What’s so unique about Wilkes?

If you’ve been looking at colleges, you’ve seen the pictures on all the websites. Beautiful buildings on a well-kept campus. Students chatting in the cafeteria. Professors sharing their knowledge in a classroom. Crowd shots at commencement. After a while, all those websites and all those colleges start to look the same. So what makes Wilkes unique?

Wilkes is a small university.

We have about 2,500 undergraduate students on campus, so you’ll get to know your classmates by name. And you’ll receive personalized attention from your professors, not a glance from a graduate student in a 500-seat lecture hall.

• We offer big opportunities. Wilkes is the only university of our size to offer the broad mix of professional and liberal arts programs we do. You’ll have the opportunity to choose from numerous majors across six different schools. If you can’t pick just one, you can double major or combine a major and a minor. Double major in engineering and digital media. Major in accounting and minor in Spanish. With so many different programs, you’ll have a wide range of options. (If you’re a math major, you can figure out exactly how many.) In addition to bachelor degree programs, Wilkes offers  master's degree programs and doctoral/terminal degree programs including the doctor of nursing practice, doctor of education, doctor of pharmacy, doctor of philosophy in nursing and master of fine arts in creative writing.
  
  
• A Wilkes education is worth it.The Economist ranked Wilkes University 25^th in the nation for economic value by comparing what our graduates earn to what they might have earned if they had studied elsewhere. The Brookings Institution, Money magazine and technology company Smart Asset have also recognized the value of a Wilkes education. We know that our commitment to academic success pays off for our students, but it’s great to see others catching on.
  
  
• We believe in hands-on learning. Lectures and study groups are vital parts of the college experience, but the Wilkes faculty wants you to put that book learning to good use. Students have worked with Dr. Abas Sabouni on technology that could revolutionize breast cancer screening, and others summered north of the Arctic Circle with Dr. Ned Fetcher researching the effects of climate change on plants. The staff of Zebra Communications, our student-run public relations agency, have conducted fundraising campaigns for the Salvation Army. At Wilkes, you’ll have the opportunity to work side by side with your professors, gaining research experience as an undergraduate that students at other schools can’t even think about until grad school.
  
  
• You won’t spend all your time studying. But that doesn’t mean you’re not learning. As an NCAA Division III school, Wilkes gives you the opportunity to be a true student-athlete. You can choose from 20-plus sports, competing for the love of the game rather than the requirements of an athletic scholarship. We encourage a balance of academic and athletic excellence, while the Division III season also gives you the time to participate in other cocurricular and extracurricular opportunities. Speaking of other activities, Wilkes has more than 100 clubs and organizations on campus. So whether you’re an all-star forward or a comic book aficionado (maybe both), you’ll have plenty of opportunities when you’re not hitting the books.
  
  
• We’ll help you jump-start your future. At Wilkes, your future as a business leader can start right now. As a freshman business major, you’ll take a class where you build a company from the ground up. No matter your major, you can work with our business incubator. The incubator provides encouragement and support for student-run businesses, from idea to product development to marketing.  One of those businesses, Kraken Boardsports, started as a mechanical engineering assignment. While still students, the Kraken team manufactured a winch that allows athletes to snowboard without a hill and wakeboard without a boat. Kraken has caught waves, business accolades and the attention of board sports enthusiasts, launching a business well before the team donned their graduation caps.  
  
  
• Your success is our job, and we love our job. One of our greatest assets at Wilkes is the quality of our people. Our faculty and staff are committed to student success both in and out of the classroom. Need to get in touch with your professor? You’re likely to have her cell phone number. Looking for an internship? The director of cooperative education will strive to make the internship experience a perfect fit. Stressing about finals? Tony in the cafeteria is sure to notice and is more than willing to help with a smile and some words of encouragement. At Wilkes, we’re committed to you, and that commitment doesn’t stop when the workday ends.
  
  
• We’re proud of our past and excited about our possibilities. You’ll see the statue of our namesake, John Wilkes, in the center of campus (sometimes he even dresses for special occasions). We love showing off our stately mansions, which are the former homes of business leaders and coal barons. Our history is important to us. But we’re always looking to the future. In just the last few years, we’ve made significant investments in the Karambelas Media and Communication Center, the Sordoni Art Gallery, the Cohen Science Center, the Sidhu School of Business and Leadership, the Passan School of Nursing and the campus gateway project. We invest in our campus because we’re dedicated to your future.

What’s so special about Wilkes? It’s the size, the program mix, the value, the people, the opportunities, the past, the future.  All of these factors combine to make Wilkes one of the most unique universities in the county. Wilkes offers the programs and activities of a large university in the caring, mentoring culture of a small university. Now the only thing missing is you.

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Policy Statement of Nondiscrimination:
Wilkes University does not discriminate on the basis race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, marital or family status, military or veteran status, or genetic information in its programs and activities. For more information, contact Samantha Hart, Title IX Coordinator, 10 East South St., Wilkes-Barre (570) 408-3842 or the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights for more information.