Graduate Academic Policies and Information

The graduate programs of Wheaton College focus on areas of strategic importance to church and society where our historic strengths enable us to make distinctive contributions to the world of Christian higher education. These strengths include clear commitments to the supreme and final authority of the Scriptures, a tradition of excellence in academic pursuits rooted in the liberal arts, and a commitment to bringing Christian faith and learning together in the context of a dynamic community of faith.

These carefully planned graduate programs seek to bring Christian belief and perspectives to bear on the needs of contemporary society. Students have the opportunity to work closely with accomplished teacher-scholar-practitioners and where possible, with accomplished scholar-practitioners outside of Wheaton. We provide academic and professional preparation that will enable the committed Christian student to articulate a biblical and global worldview and to apply it to service for Christ and His Kingdom.

The graduate programs are designed to enable our graduate students to:

• develop an appropriate graduate-level mastery of an academic discipline and of its methods of scholarly inquiry and professional application;
• develop a biblical framework for understanding their discipline in order to integrate faith, learning, and practice effectively;
• develop interdisciplinary breadth and inquiry through our required component of biblical and theological study and through exposure to the broader liberal arts emphases of our academic community;
• pursue their own holistic development in the context of this dynamic community of faith in order to prepare to serve Christ and His Kingdom throughout the world;
• effectively serve to improve society and building the church—locally, nationally, and globally—in their chosen vocations by using critical thinking skills in the disciplines.

Since the integrating core of all of our graduate programs is our institutional commitment to grounding academic study in Christian truth (i.e., “integrating faith and learning”), foundational knowledge of the Scriptures is a prerequisite to successful study here. Many students bring rich experience from domestic and global Christian ministry to their graduate studies at Wheaton College, and many Wheaton College graduate alumni have in turn made distinctive contributions to church and society around the world.

Graduate studies at the master’s degree level are available in Biblical Exegesis, Biblical and Theological Studies, History of Christianity, Old Testament Archaeology, Theology, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, Teaching (Elementary and Secondary), Outdoor and Adventure Leadership, Intercultural Studies, Evangelism and Leadership, Leadership, Ministry Leadership, Missional Church Movements, TESOL and Intercultural Studies, Higher Education and Student Development, and Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership.

A Ph.D. in Biblical and Theological Studies; a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology; a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology; and a D.Min. are also offered.

Several non-degree graduate level certificate program are also available: Certificate in Biblical and Theological Studies; Missional Church; Organizational Leadership; Trauma Certificate; Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL); Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL); Trauma. A post-master's certificate is available in Marriage and Family Therapy.