Wheaton offers over 40 majors in the Natural and Social Sciences, Humanities, Biblical and Theological Studies, Communications and the Arts including six majors in the Conservatory of Music. These include opportunities for co-research with faculty, internships, and honors programs, with superior academic credentials that open doors to top graduate programs.
Our new Christ at the Core curriculum deepens students’ capacities to discern God’s truth across multiple disciplines through robust Christian thought with an eye toward calling and career.
Shared Core
These courses foster developmental learning with special attention to integrating faith with learning through a First-year Seminar (38 class sections across 17 disciplines, reading four common texts), Old and New Testament, as well as Christian Thought classes, an Advanced Integrative Seminar that focuses on a major world problem, and finally, a core curriculum Capstone Experience.
Thematic Core
These courses allow students to shape their own learning experience to their intellectual needs and vocational calling through the many creative course offerings within ten multidisciplinary themes.
The Result?
According to Dr. Sarah Miglio, Director of Core Curriculum Studies and Assistant Professor of History, “First-year students are excited after having engaged with senior level faculty in their core classes. The faculty are, in turn, deeply engaged with the core material and investing in students. This focus on what it means to study the liberal arts, and what it means to have a vocation or calling, is transforming the way our faculty teach and the way our students learn.”
Student Audrey Young ’20 came away from first-year seminar with a renewed and reinvigorated vision of learning for all of life; “Liberal arts are a beautiful way of learning by immersing oneself into a variety of academic disciplines in order to gain knowledge and a better understanding of the world. We immerse ourselves in Christian liberal arts to: glorify God, get shaped into a whole person, and broaden perspectives so as to better relate to people and spread the gospel. We pursue liberal arts not just for ourselves, but for the glory of God.”
Faculty
According to Psychology Professor Dr. Richard Butman, “A substantial body of research clearly indicates that the impact of higher education can be accurately measured both short-term and long-term. The impact of positive interactions with professors and peers appear to be especially powerful, closely followed by ‘disciplined reflection’ in difficult and demanding times. When I think about why a Wheaton education can potentially be so powerful, I know it is often a function of access to authentic and credible role models, the power of a healthy and supportive community, and the challenge of learning to think carefully, critically and courageously.”
For Wheaton graduates like David Choi ’16, who went on to graduate school at Yale, “It came down to figuring out what I was passionate about and then finding professors who were willing to help nurture those passions. As teachers and mentors, Wheaton professors like Dr. Keith Johnson have equipped me with insight and encouragement to bring me to where I am today. I’ve also learned how to think, read, speak, and write with clarity and critical open-mindedness due to the lessons I learned from my professors throughout college.”
Dr. Gina Yi's (Assistant Professor of Music Education) encouragement to international families: “For someone seeking an academically rigorous and Christ-honoring campus life, Wheaton is the place to come. Wheaton College is serious about investing time, thought, and resources into being good stewards of the wholesome development of our students. Parents can be assured that their children will be well taken care of in body, soul, and spirit even away from home. Four years of college life is critical for young adults. What makes Wheaton special, I feel, is the extent of time and thought that we invest into stewarding students through this vulnerable phase.”
Dr. Michael McKoy, (Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations), who spent 2 years as a missionary in China notes, “When I first came to Wheaton, I learned that it was a critical initiative of President Ryken for Wheaton College to be a truly international campus, to develop its international partnerships. Wheaton is special in that it has a vision of our campus, For Christ and His Kingdom, spanning the globe and welcoming all as equal brothers and sisters, part of the same God-honoring body. Wheaton seeks international students so that we might love each other and serve each other, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.”