wellesley college graduate programs

Degree Programs Offered at Wellesley College

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At Wellesley College, undergraduates can choose from 18 majors and seven minors. The college follows a liberal arts curriculum but is unique because each program requires that students take classes from disciplines outside of their majors. They have the option of adding a minor if they feel that it will benefit them too.

The cinema and media studies (CAMS) program is best for those who want to study emerging forms of media. Majors can attend Cinephile Sundays, which are events that let them watch films and discuss their thoughts with others. The program asks students to take a course on media production and another on media theories. They’ll also take Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies and Aesthetics of Cinema and Media Studies. Wellesley offers several electives for CAMS majors, including Introduction to Civic Media, Film Noir, Electronic and Computer Music, Cinema in the Public Sphere and Berlin and London Go to Hollywood.

Wellesley College designed an architecture major that helps introduce women to construction, building and design. It features both classes on architectural history and courses on studio art, which will ask students to design buildings in blueprint form and 3D models. Available as a joint program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it’s also available through the college alone. Majors can take classes such as Architecture and Urban Form, Introduction to the History of Art Part I and II, Asian Art and Architecture, Modern Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright and the American House.

Though the college is known for its liberal arts programs, it offers several science programs too such as a major in chemical physics. Students take classes in both physics and chemistry in this program. The curriculum includes Senior Thesis Research and Individual Study. Students can take the thesis course in the first or second semester of their senior years as long as they have a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. Those with a lower GPA can only do an individual study. Astrophysics, peace and justice studies, cognitive and linguistic studies, theater studies and medieval and renaissance studies are some of the other majors that Wellesley College offers.

About Wellesley College

Wellesley College is a private college for women and those who identify as female in the Massachusetts city of the same name. Charted in 1870 as the Wellesley Female Seminary, it became Wellesley College in 1873 began offering classes two years later. The college was so small in its early days that the campus consisted of a single building. Students attended classes in the same building where faculty members worked. Wellesley now has a campus of 500 acres that includes landscapes designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and other famous architects. Both Wall Street Journal and Forbes rank the campus as one of the top 50 American colleges. U.S. News and World Report ranked it third in terms of liberal arts colleges, and Washington Monthly ranked Wellesley College as the 16th best liberal arts school. Around 2,500 students attend the college every year.

Wellesley College Accreditation Details

Thanks to the accreditation that Wellesley College has from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), any student who has financial need can get a financial aid package. Those students must demonstrate their need on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). NEASC accreditation also allows students who attended another college with regional accreditation to transfer their credits to Wellesley. They can take the credits they earn at Wellesley to another university or use their work when they apply to a graduate program.

Wellesley College Application Requirements

With an acceptance rate of below 29 percent, Wellesley has a very selective admissions policy. Students must first decide when they want to apply. The college has an early decision deadline of November first and a second early decision deadline of January first. These are binding decisions that require students to agree to attend the college if accepted. Wellesley will notify students by the middle of December or February and require that they pay their enrollment deposits by the beginning of January or the end of February. Students must both agree to attend the college and put down a deposit. The college has a regular deadline with an early evaluation deadline of December 15 and a final deadline of January 15.

To apply to Wellesley and other schools, students can use the QuestBridge, Common or Coalition Application. Each one asks that students use their full and legal names and that they write a personal essay of between 250 and 650 words. They also need to look at the Wellesley 100, which is a list of 100 reasons to attend the college and write two paragraphs on the reasons that appeal to them. The Wellesley Applicant Portal allows them to upload two evaluations from their teachers and a school report. Wellesley requires an ACT or SAT score also. Interviews are available with representatives from the college on-campus and at recruiting events. Students applying to the college’s art, music and theater programs need to submit a separate supplement too.

Tuition and Financial Aid

The average cost of attending Wellesley College comes to more than $71,000 a year. Students pay a tuition of $55,728 and an activity fee of $324 every year. They pay another $8,824 for a dorm room and $8,272 for a meal plan each year too. Students need health insurance to attend the college and can pay $2,689 to get a package from the college. Those who plan to study abroad will pay up to $2,000 for their travel expenses.

Wellesley encourages students to file the FAFSA as soon as they decide that they want to study at the college. They can qualify for a subsidized loan with a low-interest rate and a PLUS loan that goes to their parents as well as alternative loans. Students who apply by one of the earlier deadlines will usually get more financial aid than those who wait to apply do. Wellesley offers financial aid packages that meet 100 percent of the estimated need that a student has. It awards more than $70 million in financial aid each year, and students receive an average of $47,000 in scholarships every year. Wellesley College students in any degree program can qualify for work-study and grants to pay their costs too.