Wellesley College is a women's liberal arts college of about 2400 students in Wellesley, Massachusetts - a very upscale suburb of Boston. Their mission is to provide an excellent liberal arts education to women who will make a difference in the world. The 500-acre campus, including 23 acres of arboretum and botanical gardens, is said to be one of the most beautiful in the country.

Academics here are rigorous, with a broad core curriculum focusing not only on what to know, but also how to think. My tour guide said, "the Wellesley work load is not for the faint of heart. She also said that there was an official grade deflation policy until 2019 when it was abolished. She felt strongly that students have to work very hard to get an A, but that many professors feel that if all their students get an A, they've done their job well. In order to take the stress off, in their first semester, students receive a final grade in their classes, but only a Pass or Fail on their transcript. Many students do research with faculty; in fact, there's a conference every fall to celebrate and share research from the summer and another annual conference in the spring devoted to celebrating research from the school year. 33% of students study something in STEM, 40% in the social sciences, and the remainder in the arts and humanities. MIT, Babson, Brandeis and Olin College of Engineering are partner institutions and Wellesley students may take one course per semester at any of them. There's a free Babson-Olin-Wellesley shuttle as well as one going into Boston and Cambridge that's free on weekdays and $3 on weekends.

Most students live on campus. Housing is guaranteed for 4 years and there are no freshmen dorms; students of different classes live together. Every freshman gets a big sister during a beautiful matching ceremony based on an extensive questionnaire of interests and goals. Our tour guide said there is "a huge presence of queer students on campus," and a queer ice cream social for freshmen every fall. Some other nuggets: there's a Shakespeare Society house built to look like Shakespeare's original home. Our tour guide told us they put on many "gender-bendy" productions Also, the campus center has no right angles; the alumna donor insisted that women shouldn't be put into boxes.

The admissions officer said that they have not yet decided on a testing policy for next year. I know my prediction, but stay tuned! She was also very candid about the academic rigor: "Know that you'll take lab sciences, quantitative courses and tough writing courses at Wellesley. You need to ask yourself if you want that liberal arts experience." I was thrilled to also hear her say that there is no value judgment in their admissions process and that "everyone in this room is going to college."

We were told that Wellesley College has the strongest women's network in the world. A Wellesley education would be an amazing opportunity for students who feel the social fit is right for them.