In this program, faculty are selected as faculty-in-residence for a multi-year term, live in houses located on-campus, and create and host in their homes educational and social programs around a specific theme, such as health and society, writers and writing, alumni connections, and Spanish culture.

On April 19, 2017, the law school announced that it would stop admitting students and begin the process of shutting down.

[11]Whittier College has traditionally enrolled 1000–1500 undergraduate students, allowing most classes to be seminars.

[citation needed] The Whittier Poets compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of NCAA Division III.

Its current teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, lacrosse and water polo, women's softball and volleyball, and men's baseball and golf.

[16][17] The history of the Whittier football program began in 1907, and since the inception of the SCIAC in 1915, the Poets have won 26 conference titles.

From 1957 to 1964, Whittier won eight straight SCIAC football titles under the direction of coaches George Allen (1951–1956), Don Coryell (1957–1959), and John Godfrey (1960–1979).

The Poets were the team to beat throughout the 1990s, and it was not until 2000 that Whittier decided to make their mark on the national scene by leaving the WCLL and focusing on being selected for the NCAA tournament.

On November 15, 2022, it was announced that Whittier College would discontinue its men's lacrosse program after the conclusion of their season.

[16][17] The Whittier men's and women's swimming and diving teams earned Academic All-American status—the women for the fourth straight year and the men for the first time after the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) announced the programs who achieved this honor for the 2015 Fall Semester.

[18] Notable alumni include former U.S. President Richard Nixon;[19] actress Andrea Barber, known from the television comedy Full House and Fuller House;[20] video blogger Cassey Ho;[21] actors and brothers Geoff Stults,[22] and George Stults; and author Jessamyn West.