Wellesley College Top Questions

Social life? Really, there is none on campus. Students don't really party, because if your neighbor hears noise she will call campus police, even if it is 11pm on a Friday night - she is busy studying. If you are awake on a Tuesday, your are studying. I guess there's a huge dating scene if you are a lesbian, but I'm straight. It's difficult to meet guys, and while it does get better your junior and senior year, and much better if you have a car and are 21 (so you can buy liquor), I'm not sure if that makes up for the first two years of misery. There is absolutely nothing to do on a Saturday night. There is the occasional party. but they are very small on average and lack guys.

off campus i go either to babson, down the road, or i go into boston. dating is easy, although it's not a good idea to wait around wellesley for some guy/girl to find you. go to co-sponsored events with other schools in boston. once you meet a group of friends from other schools, though, its easy to have fun on campus, and the guest policy is really nice.

I love SBOG. It helps to save this campus socially. As does Phi Sig.

The "Wellesley Bubble" is a common term among the community coined to express the ability of Wellesley to encompass its students in a haze of college politics. Wellesley is great, however it could do more to establish a weekend community of events, instead of having students migrate to Boston, MIT, or Harvard for the weekend. Parties do happen on campus as well as weekend movies, but typically on a weekend night Wellesley College is a bit of a ghost town. Not all students want to party or drink, so it would be nice to see Friday and Saturday night activities that addressed these needs without forcing a student to take a 40 minute Senate, albeit nice, bus ride to another campus.

Wellesley Athletics are pretty much a joke. Having a social life in the traditional sense (frat parties, ect.) takes more effort than at a coed school, but lots of women do it. If you know the right people, however, you can find fun on campus any night of the week.

Guest speakers here are FANTASTIC: So far this year we've had Gloria Steinem, Elaine Brown, LeVar Burton, Hillary Clinton, and more. It's so great. Do people leave their doors open? Depends on the dorm; they all have different cultures. I live in Dower, which is the tiniest dorm on campus, but we also all know each other and have intense dorm spirit, so our doors are usually open. In some of the bigger dorms, it's not like that, but I'd say that in at least half of the dorms, doors are usually open. The dating scene? Um, I'm going to have to assume this is a generic question, because... Wellesley. Yeah. There isn't too much dating going on on campus (except of course for the les/bi/trans community, and I'm not totally sure how that goes). People have boyfriends at other area schools -- Harvard, MIT, BU, Babson, Olin, Brandeis, etc. People go to parties, but I think most serious relationships get started through cross-school events, mutual friends, etc -- as opposed to the MIT frat houses. If I'm up at 2am on a Tuesday, I am doing homework. (Or procrastinating.) In fact, forget Tuesday. If I'm up at 2am any day Sunday-Thursday (and I basically always am), I'm either doing homework, or pretending to do work, or taking a break from doing work, or whatever. We stay up late. We work hard. These two things are definitely connected. Traditions are so, so great! Midnight breakfast on the first night of reading period, Primal Scream the night before finals, dorm crew, class crew, Lake Day, big and little sisters, hoop rolling, Spring Week, dorm wars, teas, Community Dinner, and so much more. LOVE IT. Traditions are a big part of what gives Wellesley such a great community feel. People party, but they usually go off campus. On campus parties are, from what I hear, pretty lame. (I don't party too much, but that's what I've been told.) If people do go to on-campus parties, a lot of them pregame. And we obviously don't have frats. We have societies, which are sort of like sororities but with a stronger academic/community focus (like, there's an arts/music society, a literary society, etc), and they have houses, but the girls don't live in them (they just use them for parrties/events). Last weekend I watched a bunch of movies, did homework, and caught up on sleep. Sometimes I go into Boston, which is awesome. We go out to dinner/to movies/to plays/to museums/shopping/whatever. I think Boston is fantastic.

Wellesley students are nothing if not involved. There is a club for everything and everyone. Student government, and dorm government are big. The different language clubs are also very popular. One of the most visible group of extracurriculars are the "societies." There are no sororities at Wellesley, but the societies function like greek life. They have initiations, and events even though they are technically "literary" or "lecture centered." I'm involved in the Wellesley News which is the weekly paper on campus. It is a lot of work but it's also fun staying up late with the other editors rushing to get a paper out. As for the dorm culture, it really depends on the dorm. In my dorm which is by far the biggest on campus, people don't really leave their doors open. But the ones that are freshmen-centered are more open. Athletic events really aren't well attended- the school has such an academic focus that atheltics aren't a huge deal. There are quite a few speakers on campus but since there are so many schools in the Boston area there are tons and tons of opportunities to go to lectures and events. Wellesley is absolutely a school of traditions. Every year at the beginning of the first semester older girls sign up to be "big sisters" to one of the first-years. As the years go by, your little sisters get little sisters so it becomes a family. It is so much fun to watch your little sisters grow and experience college life, and it is a great system of advice and support. There is also hooprolling at the end of the year. This tradition has been around for over a century. Basically all the seniors get wooden hoops, dress up in their graduation robes and roll the hoops along a course. The winner is then carried into the lake and traditionally, she is going to be the "first to find success." Another tradition is step-singing. The different classes all get behind their banners (each class has a class color) and we try and outsing each other. There is also the infamous "Dyke Ball." The name of the event is self-descriptive so I'm not even going to try and explain it. If you really want to know, come and see for yourself!

Wellesley has a ton of sweet traditions, like Lake Day and Midnight Breakfast. Organizations are also great about bringing guest speakers, so almost every night there is a lecture or show to attend. People tend to be involved in various organizations since there are so many groups and clubs on campus. There are always events on weekends, but often people just stay in with a pint of Ben&Jerry's and watch Grey's Anatomy. Your social life is what you make it, whether you want to spend your Saturday night going out, staying in, doing homework nobody will care and there will always be others doing the same. A lot of partying occurs off campus at places like MIT and Harvard, but people go into Boston for cultural events, and to go out to eat as well.

The most popular orgs are cultural groups and "fun" groups like Freestyle. I am involved with the Latina org on campus and I am the LGBT liaison to the LGBT org on campus. Essentially I represent the LGBT voice in Mezcla and I represent the Latina voice in the LGBT group. I arrange sexuality-based programs. I think the majority leave their doors closed. I personally don't get my entertainment from watching sports, so I can't say much about how many people attend. The popularity depends on the speaker- recently we had Levar Burton and his attendance was high. Other times there aren't as many people. I have not dated anyone yet, and it is not because I can't find boys. I am equally interested in men as I am in women, so that is not an issue. I don't think I have found the right person yet to ask out. I met my closest friends through Facebook and similar interests. those friends introduced me to others. I am studying/writing a paper/ finishing an art project or something like that at 2 in the morning, which I am up at that time for the most part. There are many cultural shows that happen annually,Dyke Ball, and fashion show put on by the African cultural group. I think people attend parties quite often- I do at least. It's a way to de-stress after such a tough week. There are two greek groups on campus but I particularly don't take interest in frats or sororities. Last weekend I ran errands, attended a party, and went to have lunch with a friend in Harvard square and bought art supplies. I don't drink, and I can find plenty of things to do that don't involve drinking. We can watch a movie, play games, shop, have dinner somewhere nice, go to a party,etc. When I am off campus I shop, eat, explore, and run errands.

I hang out with mostly athletes and that's who i hang out with and go out with at night. We stay on compaus sometimes or go off. The athletic events are only popular with the athletes, but the inner athletic community is amazing and very very close knit. I think they athletic department is the best part of the school because no where on earth can you get such high levels of intensity and skill aurrounding only women' athletics.