Admission & Aid
Living on Campus
For a small community such as Whittier, living on campus is an integral part of the college experience—and here, you will find our eight residence halls serve as the primary artery for student life and activity.
Whittier College is committed to providing a co-curricular environment which enhances and enriches the academic program, and which provides students with opportunities for personal and social growth, self-discovery, and an appreciation of one's responsibilities to self and others.
Residential living throughout your years at Whittier, our first-year living-learning communities, and our Faculty Masters' Program all combine to foster a sense of community, facilitate the integration of the individual into campus activities and organizations, encourage an atmosphere of free and wide-ranging expression of ideas, and develop in each person capacities for self-direction and deep concern for others.
Whittier College does require the majority of its students to reside on campus, unless they meet specific criteria for off-campus housing.
LIVING-LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Entering Whittier College, all first-year students are assigned to a Living-Learning Community (LLC) in one of three designated residence halls: Johnson, Stauffer, or Ball Hall. Typically, an LLC will consist of about 15 students who, as a group, live together as roommates and/or in rooms in close proximity, and are co-enrolled in two classes together: a Freshman Writing Seminar (FWS) and another "linked" course. The purpose of the LLC is to engender an immediate connection between smaller groups of entering students to ease the transition to college life, beginning with a common academic grounding and growing to include social activities and events.
FACULTY MASTERS HOMES
A part of Whittier College's residential experience unmatched at any other school on the West Coast is the Faculty Masters Program, which combines educational and social programming in a more intimate and informal setting, modeled after similar programs at Oxford and Cambridge universities. Located in the heart of campus, the three masters' houses are each awarded to a faculty-in-residence, whose multi-year assignment is to plan and host a variety of experiences exploring a designated theme. Faculty Masters' events feature noteworthy professionals—from authors and artists, to musicians and entrepreneurs, to politicians and scientists—and enable students to interact with, listen to, and often dine with an invited speaker. Recent guest participants in this program include world-class author Maxine Hong Kingston, "Supersize Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Mario Mancuso.
