(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

How the fuck did I get into Wellesley?

And they offered me $44,000 in aid. That's more than Tulane and Embry-Riddle put together. Jesus Christ.

Comments

[jedi-em.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!!

Does this make your final decision much harder, though? :)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

It probably does -- I really want to go to Tulane (and I'm still waiting to hear from a handful of schools), but I'd probably have to take out a loan to do so, since I can't combine my merit scholarship and my AFROTC scholarship.

[mentalhygiene.livejournal.com]

How the fuck did I get into Wellesley?

You're a girl and you have a pulse?

Wait, $44,000 annually? Seriously? How in the hell much do they cost?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

$51,000 annually. About $40K is from the school itself; the rest is a Federal Pell Grant and Federal Work-Study,

[mentalhygiene.livejournal.com]

Sweet merciful crap.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Almost every school I applied to is about the same (although they all lied to me in the brochures and said it was only $48,000); I think they may also be counting books and transportation? Maybe? God knows.

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

Wellesley doesn't talk about it, but it has a lot of money and a lot of ideals. When I went in my senior year and said, "I have to finish paying for college by myself and I don't know how to do it," they basically handed me a loan (on very favorable terms) for the remainder of my tuition right then and there. For two years I got a hand-written thank you note from the loan officer every time I sent in a payment check. Women have been giving Wellesley money since the days when they married rich instead of becoming rich (apparently it was standard in Those Circles for a millionaire industrialist to donate a building in his old age to his wife's alma mater as well as his own) and now that fewer women are willing to consider a women's college, they have some spare cash lying around and are very generous with helping out students.

But seriously, from everything you have said, it sounds like Wellesley is everything you don't want in a college. Don't let the money sway you; if you think it will make you unhappy there, then you will be absolutely miserable. I knew several girls who basically talked themselves into going to Wellesley ("Everyone is friendly! And I'm a feminist! And it would be ridiculous of me to reject it out of hand! They're so generous! And nice! I should give it a chance!") and they really regretted it.

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

(But also, of course, congratulations on getting in! Admissions are always nice for the confidence boost!)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I didn't even get a loan, I got a $40K grant. Which -- and it's money, so -- is a big sticking point. My top choice is Tulane right now, but I'd probably have to take out a loan to go there, since they won't let me combine my merit scholarship and my AFROTC scholarship (which isn't applicable at Wellesley).

Yeah, I'm still dubious about it -- I go back and forth on several points regarding the school, which were just amplified when I visited Tulane a few weeks ago. (Tulane fed us really good food. And hooked all the prospective students up with teachers. And gave us free stuff.)

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

Wow. Okay, that's generous even for Wellesley, and I can definitely understand the dilemma. Let me know if there are any questions I can answer that would be helpful. I graduated three and a half years ago but things haven't changed that much. Except for the new student center. Oh, and you have to carry your own mail back to the dorms now.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*wide eyes* I don't know if I can handle the mail thing. /kidding

Hmm. What's the school's relationship to the town of Wellesley? Like, is there a lot of interaction, or are they mostly separate? (I live in a small college town, but our college is a small state university, so we have more interaction than -- I think -- a private college would have, if only for the fact that a lot of high school students not only end up going to CWU, but take classes there through Running Start.)

Also, I know it's possible to be a student at Wellesley and do ROTC at MIT; did you (or do you) know anyone who did this?

(The thing about Wellesley is that I could do a lot of the things I want to do, I'd just be doing them somewhere not Wellesley. Mainly, MIT.)

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

The school's relationship with the town of Wellesley is pretty tendentious. Wellesley's one of Boston's wealthier suburbs so most of the local real estate is priced too high for student-oriented businesses to be able to afford it. A couple places, most notably the fancy imported cheese shop, are very kind and welcoming to students, but most places sell things like overpriced children's clothing or bedroom furniture and have no real use for us. Town and gown are pretty much entirely separate-- among other things, off-campus housing near the college is unaffordable for students. The Wellesley Centers for Women runs a childcare program for the community so there is some interaction that way, but I'm having difficulty thinking of anything else. Improving the relationship between the town and the college was always a big priority but I'm having difficulty believing that they've made a big change in three years. Students staff a lot of cottage industries-- there was one of those tutoring places near the school for my last two years, presumably staffed almost entirely by students-- but that's not so much general interaction as "gainful off-campus employment."

Yes (http://www.wellesley.edu/PublicAffairs/Releases/2006/060806.html), and it looks like she went into the air force. I haven't been in touch with her but she does have a Facebook-- let me know if you want me to see if she's open to my passing her e-mail address along. Getting back and forth to MIT is not as horrible as it could be-- they have an hourly bus during the week which is free, or there's the train, which is like three dollars-- and there are a lot of social groups which are Wellesley/MIT (co-ed a capella groups and so on) which have regular practices, so you'd always have company.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Yeah, I kind of got that atmosphere when I drove through -- very New England. (I think I'd have more culture shock going to Wellesley than I would going to Tulane, which is funny, because you'd think it'd be the other way around.)

I would appreciate that, if it's not too much trouble.

*stares out window at falling snow in March* How's the weather during the school year?

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

I've sent her a message-- I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

The weather is New England weather. "Don't like the weather? Wait a minute." It hasn't snowed in the last week, except up near the New Hampshire border, but it's been raining a lot. And I guess there were a couple of five-minute flurries which turned into rain recently. If you want nice weather, don't go to school in Massachusetts. It's a general rule, unfortunately.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I've heard there are a lot of ice storms in the Boston area? (That's what my mom's worried about.)

[tessfawcett.livejournal.com]

I just heard back from you-- she'd be happy to talk to you. I'm at my username @ yahoo.com -- could you send me an e-mail so that I can send you her contact information? I don't want to post it on LJ-- she sent along e-mail and cell phone both and said to contact her whenever. I'll send you a copy of her message.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Sent. And thank you!

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

... holy shit. OMFG THAT IS SO FANTASTIC HOLY SHIT!! *♥xmillion*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ladyprydian.livejournal.com]

Congrats!!!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[jessie-menken.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you!