What matters is right here.
Head of the class.
Land the lead role. In a play. On a paper. For a research project. With a business. For student goverment. Front and center. What happens at Mary Washington sets the stage for the rest of your life. This is where you come into your own — where you decide what matters most to you as a student and a human being. And the world is better for it.
Level up.
Every groundbreaking solution begins with deep understanding.
At Mary Washington, we get to the root of learning with small classes led by expert faculty, chances for collaboration and independent study, and course sequences that advance knowledge. Find a field you love, give your mind room to roam, go on adventures, take risks, seek out intersections, chase answers, and create fresh insight. You’ll be prepared to think broadly and find solutions, no matter the area of study.
In the classroom and beyond, our courses overflow with inquiry and exploration. Deep thinking and doing happen daily here. We go for collaboration over competition. You’ll work with professors who double as mentors. They’ll help you tap into your strengths and talents. This is how you find your full potential.
A Top 10 Public Liberal Arts College in the Nation - U.S. News & World Report
14:1
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO
20 STUDENTS PER CLASS (AVERAGE)
100% CLASSES TAUGHT BY PROFESSORS
100+ majors, minors, and programs. Study biology or psychology. Check out cybersecurity or communication and digital studies. Major in management and entrepreneurship, or put yourself at the front of the classroom in education.
Mentors who count.
Our professors encourage you to become a key player in the universal human quest to make things better. Consider them your betterment team.
Real research.
Study the complexities of brain cancer or investigate climate variability in the Chesapeake Bay. We’re investing more than $1 million each year to support undergraduate research, building on an alum’s generous $35 million gift to support STEM fields, plus a Beyond the Classroom endowment to advance research across all fields.
Real experience. Explore an area of interest with an internship opportunity. Spend the summer in the lab, studio, or field, fully funded with a stipend and on-campus housing through summer institutes.
“Best Value” College for students seeking a great education, excellent career services at an affordable price.The Princeton Review
Hands-on learning works.
Imagine delving into modern true crime, perfecting the craft of storytelling, or deconstructing Disney’s America. Our first-year seminars (FSEMs) offer an introduction to meaningful inquiry. Guided by outstanding professors in small classes, you’ll learn how to attack a problem. Mine for new solutions. Argue your position. And foster communication. Plus, our peer
mentoring program connects you with an upperclass student to help you with anything and everything.
Our historic preservation program, which teaches you to understand and protect history, and our communcation and digital studies program, are among the nation’s best. In our Social Good Lab, you’ll use a “Design Sprint” framework (pioneered by Google Ventures) to prototype solutions for some of the world’s most pressing problems. Or maybe you’ll trek out to Myanmar for an internship. Or intern for the CIA in cartography. Mary Wash students do. BTW, it’s the norm for our students to present at conferences, competing — and winning — against grad students.
To live is to learn. To experience is to grow. Now, that’s what really matters.
UMW Internships
American Red Cross
City of Fredericksburg
Department of
Homeland Security
Library of Congress
Madison Square Garden
Miami Dolphins
National Aquarium
National GeospatialIntelligence Agency
National Public Radio
Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division
Smithsonian Institution
U.S. Congress
U.S. Geological Survey
Walt Disney World
Ready for life at Mary Wash?
Your college experience matters, and you’ll learn just as much beyond the classroom as you do in it. See major performances on Ball Circle, in Klein Theatre, or at the Battleground Athletic Complex. Discover exhibits by alumni and student artists or show your own work.
We’ll cheer you on every step of the way!
Love Your Team. You’ve got a ticket to every UMW Eagles home game, for free! We’ll save you a seat.
Make this home.
Our campus is gorgeous, green, and full of opportunity. Join outdoor events or hang out with friends in Adirondack chairs on Ball Circle. Bring ideas to life in the Seacobeck makerspace or Hurley Convergence Center Incubator Lab.
Use the green screens for video production, record a podcast in the studio, or finish a piece in the multimedia editing lab. Get creative. Catch some sun and/or Frisbees. Play a pick-up game or pick up an on-campus job.
A little campus lore: Earn an intramural champion shirt. Play BINGO. Don’t step on the seal. Go sledding at Brompton. Celebrate ASPIRE Week. Go to Grad Ball. Jump in the fountain at least once before you graduate.
RESIDENCE HALLS
ACRES
Classmates, Community, Champions.
Your undergraduate experience at Mary Washington begins before the start of classes, with Eagle Gathering lighting the way, an ice cream social at the President’s house, and a downtown welcome weekend. You’ll have expert guides, from orientation leaders to peer mentors, helping you navigate those first days.
We’ll encourage you to walk the walk, Campus Walk that is, which connects campus to the surrounding community and chronicles our history. It’s where
alumni reconnect for in-person reunions and the annual Multicultural Fair brings everyone together.
Your next steps start here, surrounded by friends, classmates, and eventual colleagues. From research and creative projects with faculty mentors to ways to intern and earn credits off campus to partner programs that lead to graduate school and professional degrees, your transcript will check all the requirements for academics and co-curriculars.
“It is a really special place to learn, further your academic pursuits, and be encouraged stepping into a career after your time at UMW.”
- Fiske Guide to Colleges
Top 3 for internships and making an impact in Virginia. - The Princeton Review
Learn to lead.
The UMW Honors Program, Presidential Emerging Leaders Program, and Impact Program provide ways to step up. Join a community within the UMW community. Stretch yourself to learn more. Get lost in conversation in a cohort. Grab a cup of tea. You might be here awhile.
Be open to change. There’s a culture of trying new things here. Take the lead in one of 150+ student clubs and organizations. Contribute to a studentrun publication. Book big concerts with the Campus Programming Board. Team up with friends in an intramural league or join the esports team. Work toward an invite to an honor society. Claim your space on campus your way. It’s not about fitting into a mold. It’s about being the absolute best version of yourself.
Here you’ll be surrounded by people – professors, mentors, friends, classmates, community neighbors – who inspire you to aspire to more. Call us compassionate and passionate about connections and finding the ways we can work together. Each person is drawn here because they want to find their way to make an impact.
3,800+ STUDENTS FROM
33 STATES AND
15 COUNTRIES
This is a place of traditions — from Homecoming in the fall to Devil-Goat Day held right before the last day of spring classes. We see you. At UMW, we will help you make the most of everything you have to offer.
Find your place.
Our hometown, Fredericksburg, is cool and artsy, with lots of coffee options. Walk the Canal Path along the Rappahannock River. Paddleboard. Kayak. Tube. Get off campus and into the world. We’re right between (50 miles each way) D.C. and Richmond, so you’re close to résumé-building, life-changing internships, opportunities, and networking.
8
DAILY COMMUTER TRAINS TO WASHINGTON D.C.
1
MILE TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER
7
DIFFERENT COFFEE SHOPS WITHIN 1 MILE OF CAMPUS
Just steps from campus is historic downtown, full of museums, music, weekend farmers markets, and festivals. Watch the tulips bloom in spring and catch the FredNats in summer, followed by fireworks. Learn about the history of the area with a ghost tour, and skate through the winter season with a holiday rink at the riverfront park.
Dig in.
Do what you love. Always make it matter.
UMW Eagles go the distance. We’re NCAA Division III and focused on the studentathlete experience. We’re a nationally recognized athletic department within the division. Our people are Student-Athletes, All-Americans, Paralympians, and All-Stars. We reach that level because of deep support from our coaches, staff, campus community, alumni, and parent groups. We work together to be the best versions of ourselves.
Service runs deep with Mary Wash studentathletes. Count on us to be there for the things that matter. We’re volunteering with Special Olympics, running community basketball clinics, and flexing muscle by mentoring local youth.
Find what matters to you — the next championship, a new personal best, your team — and then go for it with all you’ve got.
18
NCAA DIVISION III
SPORTS
Baseball (M)
Basketball (M/W)
Cross Country (M/W)
Field Hockey (W)
Lacrosse (M/W)
Soccer (M/W)
Softball (W)
Swimming and Diving (M/W)
Tennis (M/W)
Track and Field (M/W)
Volleyball (W)
TEAM SPORTS
Esports (co-ed)
Equestrian (co-ed)
Rugby (M/W)
20+
CLUB SPORTS
Rowing. Swim. Ultimate Frisbee. Cheer. Even Winterguard and Fencing.
12 Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference All-Sports awards
250+ NCAA championship tournament appearances
367 All-America honors for student-athletes
Top skills of a Mary Wash grad: Career, self-development, and professionalism
Civic engagement and community service
Communication
Critical thinking and problem-solving
Digital fluency
Global awareness and intercultural competence
Leadership
Meaningful connections
Teamwork and collaboration
Well-being and mindfulness
Ready for life after Mary Wash.
Life After Mary Washington is just as important as your time here, and we’ll make sure you are prepared, not to just land your first job but to be able to navigate your career through what matters to you.
That’s what we do.
Own every moment.
We’ve intentionally created the space for you to take giant leaps – intellectually, socially, and personally. That’s true whether you are competing for our NCAA Division III athletic programs, joining one of our team sports such as esports as a student-athlete, leading a club or student organization, signing up as a peer mentor, engaging in service throughout the community, interning, or creating your own path forward. You’ll have the tools, techniques, and technology at your fingertips, friends by your side, and resources to advance in whatever field you choose.
We’ll help make it possible, through on-campus connections, nearly 700 student employment positions, competitive financial aid and scholarship awards, and a network of nearly 50,000 alumni who are ready to welcome you.
90%+ of graduates
ARE EMPLOYED, IN GRAD SCHOOL OR IN MILITARY OR PUBLIC SERVICE WITHIN SIX MONTHS OF GRADUATION
“In the top 20 universities nationally for making an impact and internships”
- The Princeton Review
Top Employers of UMW Grads
Amazon
Americorps
Arena Stage
Booz Allen Hamilton
Fidelity Investments
KPMG
Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC)
Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC)
Peace Corps
Teach for America
The Architect of the Capitol
Truist
U.S. Department of Defense
United Airlines
Walt Disney Company
Apply: umw.edu/apply Visit: umw.edu/visit
Discover: umw.edu/marywash Connect
Phone: (540) 654-2000
Email: admit@umw.edu
@MaryWash
@MaryWash
UniversityofMaryWashington
University of Mary Washington
