An Undergrad's Guide to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio

*Note: the Writer is a third-year undergraduate student in the College of Liberal Arts at Wright State University. She has lived on and off campus. This information pertains only to the Dayton campus, and may not be accurate for the Lake Campus in Celina, OH.*

The summer after I graduated from high school, I visited family in California. While shopping, a friendly shop owner asked me where I was going to college. "Wright State," I said, not thinking that this man would know about the public liberal arts school in the backyard of an air force base. He laughed and said, "Wright State, wrong school."

Wright State is the jealous younger stepbrother of Ohio's premier public universities--Ohio State, Ohio University, and Miami University at Oxford, to name a few. Wright State tries so hard, and luckily it has a nearby community college to make it look better, but it never quite measures up. But for all its faults, it has a good atmosphere, competent staff, and a lot to offer for someone just looking for a medium-sized local school.

Academics and Staff

Wright State is on a quarter schedule. Each quarter of the main academic year is ten weeks long. Several summer sessions are also available. The school year begins the week of Labor Day and ends in mid June. Winter Break begins the week of Thanksgiving and ends after New Year's Day, totaling six weeks; classes are available during this time. Spring Break is in March and is one week long. The benefit of this schedule is that each year, you can take more credit hours than a semester schedule would allow you, and the long Winter Break spares commuters from about a month of nasty winter driving. The disadvantage is that often classes seem rushed in order to accommodate all of the pertinent information.

The WSU logo from the website

Credit: ?

Copyright: Wright State University