. Back in the day, Wellesley seemed way above Vassar. Today they have almost indentical 50% ranges yet Vassar haas twice the applicants and a 29% acceptance rate.</p>
<p>The student in question here has been advised by her counselor at a sophisticated private school to consider it a safety. I called her mother, who asked me to post, for the details. The school feels that Wellesley is commonly used as a safety for girls who have the stats for ivies. The enrollment rate at her school suggests that is the case at that particular school, one that sends 25% plus to top colleges. </p>
<p>Why would they reject a 2300 (assuming good grades) when it's above their 75%? Their yield is only 44%. As in SuNa's case, the girls accepted from this school were not top students, all but 1 was in the bottom half.</p>
<p>Is this Tufts syndrome? I'm guessing demonstrated interest is probably key at this school.</p>
<p>Marian, how hard is the Cornell program to get into OOS? And I agree, one should not go to a school because of cross enrollment!</p>
<p>I wondered about the social scene as well during our hunt for a college. I read that nearby MIT provided a lot of social opportunities with the opposite sex - but that some Wellsley women complain that "the odds are good, but the goods are odd" at MIT.</p>
<p>I don't think it's Tufts syndrome. I think it's Diversity Syndrome (if I may coin a phrase).</p>
<p>Wellesley wants members of minority groups and unusual girls. The place is so diverse that non-Hispanic white Americans account for only 41% of the student body. And it's not just ethnic diversity that Wellesley wants; the school wants socioeconomic diversity as well. Wellesley is part of QuestBridge, a consortium of colleges that offers full scholarships to low-income students. You can see Wellesley's diversity statistics on the QuestBridge site at <a href="http://www.questbridge.org/cobranded/Wellesley.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.questbridge.org/cobranded/Wellesley.htm</a></p>
<p>Considering the kind of student body that Wellesley seems to be looking for, GPAs and SATs may be secondary to other factors in the admissions process in many instances. That applicant with the 2300 may have been rejected because she didn't contribute any interesting diversity to the student body, not because she was unqualified. </p>
<p>As for Vassar, of course it has more applicants than Wellesley. It's co-ed.</p>
<p>You asked about Cornell from OOS. I don't think it's appreciably harder than in-state. It's just more expensive.</p>
<p>Wellesley is definitely not a safety. I consider a school with 65% + acceptance rate a safety. Four girls from our school applied this year. all with fine qualifications and only 2 were accepted. My daughter's friend with 2200 SATs was rejected, possibly because she had a 3.5 average.</p>
<p>Wellesley students can also take classes at Olin, fyi.</p>
<p>"I wondered about the social scene as well during our hunt for a college. I read that nearby MIT provided a lot of social opportunities with the opposite sex - but that some Wellsley women complain that "the odds are good, but the goods are odd" at MIT."</p>
<p>We used to say the same things about the men at Carnegie Mellon!</p>
<p>kirmum, I'd rather not post identifiable details, but I'm happy to privately post; can you clear some space in your inbox?</p>
<p>"You asked about Cornell from OOS. I don't think it's appreciably harder than in-state. It's just more expensive"</p>
<p>Cornell's business program is the most competive program to get into in the university, though I can't comment on OOS vs. in-state. Most who get into that program apply ED.</p>