Dear All,
8 months, 23 blog posts, and about 13,000 words later, my career as a Wellesley admissions blogger is finally coming to a close. It’s been quite a ride! From sharing my love of Lake Waban to chronicling the strange odyssey that was the weird mermaid psych class, we’ve gone some places.
I hope you’ll forgive me if I get a little self-indulgent and reflective in this post. During this semester in particular, I’ve tried to be responsible with my blogging, setting aside recapping personal stuff like midterms in favor of thinking up topics that an incoming college student would actually need and/or want to read. According to the website stats, this worked: y’all made “What Writing College Papers is Actually Like” and “What Early Decision Really Means” my most popular posts of the year, which makes sense, I suppose. People don’t come here for complaints about tests, they want to know what it’s like to be a Wellesley student.
So. What is it like to be a Wellesley student? I honestly don’t know. I worry about trying to represent “the Wellesley experience” as a blogger, because sometimes I hear people talk about everything they love and hate about being at Wellesley, and I think to myself, it’s like we go to different schools. There is, of course, no single Wellesley experience. You are an individual, and your path through Wellesley will be equally individual. Do you want to join a sports team? Double major in STEM fields? Take lots of classes at MIT? Party at Harvard at weekends? Congratulations! I don’t know what any of that is like. I don’t know how to prepare you for it. I do hope that all makes you very happy.
In the interests of capturing something close to a general experience, here are some negative things that I’ve heard more than one Wellesley student say: sometimes Wellesley is stressful, and sometimes Wellesley students put a lot of stress on themselves, and I don’t think they always know the difference. People sometimes complain that there’s no social life on campus when what they really mean is that you have to go off-campus to get into a party scene, which is fair enough.
Some positive things that Wellesley students say: that the network after graduation never goes away. That it’s the most supportive community they’ve ever been in. That the professors care a lot. That the campus is incredibly gorgeous and too easy to take for granted. That there’s a class for everything. That Wellesley students don’t let Wellesley students slip through the cracks. That there’s a club for any interest. That they miss it when they’re gone. That Wellesley was the best four years of their lives.
Okay, Class of 2023, the new yellow class. Welcome to Wellesley. You’re going to love it here–or not, I dunno, I’m not your mom. But whatever you make of this college, I hope it brings you joy and challenges and fulfillment and everything you want from it and everything you didn’t know you needed. I hope you eat doritos nachos at midnight in the Hoop and take the bus into Boston one day just because and take your parents on a weepy stroll around the lake when they drop you off and go to a lecture just because it catches your eye and make friends and order your pizza from Old School Pizzeria because it’s much better than Dominos and have at least one sucky internship experience because that’s an important milestone and find your home and switch your major if you want to and a thousand other things that won’t seem important to you until they do.
If this blog helped you even a little, I’m glad I wrote it.
Love,
Sarah