Wellesley vs. Smith, Wellesley vs. Swarthmore

TheDad
Sun, 20 Nov 2005 20:14:42 +0000

WendyM, exactly so. My D and her friends assure each other that there is no dishonor in a B+ or A- but are mortified when they get them themselves. D spent 29 hours on one take-home math mid-term; the lowest number of hours clocked by anyone in the class was 21. There is so much reading assigned that she has not been able to do it all but not for lack of effort, learning to be judicious in what is skipped and what is not. She is doing a double-major and is gunning for high Latin honors.

As for Smith being less selective, it depends on how you look at it: if you adjust for the fact that roughly a quarter of Smith students receive Pell grants (aggressive academic diversity) and a quarter (I think) (with some overlap) are first-in-family-to-go-to-college, the disparity between numbers disappears. Furthermore, SAT scores aren’t valid for determining much in the way of success beyond grades for first year in college…and, no, the grapes aren’t sour, my D earned a 2370 if you add her SAT + SAT2 Writing together.

Different parts of Smith do have different reputations and I still don’t know the truth of the stereotypes but my D chose to live in a Green Street House because of its reputation for being more studious than The Quad. But di gustibus non disputandum est.

Another stereotype that I’ve heard but have no idea of the veracity of is that Wellesley students are “more tightly wound.” There may or may not be any truth to this but that signifies no correlation between academic rigor or intelligence.