<p>I am a sophomore at Wheaton North HS. Its legit 3min away from Wheaton College. I'm debating on whether to consider Wheaton as one of my college choices. The only thing holding me back is that I lived here my WHOLE life, and anyone who does can agree its boring af. Only thing to do is to take the train to Chi-town. I have my pros and cons about the school.</p>
<p>Pros:
-Academics are well known and ranked
-Athletics are REAL popular for a DIII school
-I have loved Wheaton College since I was five
-I hope to play soccer there(the womens team is amazing and I go to the games all the time)
-Lots of people from my hs and local hs around us go here(I will know people right off the bat)
-Awesome facilities
-Great spirituality(sp?)
-No parties or alcohol(I'm not a drinker or partier but I know how to have a good time)
-Friendly ppl</p>
<p>Cons:
-I live 2 min away...I need to get away from my family
-Some of the people are WAY to sheltered
-Im Christian, but these people act as if they are married to God, if know what I mean
-Lack of diversity. As many times as I drove past the campus to go to school, downtown, a friends house library etc. I have NEVER seen a black person? I'm black and I'm afriad ill be the only one haha.
-I will be bored on weekends</p>
<p>My top choices are(reaches):
Marquette U
U of Pittsburgh
U of Minnesota-Twin Cities
U of Maryland-College Park
U of Illinois-Urbana Champain</p>
<p>Safeties:
U of Mizzou-Columbia
U of Kansas
U of Iowa
Kansas State U
Michigan State U( kind of reconsidering: too many racist hate crimes against blacks have occured lately...)</p>
<p>So if anyone who attends Wheaton College that can give me feedback about your experience there I would love it! </p>
<p>I don’t attend Wheaton College, but my son is considering applying there next year. </p>
<p>When we visited, our tour guide was African-American, so I can tell you that you wouldn’t be the only one there!</p>
<p>I find it interesting that most of the colleges on your list are public colleges, while Wheaton is a small Christian college, a fact that you might also want to note on your list of pros and cons.</p>
<p>This would likely be your opinion if the people with whom you talk are primarily evangelical and/or local to the college, but in the larger population you’d find very little recognition of the school.</p>
<p>While the general public is not aware of Wheaton’s academic strength, the academic world is. Certainly Wheaton is considered stronger than the other schools on the OP’s list.</p>
<p>Is cost a factor? Wheaton is not cheap at all, especially compared to most state schools. </p>
<p>As for diversity, while Wheaton may not have a large black population, it is probably more diverse in many other ways than the other schools on your list–it would probably have a higher proportion of out-of-state and out-of-country students than most schools which brings true diversity of culture and thought.</p>
<p>In my experience in PA and NY the general academic public is very aware of Wheaton’s (IL) academic strength. The valedictorian NMF from our (public) school is going there next year on a pre-med track.</p>
<p>If a person feels a school is only as good as their sports team, then no, one is not likely to know Wheaton.</p>
<p>Wheaton’s Common Data Set reports that there are 64 undergraduate students who are African American, with a total undergraduate student population of more than 2,400. That doesn’t sound like a significant amount of diversity, if this is a factor that is important to you.</p>
<p>As another poster said, all of your choices are mostly D1 states. Even if you didn’t live close to Wheaton, that seems a strange mix. Would Wheaton be a choice if it were a thousand miles away? If not, don’t consider it because it’s close. The D1 schools may be tough places to play varsity. Have you been recruiited at the D1 schools? Wheaton does have a good reputation as LA.</p>
<p>Wheaton is a small school, mid 2k. Marquette has about 8k. All the other schools are large publics. You are only a sophomore. Take some time to visit campuses to decide the profile of the school you may want to attend:</p>
<p>Urban/Rural
Big / small
D1 / D3 / Club soccer?</p>
<p>Wheaton is very religious. In that profile there are schools like Hope, Calvin, St. Olaf, Gustavus and many others in the midwest that have varying levels of required religious participation. Wheaton has mandatory chapel, I don’t think the others do.</p>