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This August, Syracuse University welcomed its first cycle of Pathway Program students after spending their first year at Wells College.

Syracuse’s Pathway Program, in partnership with Wells College about 45 miles away in Aurora, offers students the opportunity to attend Wells for their freshman year before transferring to SU for the remainder of their college education.

Students in the program who plan on transferring to SU must take at least 15 credits per semester at Wells and maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher, according to SU’s website.

Students may only participate in the program by invitation after applying to SU. This year, 30 students enrolled in the program.

“I think that Syracuse wanted something to offer good students who might just need a little more support before entering some of the more competitive programs that they have,” Melinda Slawson, senior assistant director of admissions at Wells College, said of the program. 

The program allows students to start off at a smaller, more intimate college before transferring to SU, Slawson said.

Some students currently enrolled in the Pathway Program said they were happy to be able to start college life on a rural campus instead of on a large campus in a city. 

“What stuck out to me was that this was a really rural part of New York, and then I spend a year here and go to a big city like Syracuse,” said Tom Dunbar, a business major in the program. “It’s like a big change, but also a cool experience.”

Ella Russo, a communication sciences and disorders student, shared the same sentiment, also mentioning the effect virtual classes had on her preparedness. 

“Since we’ve had no school for like two years straight, I was honestly terrified to just jump into a huge college,” Russo said. “So I think it’s kind of cool that it’s a little introduction and a small little community, and then we can work our way there.”

When she first received her invitation to the Pathway Program, Russo said she was confused due to a lack of clarity about her admissions decision. 

“I saw the letter, and it said on the top … that you weren’t accepted to Syracuse. And so that’s kind of all I read at first. I told my mom, and I was like, ‘Look, read this. It says I wasn’t accepted.’ And she made me read all of it, and I was like, ‘Wait, I’m actually kind of accepted.’ I thought it was super weird — very confusing.” 

Maansi Suri, who will be entering Syracuse University with an undecided major, expressed her disappointment towards the invitation. 

“It’s sort of like ‘Yeah, we’re going to reject you. But here, we’re not going to reject you reject you,’” Suri said. “But I get it, because I wasn’t the strongest academic person in high school … I think they wanted to see more of an upward trend.”

Wells College was not Russo’s first choice.  

“I like it. I didn’t think I would, honestly,” Russo said. “The community is really nice, and the activities are really fun.”

Other Pathway students are also enjoying their time at Wells. Suri said the students and teachers at Wells are nice and her classes are challenging enough, but the campus is very small. Dunbar liked that he could make connections with the people that he meets.

“I want to try and be more social,” Dunbar said. “And I get to see a bunch of new places.”

Suri likes having the chance to explore different areas of study, whereas Russo applied for her major specifically.

“Syracuse, for me, has a really good program for what I want to do,” she said. “I want to be a speech therapist. I’m saving a lot of money for my first year, so I think that’s a really good thing. Ultimately, going to Syracuse I think will just benefit me.”

SU and Wells will also offer a new variant of the Pathway Program still in the works for international students called the Conditional Admission Pathway Program (or CAP Program). It will begin in the next few years through SU’s English Language Institute.

“We wanted to offer a similar program for international students where they get up to speed with their English while at Wells,” Slawson said. “We think that Wells needs more international students, so it’s sort of a way of … getting international students here and getting them, again, ready for SU.”

Published on October 3, 2021 at 9:49 pm

Contact Sarah: semarshall21@wells.edu