Wellesley College | United States

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Institution type	Private

About Wellesley College

Wellesley is known for the excellence of its education, the beauty of its setting, its gifted faculty, and the uniqueness of its campus culture.

But most of all, Wellesley is known for the thousands of accomplished, thoughtful women it has sent out into the world for over 100 years—women who are committed to making a difference.

A Transformative Educational Experience
Every year, some 2,400 of the world’s top undergraduate women are challenged to exceed their own highest personal and intellectual expectations. The mastery Wellesley graduates demonstrate across the professional and vocational spectrum, and the influence they wield—whether in their own communities or on the world stage—is testament to a singularly empowering undergraduate experience.

Wellesley’s lively academic community places a high value on rigorous, probing inquiry, and creative, cross-discipline thinking. Its collaborative approach to scholarship encourages students to question, debate, and refine their points of view, not only with each other, but with our world-class faculty—often by working directly with them on groundbreaking projects.

A Wellesley education fosters the highest standard of readiness for the “real world” in its graduates, in terms of ability to think, act, and contribute meaningfully and effectively in their chosen areas of interest.

The “Full-Engagement” Advantage
Wellesley’s full-engagement academic philosophy extends to the running of the College itself. The student voice is central to decision-making here; students serve on major committees of the Board of Trustees, participate in faculty search, and contribute to strategic planning.

Students participate in a wide range of extracurricular projects: The College and its surrounding community and the greater Boston area offer hundreds of internships, advocacy projects, and the rare advantages of being a vital member of the single largest academic “hotspot” in the country.

Expected to be fully engaged while at Wellesley, students carry this sense of purposeful involvement and personal commitment throughout life. It is the signal mark of a Wellesley woman.

A Widely Envied Campus Environment
The sheer sense of scale of the breathtaking natural environment, in which buildings are thoughtfully sited, distinguish Wellesley’s physical setting in the classically New England town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston.

Home to leading institutions such as the Albright Institute, the Knapp Social Science Center, the Davis Museum, The Newhouse Center for the Humanities, and the world-renowned Wellesley Centers for Women, Wellesley’s resources are a magnet not only for the surrounding community and metropolitan area; they attract attention—and scholars—from around the world.

Campus information

Wellesley College, outside of Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the most beautiful campuses in North America.
Wellesley's 500 acres include a private lake, a golf club, groves of conifers and hardwoods, and winding paths through open meadows. Stunning brick and stone buildings rise from wooded hills. From almost every window on campus, the view opens out to an inviting vista—through pine trees to the shores of Lake Waban, down sweeping lawns to century-old oaks with magnificent gnarled branches.

The landscape has always been central to the identity of Wellesley College and to the experience of its students. Henry Fowle Durant, who founded the college in 1870 (it opened in 1875), believed that young women should be educated in the midst of beauty. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. described Wellesley's landscape in 1902 as "not merely beautiful, but with a marked individual character not represented so far as I know on the ground of any other college in the country." Glacial topography, he believed, gave the campus "its peculiar kind of intricate beauty."

Located at Wellesley, Massachusetts (12 miles west of Boston).

Accommodation

The majority of Wellesley College students live in college residence halls, making them a vital part of Wellesley's learning environment.

The residence hall system fosters a sense of community through student self-government and program planning. All residence halls have both cooking and laundry facilities. For the health and comfort of our students, employees, and guests, smoking is not permitted in the residence halls. Please note that all beds are extra long twin.