Wheaton College

Date: Apr 26 2004
Major: Music - Composition/Theory (This Major's Salary over time)
Wheaton is a great school. People always complain about social life here, etc. but it didn't bother me. Don't come expecting to party—greek life is non-existent and you sign the "community covenant" not to have sex, drink, etc. They just abolished the no-dancing rule, which i think reflects the administration's attempt to be reasonable and relevant and not just have stricter rules than your standard private school. Mostly kids come here knowing they won't be partying (I think a lot of football players choose here over other places to avoid the pressure), so there's not a whole lot of open bitterness about it.

Racial diversity is pretty low but there are lots of different personalities and backgrounds, so you will find some friends who are like you and some who aren't. It's nice that most people are from around the country & world so there's not a big go-home-for-the-weekend crowd. Most everybody is intelligent and talented (and consider themselves so).

Faculty, like anywere, is mixed, but i found most of them to be interested in teaching and most care about their students' success. The bad profs didn't usually weren't ornery or absorbed in research, they just didn't either know the material or know how to teach it. At any college it's important to remember that your education is what you make of it; don't expect to just follow the coursework and have opportunity handed to you.

Music program is excellent for a school of its type, but again your success is largely dependent on you taking advantage of Chicago's cultural offerings. Lots of graduates who go to grad school complain about having to take remedial courses in theory, but the music history classes and a lot of the private lesson teachers are excellent.

Financial aid, at least for me, was terrible. I had the president's scholarship, which at most schools equals somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 tuition… \(1000 here, which is a drop in the SRF:ELEMENTS:5xsrf\) usually hear.

Food is great, gets old but where doesn't it?

BEWARE PUBLIC SAFETY. Wheaton is a super-safe campus so they have nothing to do but issue parking tickets, and they have a really arrogant attitude toward students (faculty get away with parking anywhere, including "30 minute student parking only"). FOLLOW PARKING REGULATIONS to the letter.