Wheaton College

Date: Sep 07 2008
Major: Religion/Religious (This Major's Salary over time)
I can only echo many of the earlier cautionary comments about choosing to attend Wheaton College. I should should say, from the outset, that some of the best professors I have ever had (including those in graduate school) - men and women who have had a profoundly positive impact on my life - taught at Wheaton College. Many of them, however, due to pressure from a new administration which sought to curtail academic freedom, were compelled or chose to leave Wheaton about a decade ago.

Though the coursework is often academically rigorous, and critical thinking and writing are nurtured, there are nevertheless serious shortcomings in a Wheaton College education. It's important to remember that you go to a college or university to get a good education; you want to be taught and have your thinking challenged by the best professors and peers possible. Whether these teachers and your fellow students are the same religion as you has no bearing on this whatsoever. In fact, the opposite the case: meeting, befriending and egaging people outside your own cultural and religious sphere is an essential part of your education. This is entirely absent at Wheaton. In fact, I suspect it's become worse since I've graduated.

An earlier reviewer mentioned the Religious Studies Department (called, at Wheaton, something like Bible/Theology), and since that was my major and I'm still in the field, I should say that many of the professors hired to teach in that department are there because of their conformity to the religious beliefs of the college, not because of any contribution they've made to the academic study of religion. They may be nice, and friendly and pious but they will not necessarily teach you the transferable skill of critical thinking that you'll need in the world. I suppose I should also caution those who may misunderstand the use of the adjective "Christian" when used by many "Christian" Colleges to describe themselves. These groups are using "Christian" not according to its dictionary definition, but in a very sectarian sense. They mean "Christian"s like them, excluding the vast majority of Christianity which would be considered apostate or not "really" Christian. (Notice that Holy Cross, or St Olaf, or Notre Dame don't call themselves "Christian" colleges, though using a normal definition of the term they certainly are.) This is something I didn't realize when I was 17 and now wish I had. Besides, you'll be able to practise your religion, as you see fit, at any university in the Western hemisphere or Europe. There's no need to go to a (radically) confessional school - go where you will get a good education. This is advice that I received when I was 17 - regrettably I didn't understand it and therefore didn't heed it.

Apart from the academic and religious, it should also be noted (as earlier reviewers have said) that there are real social problems at Wheaton College. It's not a matter of it being "boring" - I had a lot of fun with my friends. The problem is that it's extremely socially repressive and unhealthily so. If students bring childish, psychologcially unhealthy constructs of gender relations, life, privacy, etc. to the college, it should be the task of the educators to help the students grow into adult ways of thinking and functioning. For the most part, however, these constructs are fortified in the Wheaton College community - not just among students, but also by administrators, staff and some faculty. Four years is a long time to endure such an environment. If you value your psychological health - you should look elsewhere (and probably not at another "Christian" college).

With regard to your future career - there are two problems you'll face as a Wheaton College graduate: either people won't know about Wheaton, or they will. When you tell someone that you went to Brown or Northwestern University, or Oberlin or Carleton College, the first thing they'll think is "wow, you must have a great education". When you tell someone that you went to Wheaton, the first thing they'll think (whether it's true or not) is "wow, you must be a fundamentalist". That is not the kind of first impression you want to give as you're entering professional life - and even later in life, no matter what you do, it stays on your c.v. This can (and does) present genuine problems.

Overall, the reasons people tend to go to Wheaton are not the right reasons for choosing a university - and the drawbacks (academic, social, psychological, professional) are difficult to overestimate.