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.