Word: wellesley
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...Wellesley College offers perhaps the finest terminal education in America; and both its virtues and defects arise from this fact. The College is able to produce a girl with a "broadly liberal" back-ground, yet Wellesley is a very tempting target because it does this so well...
...liberal" comes from the college catalogue, which itself defines the emphasis: "limitation of the amount of specialization safeguards the broadly liberal purpose of the four-year undergraduate curriculum." This is a double-edged ideal; for, despite the increasing numbers of its graduates who go on to take higher degrees, Wellesley itself gently discourages the academic. The Wellesley girl may not be narrow; but on the other hand there is the danger which Malcolm Cowley pointed out in the Harvard of 1915--that "culture was something to be acquired, like a veneer...
...lack of concentration, of independent study, is reflected in the fact that of 70 senior English majors, only three are writing theses. This statistic does not necessarily indicate preference. At Wellesley students do not apply to write theses; they are notified of their eligibility, largely based on course grades, by a committee of the College...
Moreover, there is no tutorial; and want of focus can bring out the worst in a Wellesley education--a fine background, but no individual discipline worth attaching it to. Now this is a problem of most women's education--not just for oft-maligned Wellesley. Yet it seems more pressing for this college: for with its wealth of material: classes with a high average on the SATs, a low faculty-student ratio and a good endowment--it is geared to turn out enlightened, intelligent, and placid students. The waste provokes the maligning...
...independent study is not a panacea guaranteeing intellectual curiosity; and mere mechanisms, such as a Harvard-type tutorial system or more theses, would effect little change. Wellesley is a small college and can operate on different systems than can a large university. There are few lecture courses. Most of the work is done in sections, and seminar courses--common for upperclassmen--offer opportunities for individual research projects. The facilities exist for more than a spoonfed, reading-list-and-1500-word-paper education. Only the desire is absent...