Saint Xavier University

On Tuesday, August 26th I visited Saint Xavier University. SXU is the closest university to Morgan Park Academy, with it's main campus situated on 103rd between Pulaski and Central Park. SXU is a relatively small school, enrolling over 5500 people, 3300 of which are undergraduate students. SXU has 35 different majors to choose from in 5 different colleges; (Business Management, Arts and Sciences, Nursing, Education, and Continuing Studies). Below is a map of their 75 acre main campus. There are additional campus location in Orland Park and downtown Chicago.



I was fortunate to have my very own tour guide, Jen, a junior from Oak Lawn. Jen isn't a regular tour guide but she has been employed in the Admission Office as a student worker for the past couple of years, so she did a fine job. Most on campus employment at colleges and universities is considered work study, a form of financial aid. At Saint Xavier more than 90% of the student body receives some type of financial assistance.

Saint Xavier University is a Catholic institution, but as with the other Catholic schools we have seen, (DePaul and Loyola), SXU welcomes students from every religious background, be they Catholic, Chrisitian, or otherwise.


Here is Saint Xavier, himself.





One of SXU's best programs is its School of Nursing. Students are not admitted directly into the school of nursing, but are admitted as preclinical nursing majors. Provided they complete their first semester with a GPA of a 2.75 or better and received no final course grade lower than a C, students are then admitted into the School of Nursing. Once admitted students must continue to do well in their classes, particularly in the sciences, in order to continue on to clinical nursing courses.


Saint Xavier University is actually the oldest Catholic college in Chicago, opening in 1846, decades before Loyola or DePaul.


This is the main entrance of the Warde Academic Center, the largest, oldest, and most widely used building on campus. Warde houses all student services and student affairs offices, the main cafeteria, the library, an art gallery, and many classrooms. There is an information desk as soon as you enter the building.





One of the major changes at SXU is how residential it has become. After existing as a commuter campus for most of its history, SXU has evolved into a predominantly residential campus. While the bulk of SXU students still come from the Chicagoland area, the university now gets students from all over the country. These beautiful new residence halls, replete with their own quad, serve upper division students.





Here is Lake Marian, a man made lake which abuts some of the residence halls and serves as a lovely water feature in the center of campus. It also attracts a variety of water fowl.


Regina Hall is one of the two halls for freshmen students on campus.











Here is a Mac lab. There are several computer labs available on campus.








This is the rec center. All students have a membership here. The SXU mascot is the Cougar. SXU athletes compete in the NAIA Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. For listing of SXU's teams, see here.








This is a view of the library in Warde.





SXU owns a bar across the street from campus. Gilhooley's is the site of a lot of fun events for SXU students. Underage drinkers beware, however, as getting caught at Gilhooley's during restricted times could result in expulsion from the university!


One of the most unique features of SXU, and one of the ways that it is similar to MPA, is its diversity. 1/3 of its student body are students of color, including 16% of its students who are African American. SXU was ranked in the top ten of most diverse colleges and universities in the midwest. For more information like this see here.

Saint Xavier University employs a rolling admission process. To apply see here.

Like Wheaton, applicants to SXU are distributed among the admission counselors alphabetically by last name, so MPA does not have a specific counselor working with our students. To find out more about the admission staff see here. To schedule a visit at SXU, see here.
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Wheaton College

On August 20th, I visited Wheaton College, located in the Northwest suburb of Wheaton, IL. Wheaton College was founded in 1860. Wheaton College is a small liberal arts college with close to 40 different academic areas of study, and approximately 2400 undergraduate students.

I was originally very excited about the tour because it seemed I would have the tour guide all to myself. A few minutes into the tour, however, we were joined by a very nice family from San Antonio. While their kids were too young to be looking at schools just yet, they were interested in the school based on their acquaintance with various alums in Texas.

Here is a map of the Wheaton campus. (Click on picture to make it larger.)




Wheaton College was ranked as having the best food in the country by the Princeton Review. This is their main cafeteria in the Todd M. Beamer Center. The Beamer Center is named after a Wheaton alum that courageously thwarted the terrorists' plans on United Flight 93 during the September 11th attacks.




This is the Rec Center. It is among the nicest campus rec centers I have seen. Despite apparently having excellent food, Wheaton has also been ranked in the top 5 in the country for having the "fittest students" as well.


This is their rock climbing wall.




This is the half Olympic size swimming pool. It is apparently one of the "fastest" pools in Illinois.





This building actually houses a cadaver lab, which students can use as Early as their sophomore year on campus. Many students at colleges around the country would not have the opportunity to work in a cadaver lab until they reached medical school. Wheaton is well regarded for its science programs and its students have an acceptance rate to med school far above the national average.




This is "Percy," the unofficial mascot of Wheaton. Percy is apparently the most complete Mammoth skeleton ever unearthed. Percy was discovered in Illinois when an alum was digging a pond on his property. He was then donated to the college. Wheaton actually has a well regarded Anthropology department itself.






This is the library. It has over a million volumes as well as plentiful computer access.


This building is being renovated and added onto to house even more of the sciences at Wheaton.


Wheaton has one of the strongest campus cultures you will find in higher education. Clara, my tour guide, (who was probably the best student tour guide I have ever seen), mentioned God or Christ no fewer than 20 times, which would make it 20 times more than I had heard those words used in all my other campus tours combined. While it is an academically excellent school with a competitive admission rate of just over 50%, Wheaton College wonderfully demonstrates the idea of "fit" in the college search process. Wheaton is certainly not for everyone, and that is by design.

Wheaton is one of the few nondenominational Evangelical Christian colleges in the country. It is probably also has the finest academic program of any school with a similar religious affiliation. The other religiously affiliated schools I saw this summer, (DePaul, Loyola, Saint Xavier), all welcome students from a diverse faith background. This is true of the majority of faith based colleges and universities around the country. Wheaton, however, leaves no room in its community for the nonbeliever, or even the "different" believer. In fact every student at Wheaton must sign a Statement of Faith, declaring a common set of Christian beliefs. Beyond having commonly held Christian beliefs, Wheaton students must also adhere to a common code of behavior philosophically rooted within those religious beliefs. Students must agree to the Community Covenant, which lays out these rules. Through this covenant, Wheaton students agree to refrain from behaviors that maybe fairly common place at most college campuses across the country: drinking, smoking, gambling, immodest dress, pornography, premarital sex, homosexual behavior, and, of course, "witchcraft." So while these community standards and commonly held beliefs may not make Wheaton the right choice for many, (like witches, for instance), those same standards make Wheaton the perfect choice for others. This strong culture is one of the reasons Wheaton College is included in Colleges That Change Lives. Wheaton also does as excellent job of selecting its students as those same students do in choosing Wheaton. Evidence of this is found in Wheaton's retention rate; over 95% of freshman return for their sophomore year.

This building is the Wheaton Chapel. Chapel is held three times weekly and attendance is mandatory. During chapel the rest of campus is shut down. Students are only allowed to miss 9 chapel sessions per semester.


The chapel can hold the entirety of the the Wheaton community, including faculty and staff.




This is the Wheaton Music Conservatory. There is a separate admission process for the conservatory, and entrance is even more competitive than admission to the college.


In the distance you can see the Billy Graham Center. Graham is the most well known Wheaton alum, and is the most famous and prolific evangelist in the history of the United States, having ministered to over 2 billion people. The center houses a museum, the Wheaton College archives, the Graduate school, and the campus radio station, WETN-88.1 FM. Much of the BGC is open to the public and it draws thousands of visitors a year.


This is Blanchard Hall, home to several classes, as well as the President's Office.








We were not able to see any housing because they were preparing for student move-in, but this building below was one of the residence halls. Wheaton College is highly residential, with 80% of its students coming from outside the state of Illinois. Wheaton offers housing for all four years and has apartment style housing in the neighborhood for upper-classmen.


Wheaton has an excellent Division III athletic program, having won 7 national titles in the last five years, (including the last two Women's Soccer titles). This past year, Wheaton also had its first player in history to be drafted into the NFL.


Wheaton's Admission Counselors are assigned to prospective students alphabetically by last name, as such MPA does not work with a specific Wheaton counselor. To find out who your counselor is see here.

Wheaton College has daily presentations and student-lead tours for prospective applicants.
To schedule a visit see here.