<p>seriously, I've always thought that Wellesley is supposed to be one of the most well known colleges in the States, but when I'm talking to people back in my hometown these days (well Hong Kong actually), nobody seems to have heard of it! I was slightly offended by their ignorance actually, especially when most of them have heard of Williams, Amherst and even Pomona but NOT Wellesley!!! :(</p>
<p>So HOW prestigious and well known IS Wellesley in the American world really? I'm getting a bit concerned because I'm gonna be spending $40,000+ on my Wellesley education for the next 4 years and I obviously don't wanna go back to Hong Kong without getting a decent recognition/ job placement... might as well consider transfering to one of the Ivies, maybe this is the safest option for me? So frustrated and confused...</p>
<p>Wellesley is one of the top liberal arts schools in the country and the top womens' college, and I believe Wellesley is very prestigious here.</p>
<p>Wow I can't believe people have heard of Williams, Amherst, and Pomona but NOT Wellesley. When I was growing up, Wellesley was a household name much like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. I had actually never heard of Williams, Amherst, or Pomona until a couple of years ago when I started looking at colleges =/</p>
<p>Wellesley is virtually unknown outside of academic circles where I live on the west coast. Even if people constantly confuse your college for "Wesleyan", it does carry weight for employment and grad school.</p>
<p>I knew about Williams before I knew about Wellesley, but I had never even heard of Pomona or Amherst until a couple of weeks ago...</p>
<p>Wellesley has one of the most extensive and successful alumni networks of any American college -- bar none. You're not paying 40+K for name recognition you're paying it for job placement and contacts. Which would you rather have?:/</p>
<p>Yeah actually scratch what I said before.
I hadn't heard of Williams or Amherst until a couple of years ago.
But I hadn't heard of Pomona until a couple of months ago lol</p>
<p>Well, I think that any school can be placed on a spectrum of well-known to unknown depending on people/places. I'm from California, and Wellesley is seldom known. I knew a guy in high school who had no idea what Columbia University was (to be fair, I went to an arts high school). From my experience, Wellesley is very well-known and prestigious amongst people who know good schools, both universities and liberal arts colleges. </p>
<p>I really don't mind if people I meet have no idea what Wellesley is. I've still managed to score internships being employed by people who've never heard of my school. Just choose a school you love, do your best there, build a strong resume, and you're seriously not going to have any problems with employment. If employers hired people based on the prestige of their school then, well, a lot of people will be unemployed :)</p>
<p>the people who matter know... and that's all that matters... if you want people to "oooo" and "aaahhh" when you say where you go to college, then i guess you had better apply to HPY (good luck to you!) but if that's all that matters to you (and your $40k), then you probably don't belong at any liberal arts college.</p>
<p>heyyyy...it was a fair question, especially when taking foreign employers into account. I think that the best answer would be that a lot of the common population (especially on the west coast and abroad) who won't know it. However, employers and other universities will (in other words, almost anybody who works with academia or academics in some capacity will recognize Wellesley).</p>
<p>i'm just so sick of the whole name recognition thing... employers (even foreign ones) who don't know the names of the top liberal arts colleges and are only impressed by ivy league degrees aren't doing their homework and you really should not give a damn about them. if you apply for a job with a Wellesley degree and the employer doesn't bother to do 2 minutes of research to find out that Wellesley is one of the top colleges in the country, then you can't be too impressed with that company. even in that case, however, most Wellesley graduates will be impressive enough on their own to get a job with an employer like that (which is obviously not top tier to start with)...</p>
<p>If you think about it, not even being an Ivy League guarantees prestige.
A lot of my friends haven't even heard of Dartmouth or Brown.
And I always laugh at them when they ask me if Stanford is in the Ivy League XD</p>
<p>So I guess Wellesley doesn't have the same household name appeal as HYPMS, but anyone who knows a little bit about something would have heard of it.</p>
<p>when you think about it... who exactly are people trying to impress when they name drop the fact that they went to an ivy league school? it may help to get that first interview out of college, but once you start working, it is much more about the work experience than the college pedigree. as oh miss zanna says a lot of people don't even know half of the ivies... so... it's kinda funny. as i said in my first post above, the people who matter know and that's all that matters...</p>