Wellesley's campus life

CarolynB
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:10:38 +0000

I was cruising the listings of the different schools my DD has visited, and Vassar caught my eye (just after I checked out the Wellesley listing and posted the Globe article). I found a student debating the merits of Vassar and Wellesley. One of the responding posts was from a student who had apparently attended both. Her post is below. I considered paraphrasing her post but decided it was better to give you her words. She raises some interesting points and I’d like to hear from some current students, if possible.

“I have the distinction of having attended both schools (one as an exchange student), so can give you an inside look from both perspectives. There is no comparison between a coed school (Vassar) and a all-women school (Wellesley). Vassar has a self-contained, healthy (relatively speaking) social environment. Wellesley becomes a ghost town on weekends (everyone in Boston or Cambridge), and there is nothing happening during weekday nights. Academically, both are great schools with excellent teachers – but the students at Wellesley are less likely to engage in classroom discussions, or challenge their instructors (but more likely to study harder outside of class). Wellesley is beautiful, but so is Vassar (totally disagree with the poster who bashed the condition of the buildings at Vassar – older dorms are tired looking, but are in the process of a dorm-by-dorm rehab, and with a few notable exceptions, the academic buildings are in great shape, with lots of new and state-of-the-art facilities). Vassar is in Poughkeepsie, Wellesley is in metro Boston – stated that way, one might think the advantage goes to Wellesley, but it all depends. Because it does not have a local urban “draw,” Vassar has to work harder to make campus life interesting and self-sufficient, and it shows. There are some departments at Vassar that are better than their corresponding departments at Wellesley, and vice - versa. You will have to check that out on your own. Overall, I don’t think a person who would be happy at Vassar would be happy at Wellesley, and the converse holds, as well, so this is a choice you are really going to have to sort out. Good luck!”

Comments, current students?