The Wellesley 100: A Descriptive Analysis

The first thing that caught my eye on the Wellesley 100 was Angela Carpenter’s invented language class. My chosen major is linguistics, and I was excited to see an elective related to it given enough importance to be in the Wellesley 100. Not only that, but the approach is exactly what I hope to find in college. Part of the class is, after studying different already invented languages, creating your own. I know that 70% of college students change their major from freshman year and this is why. I read voraciously and try to learn about as much as I can, but until a friend gave me In The Land of Invented Languages last Christmas, I had no idea this was such a phenomenon. Among others, Tolkien was such a big fan of inventing languages that he created the world and story of the Lord of the Rings series around Elvish. Several
That’s why I was overjoyed to hear that Wellesley has such an impressive study abroad program. Over half the Wellesley women do it! There are so many options, from summer to winter trips, from the Wellesley-approved to more independent programs, not to mention of course the variety in the 14 different international destinations. Just browsing through the list on my computer in New Jersey (as I’ve done a few times) gets me excited at the possibilities. Study abroad opportunities are one of the most important things to me in a potential school, and Wellesley has an impressive capacity for that. Not only would it enrich my linguistics studies for obvious reasons (even in English speaking regions different dialects are fundamentally different from Standard American, and older countries tend to have minority languages like Irish Gaelic or Welsh), but such an integral part of education is understanding different perspectives and immersing myself in a completely different culture is a perfect way to do