Wellesley Acceptance Rate: 16%

Shortcuts to sections offered for Wellesley prospective students Wellesley Acceptance Rate:

Successful Applicant Profile

• Demographics
• Majors
• SAT/ACT Scores

Entry Requirements

• Tuition
• Scholarships
• Checklist of Application Requirements
• Application Deadlines

What Should You Expect?

• Student life
• Academics offered
• Athletics offered
• Notable alumni

Located in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant, Wellesley College is a private women’s liberal arts college and is one a member of the original Seven Sisters colleges.  This year, Wellesley was ranked as the third-best liberal arts college in the United States. For that reason, it is certainly not surprising that the Wellesley acceptance rate is quite low.

In fact, the Wellesley acceptance rate is around 16%, putting it on par with many of the most competitive and prestigious schools in the country.

With that being said, you should be quite encouraged by the Wellesley acceptance rate, as it is quite a bit higher than many of the most hard-to-get-into schools in the country.

For any high school student who is interesting in applying to Wellesley College, it is crucially important that they know what it takes to get into this school.

The truth is that if getting into Wellesley is your dream, it is going to be your job to do everything that you can do in order to increase your chances of making sure that you are part of the almost 30 percent of applicants that does get in as opposed to the over 70 percent that does not get in.

Here at AdmissionSight, we make it our number one priority to help each and every high school student that we work with getting into the college or university of their dreams.

We pride ourselves on having the school and experience necessary in order to help students of all kinds overcome any weaknesses that may exist on their applicant profile and accentuate all the wonderful strengths.

So, if getting into and attending Wellesley is your goal, let us at AdmissionSight break down everything that you’ll want to know about this great school.

First off, one thing that you should definitely know about any school that you are interested in applying to is the basic information regarding the types of standardized scores and grade point averages that are needed in order to get accepted.

When it comes to the average GPA of students that are accepted, the high school GPA that you will want to achieve in order to feel great about your chances of getting in is around 3.97. That’s right under a straight-A GPA of 4.0.

As for the SAT, students who are intent on getting into Wellesley will want to score at least 1425 out of 1600. Finally, when it comes to the ACT, the average score of students who get into Wellesley is 32 out of the perfect 36.

As you can see, the students who get into Wellesley are amongst the very top students in the United States. Remember, that 38 percent acceptance rate is not amongst students of all kinds, it is amongst some of the best students applying to college each and every year.

But getting into Wellesley is going to take far more than just getting a good GPA and test scores, you are going to have to make sure that you can prove to the school why you will be a positive force on their 500-acre campus.

After all, with an undergraduate student body that is just over 2,500 total students, each and every student at Wellesley has an opportunity to have a major impact on the school during and after their four-year education.

So, with those raw numbers related to tests and grades out of the way (for now), let’s start diving deeply into everything you need to know about getting into Wellesley.

Successful Application Profile

While some high school students are looking for that classic public-school education, with classes, big parties, and big sporting events, others are looking for an educational experience that is a little bit more refined.

Students who are interested in learning in that style should make sure that they get a great idea when it comes to the kinds of students they will be learning alongside. So, let’s break down the basics of what the student body at Wellesley looks like.

Demographics: Who studies at Wellesley?

In this day and age, it is certainly considered very important that colleges and universities offer their students the chance to learn and live alongside a diverse group of young people. Of course, it is important to keep in mind that Wellesley is an all-girls school, so there is no gender diversity to speak of.

Other than that, the ethnic and geographic diversity at Wellesley is top-notch. Here is a percentage breakdown of the major ethnic groups that call Wellesley College home.

• 37.4% of the students at Wellesley College are white
• 22.1% of the students at Wellesley College are Asian
• 13.0% of the students at Wellesley College are Non-Resident Alien
• 11.3% of the students at Wellesley College are Hispanic/Latino
• 5.9% of the students at Wellesley College are African American

As you can see, the student body at Wellesley comes from all different cultures and ethnicities to create a beautifully diverse group of young and incredibly bright women.

There are quite a lot of students at Wellesley who fare from other countries as well. 13 percent of the student body is made up of international students and the school is ranked as the 398th most popular school for international students in a pool that evaluated a total of 1,288 schools.

Some of the countries that Wellesley is popular for students in include:

• China
• India
• Hong Kong
• United Kingdom
• Turkey
• Singapore

Most popular majors at Wellesley

If you are a high school student who is still trying to figure out which schools would be the best options for you, one of the most important ways to start narrowing down what your top choices should be is to look into what are the most popular majors at a given school.

You want to make sure that a school’s top programs line up well with the kinds of subjects that you are most interested in and what kinds of subjects you may want to decide to major in when the time comes.

After all, if you have a career path in mind heading into college, you are going to want to make sure that the related majors and programs are well-funded and well-regarded at whatever school you end up attending.

At Wellesley, the most popular majors for students include Social Sciences; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services; Psychology; and Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.

Average SAT/ACT and GPA

As you already know, the Wellesley acceptance rate is just over 16%, which certainly makes it a difficult school to get into. While your standardized test scores and grades are not the only thing that the admissions office at any school will look at, there are still undoubtedly very important when it comes to your goals of getting into top schools.

When it comes to your GPA, the average score (as you know) is just under a perfect 4.0. What that means is that students are not only excelling in their high school courses but are also likely taking accelerated courses.

The reason why that is true is that accelerate courses such as AP and Honors courses actually come with weighted GPAs of 4.5 or 5.0. That means that students who score As in those classes actually get to see a bigger jump in their GPA. It is also important to take accelerated courses so that you can prove to college admissions counselors that you are ready for the difficult nature of a college curriculum considering the Wellesley acceptance rate.

When it comes to the average SAT score of 1425, keep in mind that the 25th percentile New SAT score is 1330, and the 75th percentile SAT score is 1520. In other words, a score of 1330 places you below average, while 1520 will move you up to above average. There’s no absolute SAT requirement at Wellesley, but they really want to see at least 1330 to have a chance at being considered.

For the average ACT score of 32, keep in mind that the 25th percentile ACT score is 30, and the 75th percentile ACT score is 34. In other words, a score of 30 places you below average, while a 34 will move you up to above average. There’s no absolute ACT requirement at Wellesley, but they really want to see at least a 30 to have a chance at being considered.

Entry Requirements

There is no doubt that getting into any highly ranked school is a lot of work. Of course, you have to get great grades throughout high school, take part in impressive and fulfilling extracurriculars, earn top scores on standardized tests and so much more. But the actual act of applying can be pretty tough too!

After that, you have you actually apply to the schools! On top of that, you want to do your research when it comes to pricing, financial aid opportunities, and more.

As is the case with every private learning institution in the country, Wellesley is certainly quite pricey. Luckily, there are some great financial aid options that students can take advantage of. Let’s break all that down now.

Cost of attendance

If you know anything about the college and university landscape, you probably know that schools are incredibly expensive. Even public schools for in-state students cost many thousands of dollars per year.

The same can be said about Wellesley. Here are the prices you can expect to face if you enroll in the school.

As you can see, the cost of attendance at Wellesley is quite similar to many of the most expensive Ivy League and Ivy plus universities in the country. In order to make sure that you are getting the best value for your education, it is crucial that you seek out financial aid opportunities.

Financial Aid at Wellesley

Wellesley is widely regarded as one of the nation’s top colleges in terms of its commitment to making education affordable to families.

When assessing a student’s financial need, they go beyond tuition, room, and meal plan and look at a broad range of expenses, including books, personal items, and travel for students who live at a distance.

The College is in the fortunate position of being able to work individually with families and to extend help to those whose changed circumstances have reduced their ability to pay.

Overall, 60% of the students received financial aid with the average amount of aid coming out to $52,000. They are proud to say that the school meets 100% of the calculated financial need of its students.

Application checklist

When it comes to applying, here is what you will need to send in to be considered by Wellesley’s admissions office:

• Common Application, Coalition Application, or QuestBridge Application
• A personal essay that is between 250 and 650 words
• A Wellesley-specific essay
• School Report
• Teacher evaluations
• SAT or ACT scores

There is no fee required to apply to Wellesley.

Application deadlines

It’s crucially important to keep application deadlines in mind. That is especially true for schools that have different types of applications. Wellesley offers Early Decision, Early Decision II, and Regular Decision applications. Here are the related application deadlines for each of those application types.

 

What to Expect

One of the best ways to get a good idea about what student life is really like at a school is to see what current students have to say about the schools. Thanks to one site, students at Wellesley are able to write reviews of their school. Here are some of the best that we at AdmissionSight found.

 

“As a current first-year at Wellesley, I absolutely love the environment as a whole. The people (the support from some professors and all my peers) and the campus/lake (a beautiful natural setting to help me decompress) were the highlights of my first-year experience.”

“Wellesley college is a very old college, an amazing college. The college seems like a wonderland with old buildings and trees and we just fall in love with the campus.

It is such a diverse college, we get to meet people from all walks of life, smaller class sizes and we get a good one on one attention. You feel safe as a woman there. The alumnae network is incredibly helpful and deeply loyal to the school.”

Academics

If you are looking for a small classroom experience at the college level, then Wellesely will absolutely be a great school for you. The student-faculty ratio at Wellesley College is 8:1, and the school has 67.1 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. 23.5 percent of the classes have 20 to 50 students and a measly .4% of classes have 50 students or more.
Athletics

Wellesley fields 13 varsity sports teams including basketball, crew, cross country, fencing, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.

Famous alumni at Wellesley

As is the case with many of the most prestigious schools in the country, Wellesley has been home to some of the most famous men and women across many industries. Here are some of the most influential Wellesley alumni.

• Hillary Clinton, politician
• Diane Sawyer, journalist
• Elisabeth Shue, actress
• Pamela Melroy, astronaut
• Erna Schneider Hoover, inventor
• Madeleine Albright, politician
• Nora Ephron, writer

If you hope to one day see your name on that admissions list, the first step is getting into Wellesley. While you may be intimidated by the Wellesley acceptance rate, you should feel confident knowing that AdmissionSight can help you increase your chances of acceptance. Here, we know how to help students maximize their strengths in order to help them get into the school of their dreams.