Wellesley's campus life

advantagious
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:51:56 +0000

I mean, I don’t find it inflammatory, but I don’t really agree. There isn’t “nothing” going on during the week–of course there are lots of clubs that hold regular meetings, but there are also plenty of lectures, periodic plays, movie symposiums, etc. There are some complaints that these events aren’t enormously well-attended, but they are there and I personally find it unrealistic to expect droves of students to attend every special-interest lecture/gathering every week. We’ve been having great and really well-attended debate watching parties this past few weeks. On the weekend I’d agree a little more, but I think it is also important to point out that at least some Wellesley students (hand raised) were attracted to Wellesley precisely because it does not conform to a traditional, big-party-every-weekend social life. I’m unabashedly disinterested in that, and while I realize that makes me a loser in terms of the traditional college social scene, I think that I’m not the only person that feels that way. That said, as a self-admitted introvert/non-party girl, Wellesley students are actually more social than I expected, and it is true that if you want to go to a party every weekend, you will end up off-campus a lot.

The poster also glosses over the positive (for some) aspects of the all-women’s environment in other aspects of life (such as relationships with fellow students), which most Wellesley students would happily babble on about (we’re having a bit of a minor debate about that on campus right now, actually, but opinions are pretty strongly in favor, especially given the demographic make-up that these debates usually skew towards). The classroom discussion thing depends on the department, in my opinion, but I don’t really know how it compares to other schools.

Like the poster, I think that Vassar and Wellesley are not terribly similar (I visited Vassar and liked it fine but ultimately decided not to apply b/c of a lack of “spark”) and probably do cater to a somewhat different (although not hugely divergent) group. So I would say it is a matter of fit more than anything else.