In keeping with its mission “to provide an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world,” Wellesley College implemented a two-part quantitative reasoning requirement in 1997. The College recognized that its students need to be proficient with mathematical, logical, and statistical tools if they are to address the many quantitative issues that arise in today's global community and in the students' own personal lives. Students also need strong quantitative reasoning skills if they are to be able to explore any academic major and pursue any career. This paper describes the Quantitative Reasoning Program at Wellesley, focusing on the evolving quantitative reasoning requirements and support of those requirements.

Early Initiatives

While the quantitative reasoning (QR) requirement went into effect just six years ago, with students entering in the fall of 1997, the College's interest in helping students improve their quantitative skills has a much longer history. Wellesley's “New Liberal Arts Program” of the 1980s included the development of courses that specifically addressed quantitative literacy. Starting in 1991, faculty from a variety of disciplines assessed the quantitative skills of incoming students, reviewed the QR content of the College's course offerings, and found numerous opportunities to enhance students' quantitative reasoning skills.

These opportunities arose in all levels of the curriculum, from helping entering students with weak quantitative skills improve those skills in preparation for introductory courses in various fields, to giving upper-level students exposure to more complex statistical analyses and mathematical modeling.