While it may be difficult to describe or measure, you and your son or daughter will likely know “good fit” when you experience it, just as admission officers see that same “good fit” in a successful applicant, as they strive to build the best and most diverse learning community possible.
Dear Prospective Wheaton Parent,
Last year, our daughter, Erin, was invited to serve on a panel during a campus visit program at Wheaton. Hearing her discuss why Wheaton is such a special place provided a vivid reminder of her own amazing years at Wheaton. As a member of the Class of 2008, Erin had an incredibly enriching experience--extraordinary for her to be sure, but also very typical of the transformative experiences of others in the Wheaton community.
Erin's dream since middle school has been to become a marine mammal trainer--a goal she has already reached as a trainer working with harbor seals, fur seals and sea lions at the New England Aquarium (NEAQ). She has also worked in the Rescue/Rehab department at NEAQ, and spent five summer and winter Wheaton internship periods working with dolphins in Key Largo. She also spent a summer at the Whale Center of New England doing research on humpback whales. Two of her summer internships were supported in part by stipends as a Wheaton Community Scholar and a Wheaton Fellow.
Peacock Pond at Wheaton was not exactly a saltwater sanctuary for the killer whales, dolphins and seals that Erin aspired to work with upon graduation! But the excellence and flexibility of Wheaton's faculty and curriculum and the strong encouragement for students to stretch beyond the boundaries of the Wheaton campus certainly played important roles in Erin's development. She studied abroad in Australia where, in addition to her coursework, she gained valuable experience scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. She spent a semester in the very intensive Williams-Mystic Maritime Studies Program in Connecticut which also included field study periods on the East, West and Gulf Coasts. And she took advantage of Wheaton's curricular flexibility to enroll in a whale biology course at Brandeis University.
Outside the classroom, Erin worked as an animal caretaker in Wheaton's vivarium, in the days before the completion of the new Mars Center for Science and Technology, which I understand is just amazing! She also did independent primate research with one of her professors. All these, and many other amazing experiences, contributed to the mosaic that became her Wheaton education, with Wheaton values and excellence at the core, coupled with other opportunities for growth that literally spanned the globe.
The college search process can be daunting. Finding the right one, where both student and parents feel the "fit" is just right, can be challenging. In our case, it was incredibly easy! Erin had attended a Nike Field Hockey Camp at Wheaton during high school and something about the campus, people, athletics, and yes, the academics, all clicked. While we visited a number of other schools, Wheaton was ultimately the only place Erin applied. Before the first snowflake landed that year, she was in!
The process may not be that easy for everyone, but my main point is the importance of "fit.” And while it may be difficult to describe or measure, you and your son or daughter will likely know "good fit" when you experience it, just as admission officers see that same "good fit" in a successful applicant, as they strive to build the best and most diverse learning community possible.
In Erin's case, she was looking for a small campus, where one could get to know a significant portion of the campus community. As a parent, the size offered opportunities to chat informally with the President, the Athletic Director, the Deans of Students and Admission, and certainly the coaches, faculty members and others who had such a major impact on Erin's college experience--something quite different than the Big Ten university where my wife and I did our undergraduate studies!
Erin’s closest friends are her Wheaton teammates and classmates—and she sees many of them on a fairly regular basis. Even during these challenging economic times, all of her Wheaton friends landed great initial jobs in their fields. They all seem pleased with their career choices, as well as the academic and life lessons offered by Wheaton. That has certainly been Erin's experience as well, and I hope that it will be for your student, wherever he or she ends up. Hopefully for many of you, that place will be Wheaton!
If you have questions about the resources available for your student at Wheaton, please visit a special section of the Admission web site designed for you.
Good luck with your search process!
Dave Weber,
Director, Corporate and International Relations
MIT Sloan School of Management
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