• About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus
      Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus
    • Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali
      Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali
    • Changing COVID-19 regulations impact students’ mental health
      Changing COVID-19 regulations impact students’ mental health
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
      Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
    • The block system is a joke
      The block system is a joke
    • Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
      Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
      Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
    • Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
      Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
    • “Dash & Lily” Find Love, Stranded
      “Dash & Lily” Find Love, Stranded
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
  • Health and Wellness
    • No image
      Athletic impacts of Covid-19
    • No image
      A new kind of PE
    • No image
      Maintaining wellness as the cold sets in
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • Miscellanea
    • No image
      Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
      Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
    • The Artichoke
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Renée Remsberg News, News and FeaturesFebruary 26, 2020

Wellesley ranked 17th most diverse school in the nation

Wellesley ranks as one of the top three most diverse schools in Massachusetts Photo Courtesy of Wellesley College Instagram

A recent report from USA Today ranked Wellesley 17th out of the 25 most diverse schools in the country, and among the top three in Massachusetts. According to the article, which used data from the U.S. Department of Education, the chance of two randomly selected students being of a different race, ethnicity or citizenship is 78.4 percent at Wellesley. The likelihood at the highest ranking school, New York Institute of Technology, is 83.2 percent, while the nationwide average is 69.6 percent. 

Compared to other small liberal arts colleges, Wellesley’s student body is relatively racially and ethnically diverse: 42 percent of students identify as white, 23.9 percent as Asian, 14.5 percent as Hispanic, 7.2 percent as black and 7 percent as multi-racial, as reported by USA Today.

“The real-ness of diversity and inclusion” is number four on the Wellesley 100. The College cites that students hail from 87 countries and that 17 percent of the class are first generation college students. According to the website, “Our commitment to a diverse, inclusive community is very real.”

However, students have pointed out that there is a difference between diversity in numbers and inclusion on campus.  

“It seems as though the people who ranked Wellesley number 17 in the nation saw that a sizable percentage of the students at Wellesley are POCs and left it at that, without checking if POCs are actually adequately supported on this campus,” president of the Native American Student Association Kisha James ’21 said, noting the lack of support for Native American students on campus.  

While president of the Wellesley College Association for South Asian Cultures (WASAC) Isha Gupta ’20 acknowledged the racial and cultural diversity on campus, she added that the institution’s legacy centers around “powerful, mostly white, women.”

Both Gupta and James called on the College to increase its support of cultural student organizations, which foster diversity and educate members of the community, either financially or through more active support.

“Wellesley could do some work on increasing [resources] and making sure that people from different backgrounds are comfortable interacting with each other,” Gupta said.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Joy St. John stated the office doesn’t normally comment on external rankings, given that they often reflect “the priorities and values of the group or agency determining the criteria used to establish the rankings.” Still, Dean St. John applauded Wellesley’s effort to recruit and enroll a diverse student population. 

“I can say that it is always the Admission Office’s goal to achieve Wellesley’s institutional objective of enrolling a talented and diverse student population in order to best fulfill the College’s educational mission,” Dean St. John said. 

The College is currently aiming to increase diversity in the student population as part of its five-year strategic plan, according to the Wellesley College website.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleSenate Report 2/26/20
Next articleOutside the Bubble 2/26/20

You may also like

Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus

Students attending the puja ceremony

Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali

Changing COVID-19 regulations impact students’ mental health

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

Sorry. No data so far.

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top