Socio-economic Status

What did Wellesley students spend their money on during the early 20th century?

In this letter, a Wellesley student asks her father for $450 for tuition, $15 for new books, and $9 for a new pair of shoes.  

During Wellesley's early years, students with more money may have had a larger variety of clothes and extra money to spend on food.  As we see in this letter, these students were able to ask their parents for extra funds. 

Q1: What else do you think Wellesley students bought with spare money? (Please answer in the Google form below)

The socio-economic lives of Wellesley students is much more complicated than just what students bought with their spare money. While it is not represented in the artifacts found in the College Hall Excavation, we get a better sense of the lives led by students with differing socio-economic statuses through Wellesley's digital repository. Below, we look at how Wellesley College has evolved to support students with different socio-economic backgrounds from the College Hall era to current day.

Financial Aid and Work Study

In the late 1800s and early 1900s the majority of people going to college were white men from wealthy families. Wellesley’s student body was similarly composed of young women from wealthy white families but, we can see examples of how Wellesley created ways to increase the number of students from different socio-economic backgrounds in a time where college was not accessible to all students.

Early forms of financial aid and work-study

From the 1913-1914 Bulletin Calendar, we can see a list of scholarships meant to help “meritorious undergraduate students whose personal means are insufficient for their maintenance in college.” We also see the advertisement of the Students’ Aid Society which offers small amounts of money to students with the expectation that the loans would be paid back, with no interest, whenever possible. Unfortunately, there were no guarantees to this aid, as they write that the “funds at the disposal of the Society are wholly insufficient to meet the wants of deserving applicants.” Another form of financial aid offered to early Wellesley students was through honor scholarships, which were offered to upperclassmen students in recognition of their high degree of academic excellence. 

In the Report of the President 1915-1916 we see an early example of work study. The president writes that: 

“The problem of providing deserving students with opportunities for self-help in the matter of board and lodging is an interesting and somewhat difficult one. Such opportunities are made through Fiske House, to some degree through Eliot House, and possibly in another year may be made through the faculty luncheon room.”

 Upperclassmen students of “satisfactory character and scholarship” could live in Fiske house for half of what students living in the regular dorms were paying, on the condition that they would do domestic work in the house for an hour a day. Another option was to work in the Eliot house. The students living in Eliot were paying the regular rates, but the waitresses for the house were Wellesley first-years in need of financial aid. Since scholarships were only offered to upper-class students, “waitress work at Eliot [was] practically the only opportunity for self-help offered to freshmen." The president writes that only "students of satisfactory character and scholarship are eligible applicants. That students willing to make the sacrifice of the daily hour for domestic work are of unusual quality is shown by the high standard of scholarship held by Fiske Students, and the academic honors won by them.” 

Q2: If you could, what would you ask a student who lived and worked at Fiske House? (Please answer in the Google form below)

Q3: In Wellesley's early years, how do you think the lives of students differed based on their socio - economic status? (Please answer in the Google form below)

Since students in Fiske needed to spend several hours a week maintaining their house, they may have had less time dedicated to their social and academic lives compared to the other Wellesley students. While they may have had less time to study and hang out with friends, this price reduction may have kept them from working off-campus, which could have been costly in commute time and work hours. 

But, from the Report of the President 1915-1916 , we know that the students at Fiske house had a special community not available to other students, as the Director of Halls of Residence writes: " the atmosphere of the house is like that of a family, each one willing to do her part toward making a happy and well ordered home." This shows us that even though the Fiske students had to work (unlike many of the other Wellesley students) it was still a place where students could maintain a fulfilling academic and social life.