This is the official thread for those applying ED to Wellesley College.
List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!
My daughter is now looking at EDing at Wellesley vs Northeastern -because 1. a lab mate of hers is at Wellesley and raves about it 
and she’s worried about the overcrowding at NEU. I realize they are very different -but they each meet different aspects of her ‘wish list’. Is anyone at Wellesley willing to answer some questions?
- What is the Biology department like?
- What are the dorms like? I haven’t read any overcrowding issues; and is the food ok? (Just trying to avoid really terrible food)
- I’ve read it’s quite ‘intense’ academically. Can you shed any light on that? Is it overwhelming or doable?
- General pros and cons?
- Her friend said that straight women date guys from Olin/Babson or the Boston colleges – if you have random comments on this please feel free to share
- My daughter thrives in hands-on learning environments – it seems like many Bio classes are lab based -but if you could shed light on this -that would be helpful
- Study abroad? Seems like there is a great study abroad at Bologna and also options to do a semester at Woods Hole. If you have any info on those -that would be appreciated.
- Opportunities for research? My daughter is really interested in research so this is important
Thanks.
For the sake of the post requirements:
Unweighted GPA: 3.85
Test optional
Major: Biology
EC: Strong – Supervisory duties in research lab over summer (paid position-managed student interns/taught lab procedures), 2 years of research (by end of senior year) multiple poster presentation awards (state, regional, local, one research-area specific national event) ; volunteer work (300 hours, 200 hours in one location with increasing responsibility- STEM related)
Should have excellent letters of rec
Yes - I realize it’s a long shot even with ED
Hi, I wanted to answer as someone who did not know a single thing about wellesley when i applied, applied through recommendation and am so happy to end up here now.
1)I have not taken any bio classes because I chose to fulfill my science credit with physics but the department is extremely rigorous. Many students aspire to do pre-med and the classes are hard but the opportunities for bio in wellesley are endless. Many students do multiple paid research in both Wellesley and MIT UROP. So far all the junior/senior students i talked to in bio/biochem majors had also internships in other places during summer.
2)Dorms are great. Best part of wellesley when it comes to the dorms is safety and trust. No stealing, me and my roommate never locked our room door once because there is a larger chance that we might loose our key than the chance of anyone stealing/breaking in. Communal bathrooms scare people but it actually ends up coming down to 6-7 students per stall, which is better than dormitory complexes in other schools that have 3 rooms(2double,1 single) connected to a bathroom, because the students need to clean the bathroom while in wellesley the custodian cleans it multiple times a day. Campus really got everything you need.
3)It is intense academically but there is no competition culture. You are rigorous on your own, people do not compete with each other like it was said on the media. The grade deflation is really stupid.
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I am a newbie but I see so many boyfriends on fridays and weekends. Many girls also post them/ makes posts about having a boyfriend. It requires more going out and putting yourself out there but don’t forget wellesley has so many joint club meetings with other colleges, your daughter can always take classes in other coed schools.
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I’ve witnessed a bio class last week. They are lab and experiment heavy.
7)So many study abroad programs are avaliable, all the juniors I have met so far are doing sa next semester and many of their friends are already abroad. All the programs are covered by Wellesley tuition(so you will pay whatever you pay for wellesley in sa) but for some programs students need to find their own housing.
- Everyone I’ve met got to do a UROP(MIT’s undergrad research program) but also Wellesley itself is full of lab based research. They are also paid and the best part about Wellesley is the faculty you get the work with. They are in wellesley because they love to teach and research with students (in many large schools profs are there to fund their own research not really because they want to teach)
Overall con(a con for any college really but): For the first time in your life, you need to put yourself out there to make connections. Also academics being really intense doesn’t make it easy and the campus is huge you really run around all day on weekdays. When it comes to going out safety tho wellesley really thought it through, our shuttle bus is safe and liable, runs until 3 am on weekends and get you to all the good places in harvard sq, mit side of cambridge and boston. I was afraid Wellesley students would be more reluctant to go out but the school has a good amount of people from all over the spectrum. Also one thing to note: it is an extremely generous school with financial aid(one of the only top schools that is need blind to even international students), you get to meet people from really different stories who are changing the course of their life by coming to college.
Thank you! And by ‘grade deflation is stupid’ -do you mean that grade deflation still happens or that the comment on it is stupid (because it no longer happens)?