Wabash College

National Association of Wabash Men School clearinghouse

Mostly high-achieving students from around the country (and some from other countries) with a predominance of midwestern students who desire a traditional liberal-arts education. The school is one of two remaining all-male schools in the U.S., and there are only 800-900 students on campus. Classes are small, and the professors get to know the students well, sometimes outside class. Every course is taught from the perspective of the traditional liberal arts, requiring the students to understand the history of the discipline or study and the foundations and logic of current thought. Students are required to understand their majors and minors in detail and in a broad scope, and midway through the senior year, students take written and oral comprehensive exams. The college is academically rigorous, and as a result of this (not despite this), the students are close-knit. There is a strong Greek presence on campus, but I was an independent. There is a tradition of intramural competition, but the college is unified in the annual Monon Bell football game between Wabash College and Depauw University, the oldest football rivalry west of the Allegheny Mountains.

There is a very large endowment on a per-capita basis. As a result, the science labs are modern and well stocked, and there is excellent instrumentation. The library is excellent for a school its size. There is a new sports facility, and the weight-training area, for example, is clean, well lit, and well outfitted and is available to all students. There is an ongoing building project to expand the dorms by providing new apartments. Classrooms are comfortable, but most are small because of the small class sizes, and most are inside buildings constructed in Georgian architecture to blend with the rest of the historical buildings around the mall and with the chapel.

The freshmen from the fraternities and sometimes from the dorms participate in Chapel Sing. Until recently, Wabash College had the longest fight song of any U.S. college, and the different groups compete in singing the fight song until only one is left. It must be seen to be appreciated. Sports are popular. Approximately 1/8 of the school is on the football team, and the rest of the school strongly supports their endeavors, especially in the Monon Bell Game against the arch rivals of Wabash, Depauw University. At stake is a 500 pound bell from a Monon Railroad engine. The first century of the competition ended in a tie. Wabash has the lead in the current century. Intramurals are popular, and competition is among fraternities, independents, and faculty.