Wellesley is a prestigious all-women’s liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The college is especially well-known for offering a close-knit community with a global perspective. There are on offer, and the college is passionate about supporting student endeavors in service, advocacy, and entrepreneurship. They are highly selective when it comes to admissions, and only accepted of first-year applicants for the Class of 2029.
The application is , so you get to decide whether to submit an ACT or SAT score. While this means that you can absolutely apply without scores, and 45% of recently admitted and enrolled students applied without scores, it’s better if you submit. More than 50% of students who are accepted by Wellesley apply with scores. So, scores matter if you want to get in — even if they aren’t required for acceptance.
Writing well is than any single test score, though. Wellesley calls it “demonstrated writing,” and showing that you have writing chops is critically important to the Wellesley admissions team. That’s where the written pieces of the application come in, both the main college essay and the Wellesley supplement. You should also be prepared to spotlight your achievement in writing through honors, advanced, or AP English, awards, or publications.
In this prompt, we’ll be focused on the supplement part of things. This is an extremely important part of the application, so below we break it down so you can write your strongest possible application for the highest chances of admission to Wellesley.
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The Wellesley supplement is required, so every applicant will have written a response to the one prompt. This is important to know, because it’s harder to stand out when everyone is answering the same question.
Keep this in mind as we explore avenues for answering the prompt. You need to show you, not what you think Wellesley wants to see. Pandering to the college will fall flat, whereas students who are authentic, open, and excited about life have the strongest chances of getting in.
For the Wellesley-specific essay we ask you to respond to the following prompt:
Wellesley students actively seek ways to build bridges and to change the world for the better. Tell us about an experience working with and alongside people of different backgrounds and/or perspectives from your own. Why was this important to you, and what lessons from this will you bring with you to Wellesley?
This is the most asked question of the moment, or at least for this application cycle. The wording varies, but it all boils down to “civil discourse.” They want to know if you can get along with people who are different from you.
That’s a fair concern as colleges try to maintain the peace on campus while encouraging debate and embracing a diversity of opinions and perspectives, but it’s also a tough thing to address in a short written response. It is very easy for responses to this prompt to sound like you are judging someone else like an animal in the woods. “The deer and I made eye contact! We understood each other! Yay!” That’s funny, but not a good look for a college supplement.
Instead of leading with difference, then, we coach our students to start with community and introduce difference as they go. For example, you could write a response for this supplement that starts with you working at the food pantry with a group of regular volunteers. You don’t know each other outside of the food pantry, and you are all different ages. You have a rapport and routine, though, and understand how to support each other through best serving your community. Then, you walk out to the parking lot and see the range of bumper stickers. Your co-workers are proclaiming political and social perspectives that run across the entire spectrum on their bumpers and back windshields. How does seeing this shift your perspective on working together? How does it show what really matters for a community to thrive?
Or you could write about a debate around the lunch table at school that got spicy. How did your friend group navigate suddenly (and possibly unpleasantly) realizing that you aren’t all the same page on a particular issue. What did you experience externally while trying to eat a brownie, or internally when you felt your stomach sink?
We’ve also seen students write about their family for this type of prompt. While that sometimes works, doing so doesn’t meet the requirements of Wellesley. They’ve asked you to reflect on working with and alongside people, which, while it could technically include family, probably rules family out for this one.
Remember to end your answer to this prompt by looking towards Wellesley. They want to know about your life so far, but also where you see yourself at Wellesley. Take the time to research the different communities at Wellesley to find where you’d want to be, and reflect in the supplement on how you see yourself contributing to the community. Link that into your supplement story, weaving a strong narrative of who you are and how you would be at Wellesley.
As an all-women’s college, Wellesley is strongly self-selective. First, you have to qualify to apply. Next, you need to want to be at an all-women’s college. Even more importantly, you need to want the small liberal arts community that Wellesley offers. Subtly integrating the aspects of what you love about Wellesley into your supplement is key to helping the application readers envision you as a member of the Class of 2030.
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