Wellesley College

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Hallmarks and Quirks

Things I'm Good At:

I have a killer Quidditch team. With my neo-Gothic looks, how could I not?
My library has incredible Special Collections, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning's love letters.
Wellesley econ majors rule the world (no, really, it's a little scary).
Whatever it is you want to do after graduation (publishing? finance? artisan cheese-making?), The Wellesley Network will help you find an experienced alum to talk to about it.
Speaking of alums, they've given me a s'mores endowment and an ice cream endowment. Wellesley women look after their own.
I've got an excellent financial aid program and need-blind admissions.

My Top 5 Must-Haves:

An equal willingness to speak up and listen well—both in and out of class.
A Google calendar to keep track of classes, student org meetings, and meals with friends.
A gung-ho attitude towards ye olde traditions like hoop-rolling and step-singing—or at least a willingness to smile along.
Senate bus tokens, so you can make it into Cambridge and back on a weekend.
An Uber or Lyft account, in case the bus doesn't show up.

Why You Might Have Heard of Me:

Hillary Clinton went here, and so did Madeleine Albright. I'm super-proud of my secretaries of state.
Vladimir Nabokov taught in the Russian Department, and I still have some of his butterfly collection.
Julia Roberts played a 1950s Wellesley professor in Mona Lisa Smile—but I no longer have a mandatory home-ec class.
Every year, I form the scream tunnel at the halfway point of the Boston Marathon.

On a regular Saturday night, you can find me...

Some weekends, I'll head into Cambridge or Boston for a concert, a party at another college, or just dinner or drinks with friends. If I want to stay on campus for the evening, I might go to a movie at Collins Cinema or watch a student-directed play at the Ruth Nagel Jones theater.

A few weekends a month, campus societies and student organizations host official parties and mixers in the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, which often draw students from nearby colleges.

Social life at Wellesley is pretty much what you choose to make of it—lots of students go out on the weekends, but also it's not frowned upon to stay in.

Favorite Hangouts:

The student-cooperative cafe tucked into the basement of Founders, El Table, has been serving the best coffee and sandwiches since 1904. Hang out here long enough, and you'll run into half of your friends and a few professors, too.
A chill place for a drink any night, Punch's Alley (colloquially known as "The Pub") really heats up on Thursday nights when it becomes campus' best place to party. Students manage and bartend.
Famed for their late-night nachos, Café Hoop is another of Wellesley's student cooperatives.
Anderson Forum on the first floor of the campus center is more commonly known as "The Fireplace Room"—a cozy place to meet a friend or curl up and study.
In good weather, Green Beach (the lawn by the lake) fills up with studying and sun-bathing students.

Quirks:

I don't have Greek life, so the closest you'll get to "rushing" is "tea-ing" one of the college's five societies: the Shakespeare Society, Tau Zeta Epsilon, Zeta Alpha, Agora, and Phi Sigma.
I'm very serious about the Honor Code. Make sure to read up on it before enrolling.
Most of my exams are self-scheduled. Taking a final is as easy as showing up to the test center during finals period, signing an honor pledge, and returning it within the allotted time.
Winter session is an optional three-week term squeezed in between winter break and the spring semester. You can extend your vacation, take an intensive language-immersion course, study abroad, or participate in the prestigious Albright Institute.
My "grade deflation" policy means that most classes are graded on a true curve, meaning that the average grade does not exceed a B+.
Classes in your first semester of first year are shadow graded. Though you'll be notified of your letter grades, all classes will appear on your transcript as mandatory pass/fail.

Famous Alumni:

Nora Ephron, journalist, screenwriter, and novelist
Hilary Clinton, former First Lady and U.S. Secretary of State
Madame Chiang Kai-shek, former First Lady of the Republic of China and political activist
Diane Sawyer, journalist
Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State
Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer
Cokie Roberts, senior news analyst for National Public Radio