Ahilya Chawla '15 Explains the Wellesley Advantage in Social Media Forum

July 16, 2014
sparrow perched on a wellesley lamp

Quora, a social knowledge sharing community, lets users pose questions or answer others' questions based on their first-hand experience.

Recently a question arose: Why would someone choose Wellesley over Harvard?

Among five solid answers offered thus far, senior Ahilya Chawla's stands out for thoroughness and passion. The political science major asserts that a woman should choose Wellesley "because it is the one experience you cannot replicate anywhere else in the world."

She urges those in a position to choose between those two schools to consider the women leaders, thinkers, and doers whom Wellesley has trained--artists, secretaries of state, mothers, CEOs, citizens, and more. Both schools admit you if you're smart, she notes, and have supremely competent faculty to help you learn more stuff. Values may make the difference, in the end.

Some might call it the Wellesley effect. A transformational experience that prepares women to transform the world.

In an extended analogy, Chawla writes: "You're going in to soccer practice asking the coach to help you win the championship, and you're walking away not caring about the final score because your coach taught you how to be a better person and more equipped for life off the soccer pitch."

And in case you're wondering, she adds at the end of her article: "DISCLAIMER: I'm not involved in any official capacity with the Wellesley Admissions office. I speak as a proud student, independent of anyone else's views."

Check Wellesley's facebook page to see more comments and conversation.

Photo: Gail Brown