Wellesley College is a private liberal arts institution for women 15 miles inland from Boston, Massachusetts. One of the best liberal arts colleges in the country, Wellesley’s undergraduate teaching is recognised as being of a tremendously high standard.
Founded in 1870, five years before the first batch of students began their studies, it added academic programmes in a range of sciences in 1890, and there are now more than 56 courses to choose from in total.
Many of Wellesley’s original buildings were burnt down by a 1914 fire, but today’s campus is one of the most pleasant in the region. The college’s 500 acres are full of hills, open meadows and more than 1,000 plant species, and it has its own lake, Lake Waban.
The wealthy town of Wellesley is also the home of Babson College, an initially men-only institution which is now a coeducational business school that, along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is among the institutions Wellesley enjoys cross-registration programmes with.
Its illustrious array of alumni includes former US secretary of state and first lady Hillary Clinton, who secured the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, and Madeleine Albright, one of Clinton’s predecessors as secretary of state whose appointment to the role by Hillary’s husband, Bill, made her the first woman to hold the office. Others include When Harry Met Sally… and Sleepless In Seattle screenwriter Nora Ephron.
