Wilkes University is a school in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. About 5,000 students enroll to be a part of this school. The campus was established in 1933 but was originally a smaller campus on the property of Bucknell University. The school became independent in 1947. A teacher at Wilkes, Eric Ruggiero, met with one of the writers of the Buzz for a Zoom interview about his role as a professor and what other things he does for the university. He explained what Wilkes has to offer students at Damascus High School as well as other high schools across the country. Ruggiero is “considered a[n associate] professor” and “also [is] the department head. We are called department chairs. [He has been teaching for] 27 years.” He is also on the Admission and Financial-Aids Committee. He is in charge of budgets and economics at Wilkes. Roggeiro referred to it as “running a small business [called] the department.”
Sense Roggiero is on the emissions committee; he has a lot of insight on what modern day schools look for in a college essay. He said“they are looking for what is the key for success, so if you have a low GPA you kind of have to convince them on how they are going to succeed…” He also explained that colleges want students who will stay for all four years of college so their retention rate stays at a solid percentage.
Wilkes University’s mascot is a Kernel named John Wilkes who lived around the time of The American Revolutionary War. Roggiero says that right now “they have been trying to downplay him because he’s kind of scary so we are just going with the big W.” Wilke’s acceptance rate is at 94% and “there are probably over 2,000 and in the graduate world it’s 6,000.” At Wilkes you need to have 12-18 credits per semester to move on with your college experience Also, since it is a private school, they are “self funded and can’t get money from federal purposes or grants, [their] money is based on enrollment, [they] are an enrollment driven university.” This means that they get their money from inside the school instead of being funded by the state. “[Their] money generally comes from tuition and services like dining halls, dorms, donors, and endowments”. Their school has four deans but used to have five due to budget cuts. Also Wilkes is one of few schools that doesn’t look at SAT or ACT scores and if you take them, for final decision making if you get accepted (if you get a beyond high score then you can show it for accomplishments). Therefore their GPA requirement is at “2.5 while some are under.”Their next open house is in early November, and virtual tours are available.
Like many universities, Wilkes has dorms that are welcome for all students to live in. Roggiero states that, “Wilks requires you to live on campus for two years but then after that you can live off campus, wilks have probably about 30% commuter population.” Upperclassmen have different dorms that look like apartments ( some have kitchens in them.)
*When it comes to a campus the first thing that comes to mind for people is the food. Wilkes offers a range of food options including vegetarian options.
Wilkes University is as Roggiro says “considered a liberal arts college.” On the downside there is “less of a general education” but on the other hand that means it’s an art school [so it is] going to be creatively oriented.” So that means that you wouldn’t be able to major in English or math but you can major in more art oriented things. Therefore if you want to get a degree in BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) you should know that it “is the highest degree of the undergrad program.” So if a student would want to work toward this they would have to know that “the Bachelor of Fine Arts kind of means to implore that the majority of your courses are outside of the general education so that 60% are done in the creative arts.”
Most colleges have a football program. Football is important for the college culture and for students to gather together as a community. Wilkes has an exceptional DIII football team and over half the student population plays a sport. Roggiero says that “sports is pretty big at Wilkes, they have a high percentage of sports. They have a pretty robust sports culture. [The main sports students are into] are basketball and football.”
Moving on to Roggiero’s department, he is the chair of ‘Integrative Media’ and his degree is in “digital design and media art, so we are digital content creators.” He works in a computer lab where he teaches with (at most) 16 kids. His class is for kids who want to “[create] logos or could be motion kids, or want to be interactive kids who do video games.” In his courses, students can make pieces for their portfolios for future job resumes. In shorter terms, he is there to “give direction and guidance and ideas” for students who need help in his area of specialization. His favorite part of teaching is “the students” are the most fun part about teaching and see “we all start from nothing and become something.” All things considered, if you want to go to a liberal arts college on the east coast then Wilkes University is for you!
