Westminster College

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From the College

Westminster College offers students a unique environment for learning. A Westminster education is characterized by three features: active and engaged learning, a vibrant community, and a record of success.

In traditional educational models, colleges focus on what is taught and measure student success by the time they spend in classes and the grades they earn. Westminster focuses on outcomes–what students actually learn and what they can do with that knowledge. Students are active participants in their own learning; faculty members are directly involved in mentoring and guiding their development through experiences that are active, experiential, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary; and learning goes beyond mastery of subject-specific skills to College-wide learning goals that integrate the skills and attributes that are critical to success in a rapidly changing world.

Westminster knows that learning takes place out of the classroom as well as within it, so it offers a full range of activities on campus: fifty clubs, health and wellness programming, plays, concerts, lectures, and the like. The College also enjoys the benefits of a diverse and vibrant city that serves as a center of state government, banking, and high technology–all of which students experience through internships, a campus concierge, and classes that expose students to the Salt Lake City’s resources, challenges, and opportunities. In addition, Westminster is located near the Rocky Mountains and provides an outdoor recreation program that can get students to world-class ski resorts within 20 minutes or the solitude of forests or the wonders of national parks.

The College has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report, the Princeton Review, and Kaplan/Newsweek. Its goal is to add value to each student’s experience at Westminster. After graduation, some students have gone to work at firms such as General Electric, American Express, and Hewlett-Packard; others have continued their education at schools such as Columbia, Georgetown, Berkeley, and the University of London.

Westminster is tucked into the quaint and eclectic Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City and provides a welcome academic haven for learners. Distinguished by old-growth trees, a small creek, and a graceful blend of old and new architecture, the urban College campus still provides plenty of green space to enjoy in the midst of the city. The College’s on-campus housing, which accommodates 500 students, includes new apartment-style suites featuring entertainment systems and cooking facilities. Off-campus rental housing is readily available in the neighborhood.

The current enrollment is approximately 2,600. Undergraduates make up 75 percent of the student body, with graduate students making up 25 percent. Students come to Westminster from thirty-seven states and twenty-four countries. The average undergraduate student age is 24, and the undergraduate ratio of men to women is 41:59.

Westminster College offers intercollegiate basketball, cross-country, golf, lacrosse, and soccer for men, and basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, and volleyball for women, as well as men’s and women’s ski and snowboard teams. Most teams compete in the Frontier Conference (NAIA).

Student services include academic advising, career planning and placement, internships, personal counseling, tutoring, and testing.

Residential students are required to participate in a meal plan. Daily selections include a burger bar, a pizza station, a Mexican buffet, a fruit and salad bar, and daily specials.

Salt Lake City, the home of the 2002 Winter Olympics and the Sundance Film Festival, is a metropolitan area of approximately 1.3 million people. Downtown Salt Lake is 10 minutes from the campus by bus, car, or bicycle. Attractions include professional sports events, ballet, theater, concerts, and shopping to suit all tastes. A new campus concierge program facilitates student access to cultural events, recreational and entertainment options, student discounts, and volunteer opportunities. Salt Lake and the surrounding areas have four distinct seasons, with limited amounts of rain and snow in the valley and moderate temperatures. However, the Wasatch Mountains, a section of the Rockies that borders the Salt Lake Valley on the east, are famous for the “greatest snow on earth.” With approximately 500 inches of annual snowfall, these mountains are ideal for winter sports enthusiasts as well as for those who enjoy summer hiking, biking, and camping. Ten world-class ski and snowboard resorts lie within an hour’s drive of the campus, and sixteen national parks and recreational areas are within a day’s drive or less. Golf, backpacking, mountain biking, kayaking, wakeboarding, mountain climbing, canyoneering, spelunking, and rafting are all within easy reach of the campus.

Westminster College offers more than seventy academic programs through its four schools: the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, the School of Education, and the School of Arts and Sciences. Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees are offered in the following areas: art (including a Bachelor of Fine Arts), arts administration, aviation (flight operations and aviation management), biology, business (including an emphasis in accounting, economics, economics prelaw, financial services, finance, international business, management, or marketing), chemistry, communication, computer science, education (early childhood or elementary), English, environmental studies, history, justice studies, mathematics, neuroscience, nursing, philosophy, physics, political studies, psychology, social science, sociology, and preprofessional programs (dentistry, law, medicine, veterinary medicine, and 3-2 engineering). In addition to the above-listed majors, the College offers minors in many of those program areas plus the following areas: anthropology, film studies, French, gender studies, music, paleontology, political science, religious studies, Spanish, special education, and theater arts. Special programs include Honors, Chinese, and Japanese.

By integrating a liberal arts foundation with professional education, Westminster exhibits features of both a liberal arts college and a comprehensive university. Students are challenged to experiment with ideas, raise questions, critically examine alternatives, and make informed decisions. Students are also encouraged to accept responsibility for their own learning, to discover and pursue their passions, and to act with responsibility.

Each student must complete at least 124 semester hours to receive a bachelor’s degree, of which approximately 40 hours consist of liberal arts education core requirements that are common to all students regardless of major. Semester-hour requirements vary among majors, but all students are exposed to liberal arts concepts as well as practical, career-oriented experiences. Credit is awarded for successful scores on Advanced Placement and CLEP examinations.

Students can participate in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program, the U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, and the U.S. Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program through cooperative programs at the University of Utah.

The College has a 4-4-1 calendar, consisting of two 15-week semesters followed by a one-month May term, as well as a summer session. Students who attend full-time during fall and spring semesters earn free May-term tuition.

Westminster students may participate in travel/study trips (for credit) during May term and the summer session. Students can also make individual arrangements for international study by advisement from the College’s International Studies Chair and the Career Resource Center and through a cooperative agreement with the Foreign Study Office at the University of Utah.

Students are encouraged to participate in service-learning activities through the Center for Civic Engagement, to take advantage of internships and other opportunities offered by the Career Resource Center, and to consider work-study opportunities on campus that are designed to be integrated with their more traditional academic activities.

Westminster is also a member of the Utah Asian Studies Consortium, which promotes connections between faculty members and students in Utah and businesses and schools in Asia, offering May-term trips, internships, semester study-abroad programs, and other opportunities in several Asian countries.

Classes are never more than a 5-minute walk away on the pristine, tree-filled 27-acre campus. The careful blend of architecture is illustrated by the Emma Eccles Jones Conservatory of Music and Theatre. The Gore School of Business, Aviation, and Entrepreneurship, one of the most technologically advanced business education facilities in the nation, integrates innovative, new laboratories and state-of-the-art classroom facilities with the Center for Financial Analysis, offering real-time access to world market data, a behavioral simulation lab, and a flight simulation and testing center.

The Flight Operations Center, which includes a state-of-the-art hangar, flight simulators, and thirteen new aircraft, is located at Salt Lake International Airport. The Dolores Doré Eccles Health, Wellness, and Athletic Center includes a lap pool, exercise facilities, and a climbing wall and also houses the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Westminster plans to begin construction of a new Science Center in spring 2008. The building, which will meet exacting environmental standards established by the United States Green Building Council, is designed to encourage interaction between various scientific disciplines and allow students to work with state-of-the-art equipment as part of their classroom activity and Westminster’s extensive undergraduate research program. Current facilities include major classroom buildings, multiple computer and presentation classrooms, a unique bilevel athletic field/parking garage structure, an award-winning library, a ceramics studio, and a nursing laboratory.

All students have Internet access and e-mail accounts, using a high-speed gigabit network. A secure student Web portal consolidates online e-mail, course, and registration services. Network connections abound in all classrooms and every residence-hall room and library seat. Eighty percent of classrooms are set up for multimedia presentations. Technical support is available to students and faculty and staff members seven days a week.

Tuition and fees for 2008–09 were $23,790 for the academic year for a full-time student (12 to 16 semester hours). This figure includes costs for the fall semester, spring semester, and May term. Room and board costs were $6596 for the same period. Books and supplies were estimated at $1000 per year.

More than 95 percent of freshmen at Westminster receive some form of financial aid, averaging $17,773 each year per student. Aid programs include need-based institutional grants and need-based federal aid programs such as grants, loans, and employment (Federal Work-Study Program). The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the only form required for new students seeking financial aid. Students wishing to apply for federal aid programs should plan to submit applications by early April. Merit-based scholarships are available to incoming freshmen and transfer students as well as to continuing students through a generous endowment and institutional aid programs. Every full-time student is automatically considered for merit-based scholarships awarded by the College. The scholarships are based on their GPA from previous academic course work.

Full-time faculty members number 130. The student-faculty ratio is 10:1. All faculty members teach; no full-time research faculty positions exist and no graduate students teach. Many full-time faculty members are actively involved as advisers and sponsors of campus-based student activities. Approximately 94 percent of the faculty members hold a Ph.D. or the highest degree available in their fields.

The official student governing body is the Associated Students of Westminster College (ASWC), which sponsors all student activities and organizations and provides funding and authorization for them. The ASWC is made up of three branches: the executive cabinet, the legislative assembly, and the judiciary branch. The three branches function in a similar fashion to the federal government system. The president of the ASWC is considered the primary spokesperson for the student body and has access to all senior administrators of the College.

Individual applications are reviewed based on a student’s potential for success at Westminster and their potential to add vibrancy to the classroom environment. Academic preparation, which includes both course work and grades, is most important. Also important to the review committee are items such as entrance exams (ACT or SAT), recommendations, and extracurricular activities. A campus visit to meet with an academic counselor is highly recommended, as it helps complete the picture for both the prospective student and the College.

Transfer students must have earned at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA in previous college work. In addition to all other admissions criteria, international students must have at least a 3.0 GPA in non-U.S. high school or college work and a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of at least 550 (or equivalent).

To apply for admission, a student must submit an application for admission, an application fee, and official transcripts of previous high school and/or college class work. Freshman applicants must submit ACT or SAT scores. Applicants are notified of their admission status within two weeks of receipt of all required materials. Westminster operates on a rolling admissions basis, so it’s best to send applications in as soon as possible. To preserve the faculty-student ratio, classes are limited. Westminster College reserves the right to close the class earlier than the dates specified if enrollment goals are met before those dates. New applicants are accepted for the start of all sessions. For application forms and additional information, students should contact: