Home > Wellesley College

The private college, located in Wellesley, Massachusetts (13 miles east of Boston), grants four-year baccalaureate degrees and is one of the Seven Sisters. Approximately 2,300 students attend the school. The college has a cross-registration program and a five-year dual degree program with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and houses the Wellesley Centers for Women, which consists of the Center for Research on Women and the Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies. Based on rankings by U.S. News & World Report, Wellesley consistently ranks among the top five liberal arts colleges in the United States, and as the highest ranking women's college in this category.

The current president of Wellesley College is Diana Chapman Walsh, class of 1966. Throughout its history, the college has always had female presidents. The average class size at Wellesley College ranges from 18 to 21 students, and there are approximately 9 students for every faculty member. Wellesley's libraries contain over 1.5 million catalogued books, journals, media recordings, maps, and other items. As of 2002, the endowment for the college was about $1 billion. Half of all students receive some form of financial aid.

Wellesley is the college in which the 2003 film Mona Lisa Smile was set. The college is renowned for the picturesque beauty of its 500-acre campus which includes Lake Waban, evergreen and deciduous woodlands, and open meadows. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., Boston's preeminent landscape architect at the beginning of the 20th century, described Wellesley's landscape as "not merely beautiful, but with a marked individual character not represented so far as I know on the ground of any other college in the country."

1 Famous alumnae

• Katharine Lee Bates ( 1880) (author of the words to the anthem America the Beautiful)
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas ( 1912) (conservationist and writer)
• Annie Jump Cannon ( 18841884 is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar). Events January 4 The Fabian Society is founded in London. February 1 Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published. March 13 The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on Janu) (astronomer)
• Madeleine AlbrightSecretary of State Madeleine Albright Order 64th Secretary of State Term of Office January 23, 1997 January 20, 2001 Predecessor Warren Christopher Successor Colin Powell Date of Birth May 15, 1937 Place of Birth Prague, Czechoslovakia Spouse Joseph Medil ( 1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac) (former U.S. Secretary of State)
• Madame Chiang Kai-shekSoong May-ling or Soong Mei-ling ( pinyin: Song Meiling) ( March 5, 1898 1 October 23, 2003), one of the three Soong sisters and described as "the one who loved power". As the wife of President Chiang Kai-shek, she was also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek ( 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti-) (Former First Lady of the Republic of ChinaThe Republic of China ( Traditional Chinese: , Simplified Chinese: ; Wade-Giles: Chung-hua Min-kuo, Tongyong Pinyin: JhongHua MinGuo, Hanyu Pinyin: Zhonghua Minguo) is a de facto sovereign state that currently administers the island groups of Taiwan, Peng)
• Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947), was First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, as the wife of President Bill Clinton. She currently serves as the junior United States Senator from New York. Early life, education, and career Hillary ( 1969) (U.S. Senator; Former First Lady of the U.S.)
• Nora Ephron ( 1962) (Movie screenplay writer: When Harry Met Sally; Writer and Director: Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail)
• Judith Martin ( 1959) (Newspaper columnist: Miss Manners)
• Cokie Roberts ( 1964) (Journalist)
• Diane Sawyer ( 1967) (Journalist)
• Lynn Sherr ( 1963) (Journalist)
• Pamela Melroy ( 1983) (Astronaut)
• Virginia Abernethy ( 1955) Anthropologist