Before anyone says anything, I promise I really was planning to post my “Why Wellesley?” story this week! I was getting all ready to sit down and write about it this morning, when I started thinking about how important visiting campus was for me when I was choosing a college. How can I expect you to know what it’s really like at Wellesley with a second hand snapshot of my campus tour experience? And that’s when it hit me: if you won’t be able to visit Wellesley, I’ll just have to bring Wellesley to you.
Welcome to your very own Wellesley College campus tour! My name is Andy, and I’ll be your guide on this beautiful Thursday. I’d like to think of this tour as like one you might get from your host during an overnight visit; it’ll definitely hit more of the areas that I’m involved in than others, but with a little help from my blockmates, hopefully I’ll be able to capture enough of life as a first-year at Wellesley to give you a pretty well-rounded picture! Think of this like the written out guide that goes along with a Poptropica walkthrough video- if you want to watch the video portion, make sure to check out the tour video on the Wellesley College Youtube Channel! I also highly recommend the Wellesley Playlist; I used to watch it over and over again while waiting for my decision.
Our first stop on the tour is the Margaret Clapp Library, where I happen to be sitting right now. This year, Clapp is open by reservation only, and students can reserve two hour time slots to study one one of four floors in the library. There are desks, chairs, couches, tables, and study rooms available for your studying convenience. I’ve tried out several different spots throughout the library so far, and I’ve found that my favorites are the tables and the armchairs in the area to the right of the main entrance; the lighting sort of makes me feel like I’m in The Paper Chase. Like most college libraries, the further you go up, the quieter you have to be. As a first year, I don’t know if my workload is heavy enough yet to warrant going up to the fourth floor, and I like knowing I won’t be disrupting anyone completely in the zone if I drop my water bottle down here on the second floor.
Next up this morning is the area of Wellesley you’re probably the most familiar with from your online research and admissions brochures: the Academic Quad!
Behind Green Hall!
You might remember Galen Stone Tower from my last post; the tower is actually part of Green Hall, which hosts the foreign language departments and administrative offices!
Attached to Green Hall is Founders, which I think is the prettiest building on campus; it houses all of the humanities departments.
The big long building in the quad is Pendleton, which is divided into Pendleton East and Pendleton West; I haven’t been in there yet, but I know that most of the social sciences are in there, and that it used to be the natural and physical sciences building; you can still see markings for the former departments outside the building!
Finally, the academic quad is also home to Jewett, the arts and music building. Jewett has studios, practice rooms, classrooms, performance halls, you name it! This week the tower is under construction, so I’ve been practicing the carillon in a practice room on the first floor of Jewett.
Our remaining academic building is the Science Center, which is actually all the way over on East Side. Right now, it’s under construction, but there are still a lot of classes in here, and it’s open for students to study in, too!
Unfortunately Lulu is very hard to get a decent picture of, but here’s one I found online!
Lulu is our campus center! It houses mail services, the campus bookstore, a convenience store, and a dining hall! Fun fact: Lulu was apparently built to have the least amount of right angles possible. I’m not sure why this is or even if it’s 100% true, but it’s a fun story I heard from an upperclassman!
My anthropology class is held in a bit more of an unconventional space: Houghton Memorial Chapel! In a normal year, this space would be used for religious services and campus traditions- like Flower Sunday- but this year it’s serving well as a socially distanced lecture hall.
This picture is from the Wellesley Athletics website! Maybe soon I’ll take a trip down to the KSC to see it for myself.
The Keohane Sports Center is the home of Wellesley Athletics, and it also serves as a free gym for all Wellesley students! I’m very sorry to admit that I actually haven’t been over to see the KSC yet; it’s basically right behind my dorm. I have no excuses, although I will defend myself by saying that I did end up in the athletic fields when I got very lost wandering the lake one day so maybe that counts as visiting.
No campus tour is complete without seeing where you might be living! This is the East Side complex, which houses my personal favorite dining hall (and also my friend Abby- shoutout to her if she’s reading this)! The East Side dorms are a lot newer than most of the other dorms on campus, but that doesn’t mean they’re lacking in history. Future journalists may be excited to learn that Diane Sawyer actually lived in Freeman Hall on East Side when she attended Wellesley!
Stone Davis (otherwise known as Stone-D) is the other dorm complex on East Side. The Stone Davis dining hall is closed for the year, but my RA says that their buffalo chicken wraps are out of this world. Stone-D also happens to be where a certain presidential nominee and Wellesley’s most famous alum lived during her time on campus back in the ‘60s!
When I was on my admissions tour, one of our tour guides said that if Wellesley dorms were characters in Mean Girls, Tower Court would be Regina George. With her big beautiful windows and prime view of Lake Waban, Tower is definitely the most popular dorm on campus. The dining hall is pretty nice, too, and Claflin, one of the Tower Court dorms, is home to the campus bakery!
Of course, though other dorm complexes may have their merits, if you’re looking for the place on campus with the most heart and the strongest community, there’s no better place to find it than in the Quint! I would argue that all of the dorms in the Hazard Quad- Munger, the fifth dorm in the Quint, is offline this year- have their own very distinct personalities, but even just reaching the top of the hill and walking into the quad is enough to make me feel like I’m coming home at the end of a long day.
Watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding for my RA’s CE last week!
Finally- and in my opinion, most importantly- is Pomeroy Hall, my home away from home! Before coming to Wellesley, I heard a lot about the Pommunity and how warm and welcoming it was- especially for first years living away from home for the first time- but I didn’t really believe it until I experienced it for myself. There’s definitely no wrong answers when it comes to where you’ll live at Wellesley, but for me no place could be a better fit than Pom is! Whether it’s Friday night movies on the quad, candlelit House Council meetings, or holding dorm-wide talent shows, I feel like the res staff is always finding new ways to keep us bonding and having fun during the pandemic. Pom is definitely the best part of my Wellesley experience so far, and I hope that maybe three years from now I’ll be able to boast “Pom Lifer” status just like so many of the seniors this year!
This virtual tour really only scratches the surface of what it’s like to walk through campus; really even an in-person tour isn’t enough to give you the full Wellesley experience. Wellesley is the kind of place you have to explore on your own, and often the most beautiful places on campus are the most hidden. Every day is like a little adventure, which is one of my favorite things about going to school here. Even when we’re social distancing and meeting on Zoom, there’s always adventure and exploration and learning. What more could I want from my college experience?
Sending you joy,
A
P.S. An Honorable Mention:
Normally, Lake Waban wouldn’t be part of a campus tour, but I think it’s a big part of the Wellesley experience and I’ve gathered some of my absolute favorite lake photos for your enjoyment. I recommend listening to “The Swan” from Carnival of the Animals or perhaps a little Debussy while perusing- those are my lake time go-tos!
