New York Times calls Wheaton a hidden gem

NORTON, Mass--The New York Times identified Wheaton as one of the nation's "hidden gems," excellent schools that more people should consider, in its July 30 special section on higher education.

National reporter Randal C. Archibold wrote that Wheaton and the other 19 colleges he highlighted "stress undergraduate teaching, have established or rising scholarship, even if they come up short on standardized test scores, and are alternatives to the usual suspects. They're not a good fit for everyone, and represent just a small sample of America's riches." [Click on the image to read the full story.]

Wheaton was featured as a solid alternative to New England's larger and more widely known institutions, such as Harvard and Yale:

"With Boston's powerhouses nearby, it's easy to overlook small, solid colleges like Wheaton, which lack the cachet and cash of their urban peers. But Wheaton, which was once a women's college, is singled out as a choice for students looking for a more intimate experience. [George D.] Kuh cites its seminar for new students, taught by a team of advisers made up of teachers, administrators and older students. In a program called "Connections," aimed at broadening perspectives, all students must take sets of courses on a single topic from different departments. For example, the "African Diaspora in the New World" connection entails classes from the music, history and sociology departments. Students are urged to make their own connections."

Kuh is the director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University Bloomington and of the National Survey of Student Engagement. Wheaton was one among the colleges he and his co-authors featured in the 2005 book, Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter.

Among the other colleges featured in the Times story were Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.; Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa; Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio; and Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

"In their caliber of undergraduate teaching, many lesser-known campuses...are on equal or near-equal footing with brand-name universities, and in some ways are more three-dimensional," Archibold wrote.