9 Things To Do When Visiting Wellesley (With Your Parents)
- Go out to dinner. Our small town of Wellesley is sweet but a little pricey. Lots of students take the bus into Boston to explore in the evenings, but if you’re sticking around Wellesley, having a parent about to fund your dinner out is a good idea.
- Poke around the dorms. If your parents have been to college, they’ll know better than you do what to look for. Do you know to check how close you are to the bathrooms? Proximity to dining halls? Strength of the wi-fi connection? Your parents might.
- Check out the sports center. Are you actually planning on working out while at Wellesley? I don’t know. Do you want your parents to think that you are? Definitely.
- Buy them a sandwich at El Table. It’s a little cafe in the basement of the Founders Building. Buying your parents lunch is a great way to establish yourself as an Independent Young Adult who doesn’t need your parents to be overly involved. It’s also super cheap, which is good if you’re actually an Independent Young Adult Who Doesn’t Who Doesn’t Need Their Parents But Also Doesn’t Necessarily Have Tons of Money Lying Around.
- Scope out the town of Wellesley. This goes double if you and your parents have come in a car and you won’t have access to a car next year. Wellesley is pretty suburban, which means spread out, which means that if you don’t poke around early, you might not find the town’s best fro-yo joint until your sophomore year. Whether you end up Ubering or walking to the Whole Foods at the edge of town once you start classes in the fall, you’ll want to know where it is first.
- Walk around the lake. I’m always an advocate for walking around the lake! This demonstrates to your parents that you appreciate nature and exercise and the Great Outdoors and so on, if that’s their thing. It also happens to be pretty and fun.
- Go to the financial aid office, if you’re going to be on financial aid. These things always go better with parental input. Trust me. Financial aid is hard enough to navigate even with support from a proper adult, and going at it alone is even harder. Don’t be a hero. Get some help while you can.
- Take a tour. This is just fun. The tour guides are super knowledgeable and they’ll show you all sorts of spots on campus that you won’t necessarily find on your own. It’s also a great way to get the lay of the land before you start exploring on your own. The campus isn’t that big, but it does sprawl a bit, and the road and paths wind around. It helps to have someone who knows what they’re doing show you around.
- Go out to dinner a second time. I’m not kidding. Wellesley restaurants can get pretty expensive for students. If your parents are the treating sort, see if you can manage to sneak another night out in there. Leverage the fact that their sweet little baby (that’s you) is about to grow up, leave the nest, set off on their own, and become an Independent Young Adult Who Soon Won’t Need Them Anymore, if you must. There’s a place called Lemon Thai that’ll make it completely worth it.
