College of Wooster - Definition and Overview

The College of Wooster is a liberal arts college with fewer than 2000 students located in Wooster, Ohio, in Wayne County, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian church as the University of Wooster, it was from its creation a co-educational institution. The school is a member of The Five Colleges of Ohio and the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

It became racially integrated in the 1880s, an undergraduate-only college in 1915, and independent from the church in 1969, although it maintains a loose affiliation with the Presbyterian church, particularly through its cooperation with the Westminster Presbyterian Church, which uses the College's McGaw Chapel for its services.

The College of Wooster is noteworthy for its Independent Study program, under which all students complete a thesis or other significant project in their senior year. The program has received considerable attention from other schools, and other colleges have modeled programs after it. In 2003, the IS program was recognized by US News and World Report as the second best "senior capstone experience" in the US, coming in behind Princeton. This unique approach to education has kept Wooster competitive against other more well known colleges, making it 14th in the nation among independent colleges whose graduates earned Ph.D.'s between 1920 and 1995 (according to the Baccalaureate Origins of Doctorate Recipients, 1998). Wooster is also notable for its high percentage of international students, the majority of which come from India and Pakistan. Distinguished faculty have included Dijana Plestina, who was the first lady of Croatia.

Wooster is a member of the NCAA Div-III North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Its school colors are black and old gold, and its mascot is the "Fighting Scot." Scottish culture is an important part of the school's spirit - its football games, in addition to the standard marching band, features a small pipe band. In recent years, the athletic teams at Wooster have had considerable success. Among other achievements, the baseball team has made three appearances in the NCAA Division III World Series and a league-record nine NCAC championships; the men's basketball team has nine NCAC regular season championships, nine NCAC Tournament titles, and 12 appearances in the Div-III NCAA Tournament; and in 2004 the football team went undefeated in the regular season and won its first outright NCAC conference championship.

The current president of the college is mathematics professor R. Stanton Hales, former United States singles badminton champion and senior United States singles badminton champion in 2002.

Notable Alumni

• Karl Compton - President of MIT (1908)

• Arthur Compton - 1927 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics (1913)

• Donald L. Kohn - Member of the Board of Govenors of the United States Federal Reserve (1964)

• Timothy Smucker - C.E.O. of J.M. Smucker (1967)

• Vince Cellini - current host on The Golf Channel and former anchor for CNN Sports (1981)

External Links

• The College of Wooster (http://www.wooster.edu)