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School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
Wilkes University is a private university in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, small enough that faculty mentorship and personal attention define the undergraduate experience across every program, with an urban downtown setting rather than a traditional isolated quad.
Academics
Pharmacy, nursing, and engineering are Wilkes' recognized strengths, delivered with hands-on clinical and lab access that a school this size can offer more readily than larger competitors, and the low-residency MFA in creative writing has built a genuine national reputation, drawing students well beyond the region for its brief-residency model.
Campus & student life
The downtown Wilkes-Barre setting integrates the campus into the surrounding city rather than separating it, giving students direct access to local internships and city life within a compact urban footprint; the school's small size means most students find close relationships with faculty and classmates alike.
Getting in
Admission tends to favor demonstrated interest in Wilkes' professional programs — pharmacy and nursing applicants in particular should expect a review attentive to science preparation — over an elaborate essay-driven liberal-arts process.
After graduation
Pharmacy and nursing graduates place strongly into regional healthcare systems, and the creative writing MFA's low-residency alumni network extends well beyond the immediate region given the program's national draw.
Worth knowing
The low-residency MFA program's national reputation is a genuine outlier for a school this size and regional profile — prospective writing students should know it competes with well-known creative writing programs despite Wilkes' modest overall size.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
wilkes.edu ↗High school coursework
Required4 years of English · 3 years of social studies · 3 years of mathematics (algebra required for nursing) · 2 years of science including a lab (biology and chemistry for nursing)
Recommended4 years of mathematics and 4 years of science preferred for science-related programs
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