Wheaton College-Norton Top Questions

Wheaton's professors make an effort to get to know you. They want every student to succeed and fully grasp the subject matter. Wheaton is committed to small class sizes, with very few exceptions. Class participation is encouraged in most classes.

academics? yikes. the academics are pretty tough, but if you keep working its survivable. the professors definitely know your name, which is very helpful. i've spent a good amount of time out of class with professors. the library is always a hotspot of student activity, which is good and bad.. while you'll see a majority of your friends there.. its tough if you have trouble concentrating.

Wheaton is such a small campus with an academic environment that encourages those unacademic connections with professors. One professor has come to several of the ultimate frisbee practices and he is very capable. Another is very involved with the meditation group and I hear of others all the time. Students will carry class discussions outside of class, anything from going over the lesson of the day to what crazy thing professor so-and-so did today to try to help the class get it. My most unique class would be my freshmen year seminar, which concerned the academic study of mediation methods over the years. There are some core requirements, but most people end up doing these just because Wheaton students tend to have broad academic interests, but Wheaton does encourage preparing for the world after college, be that with graduate schools or jobs.

With small classes comes lots of class participation and intellectual courses. If you want to have individualized attention and recognize most of the students as you walk around the Dimple, then Wheaton is the place for you. If you want to hide and just be a number, this isnt the place for you. Class sizes are small, the introductory courses are often larger, but that means that you might have a 40 person lecture class as opposed to an 11-15 person class.

Professors are usually quite close with students, though there are of course some exceptions. It is not uncommon for students to call professors by their first names, or to have their professors' cell phone numbers in their contacts list.

Academics are definitely top notch at Wheaton. We mainly pride ourselves on our academics, and it is true, we have excellent professors who know what they're talking about. It's HARD sometimes though. Many professors are really tough, you're always doing homework and making sure you did it correctly or else you WILL get a bad grade. Grading is really tough here, especially if you are in the sciences, you need to do everything right the first time or else you can really take a beating. But, I must say, out of everything at Wheaton, the academcis are the most interesting and have inspired me to study a lot.

The small size makes it possible to have small classes, but even in the larger ones, ALL your professors know your name, and say hi, freshman year to senior year. They're easy to talk to, and easy to get in touch with if you need ANYTHING.

Professors know you by name, small personal class sizes, very tough and demanding academically, professors very easily accessible outside of class/during office hours, professors always willing to help out beyond class, class participation is very common, many classes depend on participation, students are competitive w/ themselves, academically very strong school

Professors know me, and you work very closely with them. Classes are also generally hard, but that is a good thing. Students are very scholarly, but they also make time to party, which is another good thing - they generally know how to organize their time. Class participation is pretty good, and I have had MANY intellectual conversations outside of class - the learning doesn't stop outside the classroom. All the classes are fairly unique I think, but I haven't been to other colleges really, so I have nothing to compare it to except my very small high school which had no diversity in their class layout. Both my departments (Sociology and Anthropology) were okay - there were some professors that weren't my favorite, but you make do. It is good to meet with professors one on one, it makes learning much easier. Wheaton's academic requirements (as far as foundations go) are NOT FUN. We had to fulfill connections - these are honestly BS. Connections only require you to take classes that you don't need to take.

Classes are small, which is fantastic. All of my professors know my first name and will stop and talk to me when they see me... the largest class I've ever been in was 50 people, which still doesn't restrict people from asking questions. Class participation is generally very high; I had an Italian class, for instance, with only 9 people in which everyone participated very constantly every day. One of my problems with the school is the lack of intellectual conversation; if you want it, you really have to seek it out. Clubs and groups are truly the way to find it.

Classes at Wheaton are very small and a very comfortable learning environment. Other than intro classes, there are barely any classes with more than 20 kids and if there are, there are discussion groups which break the class up to make sure everyone is keeping up. Teachers are very willing to help in and outside of the class room and all really get to know you, especially those teachers who teach in your major. Your advisor, once you choose them, are really involved and make sure that everything is going smoothly and you have everything you need to graduate on time. The class load could be stressful at times but it is all in how you plan your schedule.

On the whole, I have enjoyed my classes at Wheaton immensely. Even though English is a "large" major (by Wheaton standards), I have received individual attention bordered on doting since Day 1. By advisor is fabulous, always willing to go the extra mile to make sure I know about opportunities on and off campus she thinks I might find interesting. In my three years at Wheaton so far, I have only disliked two professors, and both were Visiting Professors. The most unique class I have taken is Word and Image, a creative writing course in which the only guideline for our prompts was that our responses had to include words, and they had to be influenced by images. The range of output from my fellow students was inspiring. I think one of the best parts about this class was that even though it was an English course, only about 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the students in the class were English majors - we also had Biology, Psychology, Economics, and Sociology majors, and the range of backgrounds made for great discussions.

The professors are fantastic, they are excited about what they do, and really convey that to their students. Class sizes are small, so I have always had the professor know my name. The chairs of the various departments hold parties at their houses for students and faculty to mingle, and because the school is in a suburban area, professors and their families connect with the school more than you would see at a larger institution in a more urban setting. Class participation is very common, and the discussions are pretty interesting. Sometimes the material gets too intense and makes it outside the class to lunch or wherever else students are headed.

There are only two professors who I doubt remember my name, and even then, their memory would be jogged because I went and met with both of them at least a few times. We have very small classes, so the concept of a professor not knowing my name if/when I pass them on campus isn't a reality. My favorite classes are too many to count, but one that sticks out is one that I took Freshman year called Paganism in the Greco-Roman world. It was a Classics course, and what made it so fun is that it was incredibly geeky in focusing on a subject that I've loved since childhood, Greek Mythology. And the professor came to class with her enthusiasm and fascination with the subject clearly worn on her sleeve. I'd say students study more than average. People don't take "cake" courses (easy stuff) like they do at large universities. There's really no easy subject, or easy prof, or any predictable pattern to try and predict what will be hard or what will be less hard. Wheaties do know how to have a good time when it may be necessary, but if anything, I usually feel like I'm trying as hard as everyone else is. I wouldn't say we're competitive with each other, but everyone has a passion in their chosen major, and they work towards fulfilling that passion as best they can through their efforts both on campus, and off campus through fellowships/internships/scholarships that they word towards. The most unique course that I took was probably my Semester in Washington class. I did writings on a novel of my professor's choosing each week ("Confessions of an Economic Hitman"), while during the week, I lived in Washington DC and worked at an internship 5 days a week, 9-5 job and everything. I loved being able to get graded on something that felt like a gift, which was getting a taste of living in the real world for a whole month. I'm a Political Science major, and compared to other departments, it's fairly large, with 10 full-time professors. In any PS class I take, I usually meet with the professor several times during the semester so I can get to know them and feel I've gotten to know my department a little more intimately. My goal is to have had every single PS professor before I graduate! Wheaton's academic reqs are more than what other schools have, in that they require a program of its' own design called Connections. Connection require students to take a class that "connects" to a class in an entirely different department. Students must graduate with 2 "connections", meaning 4 total classes. One example to illustrate what a connection can be is a Political Science course that studies National Security Policy in the 20th century, while they then take a Math course in Cryptography. Wheaton is very much geared towards learning for the sake of learning. When I hear about friends at larger universities say that they have Business majors, or Communications, I only wonder if those departments only exist because they help kids get a job, rather than strengthen their intellect like Wheaton does

Some great professors, each incoming class raises the bar.

The classes I've taken here for the most part have been pretty excellent, and the professors generally know your name (depends on the class size). I've had great classes in Psychology, English, and History so far, and anticipate having great classes in other fields. The requirements here can be really confusing sometimes, but if you need help with them, your advisor or even the registrar can point you in the right direction.