<p>As far as socializing, plenty of people do it. I’m not much of a party person, but I socialized a lot for me last semester while taking 5 classes and did very well overall (important aside: it depends on what you mean by excellent grades. If you are expecting to replicate your 3.93 GPA at Wellesley, revise your expectations, wholly aside from the question of socializing. Yes, someone does that well each year. It probably won’t be you! :)). For my observations of my friends and acquaintances, I wouldn’t say that socializing really affected any of their grades. Poor time and responsibility management in general, of which socializing is a part but not the only part, are the real culprit. A big aspect of life is knowing when to say no, I can’t–whether that be for an extra class that is just too much work, your eighth extracurricular activity, or a party on a weekend when you really need to lock yourself in your room and work. </p>
<p>I agree with “students hold themselves to high standards” being the type of competition at Wellesley. Different majors also have different feelings in terms of competition/interaction between the majors. I don’t buy that any of the majors are cutthroat–one of my majors in Economics, and this would be the one more likely to be criticized in this fashion, so I think I speak from a position of some authority–but the feeling is different. </p>
<p>Generally I think that hard work = better grades–absolutely. Of course I can’t promise that you’ll never meet a course where you work really hard to get a mediocre grade and are happy for it–that happens too, and it’s happened to me! For me at least, the biggest factor in terms of getting a good grade has been interest in a class. Not that I don’t work hard or get bad grades in the classes I’m less interested in, but it really takes a lot of effort to get As and A-s at Wellesley, and personally I find that level of effort difficult to muster for a class you’re not that interested in. Maybe that seems like obvious advice, but I think a lot of people end up with a schedule they don’t really like but stick with for no very good reason and that tends to turn into an unhappy and unproductive semester.</p>