Transfer and Davis Degree Program Applicants

Wellesley accepts the Common Application for Transfer. Remember that it’s free to apply to Wellesley!

Be sure to be consistent and use your legal name (as it appears on your passport or other legal documents) on all of your application materials. This may sound obvious, but it’s really important! If you go by another name, list that as your “preferred name” on the application and that’s the name we’ll use when we get in touch with you.

You’ll need to write two essays: a personal essay and a shorter, Wellesley-specific essay. See our application tips for advice on writing your essays.

Within the Common Application, you will be directed to provide a short answer to the following prompt:

• Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve in doing so.

The Wellesley-specific essay asks you to respond to the following topic:

• When choosing a college, you are choosing an intellectual community and a place where you believe that you can live, learn, and flourish. We know that there are more than 100 reasons to choose Wellesley, but it's a good place to start. Visit the Wellesley 100 and select two items that attract, inspire, or celebrate what you would bring to our community. Have fun! Use this opportunity to reflect personally on what items appeal to you most and why. Please limit your response to two thoughtful paragraphs (minimum 250 words, maximum 400 words).

Submit an official final transcript from the high school from which you graduated. If you received a high school certificate of equivalency, official G.E.D. scores and/or a high school transcript for the years you attended, they are required and will be considered in conjunction with your performance at the college level. An official secondary school final transcript must be sent directly from the high school with school seal or stamp affixed. Although we require your final high school transcript, we do not need the School Report.

Submit official transcripts from all colleges and universities you have attended. The form for requesting this information should be sent to the registrar of the colleges you attended. You should check with the school for procedures and fee information before requesting a transcript. Transcripts must be sent directly from the college. Student or online copies are not accepted. Please arrange for the college(s) to send official copies directly to Wellesley’s Office of Admission.

Please provide a College Report completed by your academic advisor or dean. This report tells us if you are in good standing at your current or most recent institution. The college report form can be found in the Common Application.

You must submit individual course descriptions from the course catalog of courses you have taken and are currently taking. The individual course descriptions can be uploaded in your Applicant Portal, which is accessible after you have submitted your application to Wellesley.

Two evaluations/recommendations from recent college courses are required. Please invite each of your college recommenders to complete your recommendation letters within the Common Application. Recent academic evaluations are more useful to the Office of Admission. If you have been out of school for several years and are therefore unable to obtain academic evaluations, you may submit one from an employer or a supervisor in community activities where you have worked. Evaluations/recommendations from friends and relatives are discouraged.

The mid-term report must be completed by any applicant who is currently enrolled in courses. Applicants may self-report their mid-year grades, however if admitted and enrolling, will be required to submit official grades. Please list the courses that you are taking in the current semester on this form and return it to our office immediately following the midpoint of the semester (March 25). The form gives us a sense of how you’re doing in your current coursework, so ideally it would be filled out closer to midterms. If you turn in a form with no grades, it will not be considered in your file.

Wellesley College has temporarily suspended its standardized test requirement for a four-year period of review. Applicants to Wellesley for entry in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 are not required to submit SAT or ACT test results with their applications.

Our holistic, committee-based application review process gives us the flexibility to evaluate each applicant’s full record within the context of their available resources. While standardized tests have long served as an external benchmark of college readiness, they are one factor among many that we can consider in the admission process.

Regardless of an applicant’s decision to submit test scores, the admission committee is particularly interested in an applicant’s demonstrated writing and quantitative skills as key predictors for success in Wellesley’s curriculum.

DATES: SAT and ACT

If you have a special talent in the arts, you might want to submit an arts portfolio. Our art, music, and theatre studies departments will accept electronic submissions of portfolios, recordings, or presentations. The appropriate department will review your material.

Wellesley College does not have a dance department and does not review creative writing materials. Please do NOT submit any dance and/or creative writing supplements as they will not be evaluated.

To submit an arts portfolio:

You must submit your portfolios, recordings, or presentations electronically through the Wellesley Applicant Portal. Your arts portfolio must be submitted through the Applicant Portal within one week of the application deadline. Wellesley does not accept art portfolios through the Common Application or the Coalition Application. Please do not mail any materials to the Office of Admission. Submissions sent by mail will not be reviewed or returned.

Follow the guidelines and instructions as outlined by Wellesley’s art, music, and theatre studies departments.

If you are interested in competing in varsity athletics at Wellesley (Division III), submit a recruiting form to the head coach of your sport.

If accepted, an estimation of your transfer credits will be included in your admit letter. Neither the Registrar nor the Office of Admission will supply an estimation before that point. Prospective transfers can get a sense of what courses will transfer by visiting our Course Catalog. The College will only consider awarding transfer credit for courses similar to those taught at Wellesley.

​If you are applying from an international institution, you can request a credit evaluation of your previously completed university courses following admission and arrival on campus in the fall. Some of your earlier academic work may be applied toward the fulfillment of Wellesley's requirements. Credit will be granted only for those courses determined by the College's registrar to be comparable to courses in Wellesley's curriculum. In order to gain credit for previous coursework, you must first successfully complete one year of study at Wellesley.

These are the types of courses that generally transfer to Wellesley:

• Economics from a community college.

• Lab science from a community college, with department approval.

• Single-semester introductory or intermediate language course. Note: These will not qualify for transfer until the second semester of that level is complete.

• Freshman seminars (syllabus required for evaluation).

These are the types of courses that typically do not transfer to Wellesley:

• Courses that are not classified as liberal arts and sciences, and are not offered at Wellesley.

• Courses graded pass/fail, unless you submit a letter from the professor who taught the course, stating that you would have earned a grade of C or higher.

• Courses with a grade of C- or below.

• Mathematics subjects prior to calculus (pre-calculus, college algebra, trigonometry).

• Business (management, finance)—except for one accounting course.

• Communications, including speech.

• Computer science courses that cover microcomputer applications or non-programming topics.

• Criminal justice (to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis).

• Journalism.

• Physical education or dance, lab-only, and nonacademic studio art.

• Distance or online learning.

• Individual study or self-paced courses.

• Internships, practica, workshops, how-to courses, or experiential learning.

There are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about the transfer of credit:

• One (1) unit of Wellesley College work typically equals 4 semester-hours or 6 quarter-hours. That means that if you attended an institution where you took 5 courses each semester worth 3 credits each, each course could transfer as .8 or .75 units of Wellesley College work, depending on the total number of credit hours needed for the degree.

• Students may transfer in a maximum of 16 units, only 4 units of which may be earned in summer sessions.

• Distribution requirements (except for writing) must be fulfilled by taking or transferring in one (1) whole unit of coursework.