Westminster College (Pennsylvania)
liberal arts college in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania
Westminster College is a private liberal arts college in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1852, it is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The student population includes approximately 1,300 undergraduate and graduate students.
History
Westminster was formed as a result of a meeting on January 21, 1852, between the Ohio and Shenango Presbyteries.
Campus
Westminster is located in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, a town of approximately 2,100 residents located 50 miles (80 km) north of Pittsburgh and 80 miles (130 km) south of Erie and Cleveland on a 300-acre (120 ha) campus. The S. R. Thompson House was built by college professor S. R. Thompson in 1884 and is now a dormitory.
Academics
Westminster College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In the 2025 U.S. News & World Report college rankings, Westminster College was ranked 108th (tied) of 211 national liberal arts colleges. Westminster College has been named one of the nation's top 100 liberal arts colleges by The Washington Monthly in its 2025 College Guide and Rankings.
Student organizations
The college has a Student Government Association that exists primarily for governing and providing entertainment for the student body.
The public source identifies “Westminster College (Pennsylvania)” as liberal arts college in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Westminster, College and Pennsylvania.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Westminster College (Pennsylvania)”, the useful work is to connect “liberal arts college in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7989148. Authority coordinates are 41.119, -80.328. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1884 and 2025.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Westminster College (Pennsylvania)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Westminster College (Pennsylvania) primary sources, Westminster College (Pennsylvania) archive and Westminster research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Westminster College (Pennsylvania)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Westminster College (Pennsylvania)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.