Admissions & selectivity
Wheaton College Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at Wheaton College?
Wheaton College’s reported acceptance rate is 87.4%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 87.4%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
Wheaton College admits 87.4% of applicants, a rate that sits above the median of 71.2% for comparable institutions (same type and size). The college is accessible to most students who apply, though the academic profile of enrolled students shows a prepared class.
What SAT and ACT scores do Wheaton College students report?
The middle half of enrolled students who submitted SAT scores at Wheaton College earned between 1,260 and 1,470. For the ACT, the middle half of submitters scored from 28 to 32.
These ranges describe the 25th and 75th percentiles of the enrolled class, not minimum requirements. An applicant whose own scores sit near the upper end of these ranges would be in line with the strongest quarter of the enrolled class on that measure.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Wheaton College. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
- Approximate lower endpoint
- 1260
- Approximate upper endpoint
- 1470
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.
- 25th percentile
- 28
- 75th percentile
- 32
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at Wheaton College?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 21.7%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 8.7%
- First-year retention
- 92.6%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
Wheaton College is a private nonprofit university in Wheaton, Illinois, enrolling 2,121 undergraduates. Its admission rate of 87.4% sits above the median of 71.2% for comparable institutions (same type and size), which means most applicants receive an offer.
Pell Grant recipients make up 21.7% of undergraduates, and an estimated 8.7% of students enter as transfers or part-time students. The figures point to a campus where financial need is present but not the majority experience, and where most students begin as first-year entrants rather than arriving from another institution.
Applicants who are Pell-eligible or who plan to transfer should connect early with the financial aid and transfer advising offices to understand how their credits and aid packages will apply.
Students who start at Wheaton College tend to stay and finish. The first-year retention rate is 92.6%, and the six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 84.8%.
Both figures run well above the medians for comparable institutions, which sit at 83.4% and 68.8% respectively. Pell Grant recipients in that cohort complete at a rate of 87.4%, which is 2.6 percentage points above the overall six-year rate.
For an enrolled student, the numbers suggest a place where most who begin a degree finish it, and where financial-access students complete alongside their classmates.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.