Wittenberg University

Date: Jan 15 2010
Major: PreLaw and Legal (This Major's Salary over time)
People reading this who are thinking about attending Wittenberg - please disregard many of the negative comments listed on this website, the majority of them are inaccurate and not reflective of Wittenberg as the great, historical school that it is. I am a current student and will do my best to describe the atmosphere academically and socially. I hail from Columbus and honestly never had a good perception of Wittenberg, however, since attending I have come to realize it is much different from my preconceived notions. I will try a provide a non-biased perspective that is sensitive to those who rate their experience at this school as negative.

Lets start with the basic facts. It is small, with a undergraduate enrollment of 1,967. The demographics tend to consist of kids from all over - but I notice the majority to be from all around Ohio, along the east coast (especially Massachusetts and Connecticut) and Chicago. Lots of suburbanites. Many kids will find their way socially by means of sports teams and through the relatively large greek life community. Springfield is a very small town, with some nice areas nearby Witt but also some very impoverished ones as well. Yellow Springs and John Bryant State Park are nearby, only 10 to maybe 15 minutes away. Buck Creek State Park is also within 15 minutes away. The food has traditionally not been great, but definitely improving.

So first, lets discuss the negative aspects of Wittenberg because people love reading about things that may go wrong with their potential decision. The size of the school may bother some people, you see a lot of similar faces on a day-to-day basis. Wittenberg is expensive, but gives very good financial aid; so depending on your families income it may or may not be unaffordable for many people. Kids do have run-in's with the locals (commonly referred to as "townies"), and cars are occasionally broken into. Depending on whether or not you decide to get involved (sports, greek life, student senate etc.) it may be difficult to integrate socially. The CDR, commonly referred to as "The Cooter," is notorious for being unpleasant (however, this past semester it was actually very good). And lastly, if you are not much of a drinker, you may look up a portion of the student body as belligerent drunks.

Okay, now allow me to address what I would consider as Wittenberg's fortes and try to explain some of the aforementioned gripes. Wittenberg is small, but with that small student population comes a lot of close friends, and definitely small class sizes. These two aspects are very important, I have many friends who attend Ohio State University and do not know nearly as many people, and attend classes enumerably larger. It is safe to say that attendance is most definitely important. People slay Wittenberg for being dangerous, but their police department is very good - patrolling day and night - I have never witnessed a single fight, and rarely do I get text messages warning me about violence around Springfield. There is also an escort service that can be called basically anytime that chauffeur kids around campus. Wittenberg has recently been voted the 17th most beautiful school (maybe 13th this year) in the Princeton Review, and also scored for Intramural activities (ranging from floor hockey to ping-pong) - there is a wonderful frisbee golf course on the campus grounds. The school also divvies out a lot of money to intramural teams like hockey and sailing. Some would say Wittenberg is not diverse, but this seems to be related to the fact that it is small. There are advocacy groups for any sort of ethnicity, religion, sexual or political orientation. Those who see the school as just (what I have read in reviews) a "watering hole" need to go visit another university, it is no different than any other institution in partying except for maybe MIT. The school has just furnished a brand new game room and bar in the basement of the student center - both are great.

Visit Wittenberg, learn about Springfield (it really is a beautiful old town, that is seeing improvement) and send in an application. Students are very friendly, not condescending like an ivy league, and the staff is most definitely overly qualified. The biology department is thriving with a beautiful new building - and a new hospital is going up right next to Wittenberg which will provide hands on experience for pre-med majors and potentially future jobs for graduates.

The tradition at Wittenberg is second to none, it is truly an underrated oasis on the rise. Seriously.