Wheaton College is a four-year, private liberal arts college, which draws students from across the country and around the globe. It has an approximate student body of 1,550. Wheaton's residential campus, one of the loveliest (click here for campus views) in New England, is located in Norton, Massachusetts, between Boston, and Providence, Rhode Island.
Wheaton was founded in 1834 as a female seminary. The college became coeducational in 1987, after more than 150 years as a leading college for women. Wheaton's traditional commitment to equality is today reflected in its commitment to diversity in all its forms. Wheaton is an active community of learners who value the liberal arts as a means for personal growth, professional success and leadership that improves the world.
The essence of a Wheaton education lies in the close collaborative relationships that develop between students and faculty. Classes are small. Students know their professors as teachers, advisors, supervisors of research projects and often as friends. The student-faculty ratio is 11-to-1 and the average class size is between 15 and 20, promoting rich intellectual discourse among students and their professors. Often, students collaborate with faculty members on research projects or artistic endeavors such as gallery exhibitions and theatre productions.
Every class encourages students to make connections—between disciplines , between cultures, between theory and practice. Beyond the classroom, students translate their knowledge into action. Wheaton's pioneering Filene Center for Work and Learning helps students pursue out-of-class learning experiences such as internships, research fellowships and field experiences. The Center for Global Education opened its doors to the Wheaton community in the fall of 2002, expanding study abroad opportunities and developing new initiatives to internationalize the Wheaton campus.
Curriculum
Wheaton offers a challenging liberal arts curriculum leading to a bachelor of arts degree in more than 36 majors and 50 minors. Students choose from over 600 courses in subjects from physics to philosophy, political science to computer science, art history to theater, English to economics. In addition, Wheaton offers highly specialized courses typically found only at large universities. The course selection is extended further through the college's cross-registration programs with Brown University and nine local colleges involved in SACHEM (Southeastern Association for Cooperation in Higher Education in Massachusetts). Wheaton also offers dual-degree programs, enabling its undergraduates to begin graduate-level study in studio art, communications, engineering, business, theology and optometry. (Learn more about dual-degree and pre-professional programs.)
The New Wheaton Curriculum
The new Wheaton Curriculum reaffirms the college's commitment to the traditional breadth and depth of the liberal arts and sciences while promoting study that crosses established academic divisions. Beginning with the Class of 2007, all Wheaton students take sets of courses that approach a topic from the perspectives of different disciplines. These connected courses encourage students to explore and think beyond their primary academic interests. For instance, the Connection Communication through Art and Mathematics links Arts 298 (Graphic Design I) with Math 127 (Advertising Math). Take a look at the complete list of Connections.
Students acquire a fundamental depth of knowledge through Foundations courses, which focus on writing, quantitative analysis, foreign language study and non-Western perspectives. In their first semester at Wheaton, all freshmen take a First Year Seminar in which they explore contemporary issues and gain academic skills needed for college-level study. The Major concentration and elective courses are also central to the Wheaton Curriculum, which culminates in a senior capstone experience—a thesis, research project, seminar or creative project.
Academic Excellence
Wheaton's reputation as a leading liberal arts college continues to grow. In recent years, Wheaton students have won more than three dozen competitive national awards, including two Rhodes scholarships, five Truman awards, 23 Fulbrights , and the British Marshall, the Goldwater, the Beinecke, five Rotary Ambassadorial scholarships, two Udalls, two James Madison Fellowships and an American Council for International Education scholarship.
The Arts
Wheaton's magnificent arts buildings, with newly expanded space for study, exhibition and performance, have set the stage for the Evelyn Danzig Haas '39 Visiting Artists Program. Launched in 2003, the program brings distinguished writers, musicians, actors, directors, dancers and artists to campus for short-term residencies to share their work through lectures, master classes, concerts and exhibitions. Arts in the City complements the visiting artists program by taking students and faculty members on trips to Boston, Providence and elsewhere to explore the arts and cultural offerings of the region. (Click to see Arts Calendar)
Athletics
Home of the eight-time national champion Women's Track and Field program (though Wheaton does not have outdoor track), Wheaton's athletics and recreation programs are also a vital contributor to Wheaton's excellence. Students can participate in intramural activities, club sports, and intercollegiate teams. Wheaton fields 21 intercollegiate teams for women and men, including baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, track and synchronized swimming. Our NCAA Division III teams take on competitors at such schools as Williams, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Smith, Brandeis and MIT. Many teams and individual players qualify for postseason play in NCAA, ECAC and other tournaments.
History
The history of Wheaton College is rooted in the affectionate regard and strong personal commitment of a small New England family. In 1834, Eliza Wheaton Strong, the daughter and favorite child of Judge Laban Wheaton, died at the age of 39. Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, the Judge's daughter-in-law, persuaded him to memorialize his daughter by founding a female seminary. The family called upon noted women's educator Mary Lyon for assistance in establishing the seminary. Miss Lyon created the first curriculum with the goal that it be equal in quality to those of men's colleges. She also provided the first principal, Eunice Caldwell. Wheaton Female Seminary opened in Norton, Massachusetts on 22 April 1835, with 50 students and three teachers.
Mary Lyon and Eunice Caldwell left Wheaton to open Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837. Following their departure, Wheaton endured a period of fluctuating enrollment and frequent changes in leadership until 1850, when Caroline Cutler Metcalf was recruited as the new prinicpal. Mrs. Metcalf made the hiring of outstanding faculty her top priority, bringing in educators who encouraged students to discuss ideas rather than to memorize facts. The most notable additions to the faculty were Lucy Larcom, who introduced the study of English Literature and founded the student literary magazine The Rushlight, and Mary Jane Cragin, who used innovative techniques to teach Geometry and made Mathematics the favorite study of many students.
Mrs. Metcalf retired in 1876. A. Ellen Stanton, a teacher of French since 1871, served as Principal from 1880 to 1897. She led the Seminary during a difficult time, when it faced competition from increasing numbers of public high schools and colleges granting bachelor's degrees to women.
In 1897, at the suggestion of Eliza Baylies Wheaton, the Trustees hired the Reverend Samuel Valentine Cole as the Seminary's first male president. Preparing to seek a charter as a four-year college, Cole began a program of revitalization that included expanding and strengthening the curriculum, increasing the number and quality of the faculty, and adding six new buildings. Enrollment grew to over 200 students.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted Wheaton a college charter in 1912. The Student Government Association was organized to represent the "consensus of opinion of the whole student body," and to encourage individual responsibility, integrity, and self-government. Wheaton received authorization to establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1932, only twenty years after achieving college status.
President Samuel Valentine Cole died suddenly, following a brief illness, in 1925. During his remarkable career as Wheaton President, Cole oversaw the expansion of the campus from 3 to 27 buildings, the growth of enrollment from 50 to 414, and the establishment of an endowment.
The Reverend John Edgar Park, who became president in 1926, continued Cole's building program, and saw the College through the Great Depression, the celebration of its centennial in 1935, and World War II. He retired in 1944, and was succeeded by Dartmouth College Professor of History Alexander Howard Meneely. During his tenure, the Trustees voted to expand the size of the college from 525 to 800-1000 students, and construction of "new campus" began in 1957.
President Meneely died in 1961, following a long illness, and was succeeded in 1962 by William C.H. Prentice, a psychology professor and administrator at Swarthmore College. In the early 1960s, Wheaton successfully completed its first endowment campaign. The development of new campus continued, and student enrollment grew to 1200. Wheaton students and faculty joined in nationwide campus protests against United States actions in Indochina in 1970.
In 1975, Wheaton inaugurated its first woman president, Alice Frey Emerson, Dean of Students at the University of Pennsylvania. During her tenure, Wheaton achieved national recognition as a pioneer in the development of a gender-balanced curriculum. Wheaton celebrated its Sesquicentennial in 1984/85 with a year-long series of symposia, concerts, dance performances, art and history exhibits, and an endowment and capital campaign. In 1987, the Trustees voted to admit men to Wheaton. The first coeducational class was enrolled in September 1988.
Dale Rogers Marshall, Academic Dean at Wellesley College, was inaugurated as Wheaton's sixth president in 1992. She led the college in The Campaign for Wheaton, to build endowed and current funds for faculty development, student scholarships, and academic programs and facilities. The highest enrollments in Wheaton's history in recent years encouraged the construction of the first new residence halls since 1964, and the improvement and expansion of classroom buildings.
Wheaton's Board of Trustees appointed Ronald A. Crutcher at the seventh president of Wheaton College on March 23, 2004. He is a nationally known leader in higher education, a dedicated educator, a distinguished music scholar and a gifted cellist. President Crutcher came to Wheaton from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of music.
Presidents
Presidents of Wheaton College (years as president)
- Rev. Dr. Samuel Valentine Cole (1912-1925)
- George Thomas Smart, Acting President (1925-1926)
- Rev. Dr. John Edgar Park (1926-1944)
- Alexander Howard Meneely (1944-1961)
- Elizabeth Stoffregen May, Acting President (1961-1962)
- William Courtney Hamilton Prentice (1962-1975)
- Alice Frey Emerson (1975-1991)
- Hannah Goldberg, Acting President (1991-1992)
- Dale Rogers Marshall (1992-2004)
- Ronald Andrew Crutcher (2004-present)
Publications and Media
- The Wheaton [wire]: Weekly student newspaper(link);
- Wheaton Quarterly: School publication (link);
- Nike: School yearbook;
- Rushlight: Student arts & literary magazine;
- Midnight Oil: Student literary magazine;
- WCCS: free-format student-run radio station;
(as a) Filming Location
- Soul Man (1986)
- Prozac Nation (2001)