Engaged Students

A Westminster education is centered on action, participation, and experience—the best ways to learn. Applied learning is emphasized across the curriculum, making it easy for students to connect knowledge to real-world situations. And Westminster’s professors are there to serve as mentors, guiding student’s learning experience every step of the way.

Westminster College is nationally recognized for its intense focus on individual students and their learning. Students master content-specific material while developing clearly defined skills and attributes critical for success in a rapidly changing world. Students who value learning by doing appreciate Westminster’s unique approach. Westminster emphasizes collaboration over competition and active learning over large lectures. Students often work in teams, sharing a variety of perspectives, and faculty members are experts at blending theory and practice. Students take what they learn in the classroom and extend it into a wider arena of hands-on experience through learning communities, service-learning projects, undergraduate research, and May-term classes. As a result, Westminster students are fully engaged in their own learning.  Evidence of the active engagement of Westminster students includes the following:

• Westminster leads the state in the number of students completing one or more internships before graduation.

• More than 40 percent of students participate in service-learning activities sponsored by the college. In fact, in 2010-2011, Westminster students contributed more than 67,000 hours of community service.

• Every Westminster freshman is required to participate in a learning community, which offers enriched opportunities to develop close relationships with faculty and fellow freshman, right from the start. These classes are team taught by two professors, each with a different academic focus, who work together to provide an integrated learning experience.

Great Teaching

Westminster is distinguished by its emphasis on what students learn, instead of simply what is taught. Faculty come to Westminster College because the focus is on students and their learning. Professors serve as mentors, guiding students who are active participants in their learning, and helping them to discover their passions.

Active, collaborative, experiential, and cross-disciplinary learning are part of every course and every program. Students are required to be active participants in the learning process, not just someone sitting in the back of a classroom taking notes!

Students can choose from more than 70 academic programs, including 38 undergraduate majors, as well as additional minors and other special programs, such as Honors, Westminster Scholars, the McNair Scholars program, and Winter at Westminster. The average class size is just 17, so all students have plenty of opportunity to participate, and the 11:1 student to faculty ratio ensures plenty of personal attention, guidance, and close relationships, in and out of the classroom.

The college’s facilities and technology resources further enhance this focus on student learning. For example the 60,000-square-foot Meldrum Science Center features integrated classroom and lab space, so professors and students easily transition from theory to application. Students also access eight learning centers across campus and participate in undergraduate research, practicums, and internships, applying knowledge in innovative and practical ways, both inside and outside the classroom. As a result, students learn not only course- specific content, they master college-wide learning goals including communication, problem solving, teamwork, and leadership skills that are essential for success in a rapidly changing world.

Vibrant Community

Westminster’s vibrant campus community is diverse—undergraduate and graduates, residents and commuters, students of all ages, from all different kinds of backgrounds. But with a total enrollment of approximately 3,400 individuals, everyone can have a big impact on this campus.

Westminster students enjoy the excellent academic, residential, cultural, and recreational resources typically expected at a nationally recognized liberal arts college. With the campus ideally located in the eclectic Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City, adjacent to the Rocky Mountains, Westminster students have plenty of opportunities both on and off the beautiful campus.

• On campus, Westminster offers a packed schedule of concerts, plays, lectures, art exhibits, films, and poetry readings. ASWC, the student government, also sponsors events including Wild Wednesdays (comedians, casino nights, all the pizza you can eat for a dollar—something different every week.), and there are also more than 50 active student clubs.

• The Griffins are comprised of 17 intercollegiate sports teams, including men’s and women’s basketball, lacrosse, soccer, skiing and snowboarding, golf, cross country, and track, as well  as women’s volleyball. Most teams compete in the NAIA.

• Sugar House features a eclectic collection of shops, coffeehouses, restaurants, and cafes, all within a 10-minute walk from campus.

• In downtown Salt Lake, 10 minutes away, students can take advantage of internship and employment opportunities with business firms, high-tech companies, health care facilities, financial institutions, and state and local government. Additionally, Salt Lake is home to professional sports teams including the Utah Jazz, the Utah Symphony and Opera, Ballet West, many professional theatre companies, and a thriving art and music scene.

• Skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, rock climbing, backpacking, kayaking, canyoneering-just about any outdoor activity you want is easily accessible from Westminster's campus. In fact, the school is just 30 minutes from seven world-class mountain resorts, including Snowbird, Alta, Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley, and The Canyons. Westminster is also just a few hours drive from Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Yellowstone National Parks. The college's Outdoor Recreation program helps students take advantage of these amazing resources.

• Westminster even has a campus concierge desk to connect students with events, activities, and discount tickets on campus and in the area.

Successful Outcomes

Westminster is recognized for the quality of its educational environment. This recognition stems, in part, from the college’s commitment to graduating students who have mastered the college-wide learning goals considered essential for personal and professional success in a rapidly changing world. These learning goals include critical, analytical, and integrative thinking; creative and reflective capacities; leadership, collaboration, and teamwork; writing and other communication skills; and global consciousness, social responsibility, and ethical awareness.

Ultimately, Westminster measures its success by the success of its graduates.

• An extraordinary 99% of alumni surveys said that the education they received at Westminster was “good” or “excellent”.

• Of those responding to an alumni survey, 85% of Westminster students go on to graduate school or are employed within five months of graduation.

• A Utah Foundation study found that Westminster graduates have among the highest starting salaries of any university graduates in the state.

• A greater percentage of Westminster students participate in internships than at any other school in the state.

• Some companies that have recently hired Westminster graduates include American Express, Ballet West, Ernst & Young, Fidelity Investments, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett Packard, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Morgan Stanley, Price Waterhouse Coopers, school districts statewide, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, and Zions Bankcorporation.

• Some of the graduate schools that have recently accepted Westminster graduates include Babson College, Columbia University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Georgia Tech, Harvard University, Kings College, New York University, Notre Dame University, Stanford, University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, and Yale.