These two options are financially equal for me. I am not a big school kind of person, so I always thought I would go private. I’m not into parties, and I do like the idea of a women’s college (mostly). However, visiting Wellesley, I definitely felt the stress culture and the geographic isolation. East coast culture is also a shift. Everything seems right on paper but I didn’t feel a great fit. As someone who has struggled with anxiety, pervasive stress and competition are a big concern for me. I don’t want to return to my old ways, so to speak, and I worry the temptation to neglect my health in the presence of grade deflation may be overwhelming. However, I haven’t visited UCSB! It was (no UC is but…) more of a safety in my mind when i first applied.
For UCSB Physics (not CCS— didn’t know it existed when I applied), will I be able to get good letters of rec if I am proactive? Research? Will I be able to get into decent grad schools? Should I say screw it and try to avoid the stress at Wellesley?
UCSB’s Physics department is one of the top programs in the world, at least at the graduate level. You can apply to get in CCS, although it may be too late for this year.
It sounds like you prefer Wellesley but are trying to talk yourself out of it. Part of me thinks, “Why?” Wellesley is not just one of the finest women’s colleges; it is one of the finest colleges period.
That said, yes, Wellesley is known for its stress culture. It is a demanding place, and there are reports of women feeling like they are isolated and under pressure. Part of this might be due to Wellesley’s reputation: staid rather than wild. It is a serious place.
You haven’t visited UCSB, but that’s okay. Have you visited other large public universities? No, not all universities are alike, just as not all LACs are the same, but we are talking about two very different environments. I would understand more if you were struggling between Scripps and Wellesley or Pomona and Wellesley. I would imagine that between these two very different schools you must have a sense of where you most see yourself.
Wow. Two very good educational institutions, but like @Hapworth notes, vastly different cultures. UCSB is in a beautiful coastal location, and while it isn’t as big as some other UCs, it still has 22k undergrads and only about 1/3 of them live in college-owned housing with the rest spilling into Isla Vista and Goleta (only 8% live in SB, which is actually about 20 min down the road from campus). There always seems to be a party going on somewhere, but things are spread out enough that you can avoid them. It was the “dream school” of one of my kids’ friends, but he never acclimated to the “beach town” feeling and after 1 year he transferred to a smaller Jesuit college. Wellesley is intensely residential, both in its culture and its location - and yeah, the weather is just a little different. I have a friend whose SoCal daughter went there and loved the academics and the level of intellectual engagement that carried over from the classrooms to the dorms, but at times she did feel that the campus felt a bit isolated - my friend thinks it was sort of a “so near and yet so far” to Boston situation (weather was not an issue - she went to grad school at BU). Academically, you can’t go wrong either way, so like others say, it may be time to listen to your gut on where you’d fit in.