Wheaton College-Wheaton Top Questions

Wheaton is a diverse campus, though not as racially diverse as it could be. We have "Solidarity Week" each year to talk about race relations and reconciliation. In terms of locations students come from, Wheaton is very diverse. There are hundreds of students from overseas and each class has students from every state. I actually know hardly anyone from Illinois! We all share the common bond of being Christians, but views on politics, society, and church do differ in many ways.

Wheaton as a whole is middle/upper middle class and white. I have several friends who are African-American and Asian who feel frustrated and misunderstood because of this. A club I was in called Solidarity (racial reconciliation) held a week-long event about systemic racism and white-privilege, which was quite controversial. Although all did not hold this position, many became defensive and aggressive, with statements like "You are just trying to make us feel guilty because we were born this way" or "racism died out in the 60s, you're just bringing up old dirt" (paraphrased). The club president even got a lot of hate e-mails and was pressured to cancel the event. This is something we as a school need to work on. However, a small percentage of the school are dedicated to social and ecological issues, and many people I know care deeply and live lifestyles actively pursuing peace and justice. Several of my classes, in fact, teach the Biblical mandate for social justice and the social gospel. I feel like the political, social, and theological views vary by major and department (in general). The sociology, anthropology, and art department students, for example, hold more liberal views than the Bible and Theology department students (this is a generalization). Although many students seem to be from the US, particularly the midwest area, several students are from all over the globe, either as Missionary Kids (we call them MKs) or study abroad students. The majority of students have at least traveled or studied abroad at some point in their life.

Wheaton's student body is great because the students are from everywhere. Its not like going to a state school, or a normal private college where the students are from a concentrated area. All of my friends are from all over the country. My 6 closest friends are from North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, and California. I love having connections throughout the country. That's the great thing about the school. People are from everywhere, and every financial situation. Because of this, I don't really think that any person would feel out of place here. Most of the people at the school are really motivated to succeed, which is really good. You're constantly being held accountable and challenged to do better by your peers, as well as your profs. Although most of the students at Wheaton are fairly comfortable as far as their family's financial background, you would never be able to know. People here don't brag about what their family has, or try to one-up each other. This is really good for people like me, who receive a good amount of financial aid.

Looking around the dining hall, i would see tables of... 1. Conservies: Students at the conseravtory of music. They are kind of quirky, really nice, sometimes nerdy, and often are mostly friends with each other. 2. Football players: Individually they are cool people. As a group they are either hilarious or obnoxious, depending on how easily you are annoyed. 3. Swimmers: Funny and crazy. They have a lot of self confidence and do ridiculous things like dress up is funny costumes and take over for the cheerleaders at football games. 4. Bro-Sis Groups: People who live of corresponding male-female floors and have organized meals together once a week. There are a lot of close friendships formed from living together, and these groups usually enjoy each other's company a lot. 5. Missionary kids: They have similar backgrounds and sometimes band together. They are usually pretty conservative and don't always like american culture. 5. Really random groupings: At a small-ish school, a lot of people are friends with each other who you wouldn't think to place together. It's fun to talk to people who are really different from you, adn there is a lot of opportunity to.

Sometimes I worry about students that are questioning their sexuality, because it's kind of under the rug at Wheaton. Everyone, or almost everyone, at Wheaton is a Christian, and that comes with expectations.

If you're not Christian, Wheaton is not the place for you. Same goes if you're married to the idea of being a chain-smoker, frat-boy or sorority girl (no greek life, sorry), drinker or nymphomaniac--Wheaton's bacchanalians are only these things reluctantly or rebelliously. The LGBT scene is growing comfortably, but is still currently in its early stages; people are trying very hard to start talking about homosexuality, racism, etc. The students at Wheaton are very earnest, and most of them are intense, and very deep people who are all insecure because they were top of their class and now they aren't, because most of the students are pretty quality, pretty top-of-the-class. Wheaton students come in typically very conservative, praise & worship, "I'll pray for you" guitar-strumming evangelical types, and leave liberal, Anglican High Church, some very cynical, others still very optimistic. They're all fairly beautiful and athletic, though. My roommate's called Wheaton the *real* Virgin record store. They say that on a clear summer day you can see it shimmering high above campus: the cloudy frustration of hundreds of sexually-frustrated, uptight college students.

Wheaton is primarily conservative, but there are plenty of moderates, and even a small contingency of liberals.

Wheaton is what you make it. You can find nearly everything at Wheaton. This includes the good along with the less than desirable. The vast majority of the student body follows the relaxed rules we have on campus. However, there are pockets of resistance, as there probably are in every school. In all, Wheaton is a very accepting place. Contrasted to high school, I feel no peer pressure to be someone I’m not or to fit into some sort of mold. When I look at my friends, it does not seem to me like there is any particular reason that we are friends. We don’t have much in common and in high school we probably hung out in very different crowds. We come from the South, the West Coast, the Midwest, the North (or as I call it, AoMY (Area of Mass Yankees)), Germany, and one of us even lives on an Indian Reservation. There’s no rhyme or reason that we are friends, except that we enjoy each others company. There’s no motivation to try to fit a mold because there is no mold. People accept you for who you are as long as you are real. A facade is easy to see at Wheaton.

the student body at wheaton is fairly diverse in my opinion though i'm sure many would disagree. i have nothing bad to say about wheaton students. they are intelligent, talented and make great friends.

Not that diverse. THe school has got to be about 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} white. WASP. The school is mostly filled with rich kids too, although i am definitely not one of those. I have a couple of millionaire friends, but then i have a few friends like myself who live off of the $28,000 i get in grants. All of the students are politically aware and discuss their views alot. Not too many people are swayed by said arguments, but that doesn't stop people from talking arguing...idiots.