UMW Viewbook (English)

Find what matters to you.

Have a point of view.

Get behind a cause. Go down a rabbit hole of trailblazing research and never look back.

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.

Open your mind wide.

As a public liberal arts university, we stand for that kind of bold knowledge-building. While we have three colleges (Arts & Sciences, Business, and Education), we approach learning by giving your mind room to roam, go on adventures, take risks, seek out intersections, chase answers, and create fresh insight. We prepare you to think around corners and solve problems you’ve never imagined, let alone studied.

Our small classes buzz 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 set your potential free.

Every groundbreaking solution begins with free-range thinking.

One of “America’s Best Colleges”

90+ majors, minors, and programs. Study Arabic or virology. Tackle anthropology field research. Explore AI. Dive into anime or oceanography. Discover string theory. Find what sparks your soul.

Mentors that count. Our professors help you become a key player in the universal human quest to make things better. Consider them your betterment team.

13:1 STUDENTS TO FACULTY RATIO

<19 STUDENTS PER CLASS

100% UMW CLASSES TAUGHT BY PROFESSORS

Real research. Study the complexities of brain cancer or investigate climate variability in the Chesapeake Bay. We invest $750,000+ yearly to support undergraduate research. Imagine – we could support yours.

The UMW Honors Program. Internships. Research. Creative Projects. Service. Join a community within the UMW community. Work oneon-one with a professor in the Honors Commons. Get lost in conversation in a cohort. Grab a cup of tea. You might be here a while.

The Princeton Review

Break some new ground.

Mentoring program connects you with an upper-class student to help you with anything, everything.

A few First-Year Seminars:

Game Theory

Forbidden Texts

Imagine debating sexist apps and toxic tech, tackling race and revolution, or deconstructing Disney’s America. Our First-Year Seminars (FSEMs) throw you and a small group into the deep end of a topic. Guided by outstanding and astounding professors, you’ll learn how to attack a problem. Mine for new solutions. Argue your position. And foster communication. Plus, our Peer

Our Historic Preservation program (one of the nation’s few) teaches you to protect and understand history. Our Digital Studies program is one of 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 our 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.

Endurance Sports

Climate Change and Energy Resources

The Geography of the Global Food System

One of “America’s Top Colleges and Universities”

-

Make stand.yourPush for change. Be a force for good.

Be an eco warrior at Downtown Greens, Fredericksburg’s nonprofit urban greenspace. COAR, our student-run service program, connects you to it and more.

Never doubt

the importance of the small actions.

How you choose to spend your time and what you opt to break a sweat for matters. President Troy Paino picks up trash on campus. Our students paint

picnic tables as a community service project. Here, your voice matters. Your ideas matter. And you have the potential to flip the world on its head.

A short list of what matters to us: MAKING DINING HALLS MORE SUSTAINABLE. MUSIC AND MENTAL HEALTH. BEING A STUDENT LEADER. MAINTAINING THE HEALTH OF OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS.

SWIMMING. VOLUNTEERING AT THE MOSS FREE CLINIC. SOCIAL JUSTICE. THE PERFORMING ARTS. DIVERSITY AND EQUITY. BLACK LIVES MATTER. OUR HONOR COUNCIL. STUDYING HOW MENTAL HEALTH AFFECTS BODY CHEMISTRY. KINDNESS. VOTING RIGHTS AND REFORMS. WATER RIGHTS.

15,500+ hours Yearly, that’s how many hours UMW students dedicate to community service.

#7 in the nation UMW is #7 among small schools and institutions for alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers. We have our own Peace Corps Prep program with hands-on experience and professional development support.

Civil Rights Activist. Freedom Rider. Teacher.

The driving agent behind the first Freedom Ride in 1961, James Farmer Jr. was known as one of the “Big Four” civil rights leaders. He founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). And he once played dead in a hearse to escape Louisiana state troopers. Eventually, he became one of our professors.

The UMW James Farmer Multicultural Center is a place of open minds, new ideas, honest conversations, and community building. We’re discussing

public policy, voting access, poverty, free speech, criminal justice reform, and more. It’s home to our Social Justice and Leadership Summit and the Diversity Peer Education/ Farmer Fellows programs, campus ambassadors, and advocates for diversity, inclusion, and equity. Our Multicultural Fair brings 4,000+ people together to experience art, music, culture, and lots of food.

Never stop growing your thinking/ acting/changing. It matters.

“Courage, after all, is not being unafraid, but doing what needs to be done in spite of fear.”

- James Farmer Jr

Be a work in progress.

One of “America’s Best Colleges”

- Forbes

Be open to change. There’s a culture of trying new things here. Take the lead in one of the 150+ campus clubs and organizations. Join our studentrun newspaper, The Blue and Gray Press. The Geek Alliance is dedicated to anime, video games, and Dr. Who 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.

We are the only public university in Virginia that doesn’t have football or Greek life. That says a lot about us, but it’s far from our full story. We surround you with the people — professors, mentors, friends, fellow campus dwellers — who inspire you to aspire to more. Mary Wash people are unconventional, big-hearted, openminded, honorable, compassionate, and passionate. They’re drawn here because each person wants to find his, her, their way to uniquely make an impact.

4,300+ STUDENTS FROM

33 STATES AND

21 COUNTRIES

This is a place of traditions — from Eagle Gathering on Ball Circle at the start of your UMW experience 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.

We’re one of the top producers of U.S. Fulbright scholars. That means we’re smart, world-savvy, and going places.

Make this home.

Hop on a bench – stay a while. Bench-sitting is one of our most popular traditions. It’s our way of connecting as a community. It’s even an Urban Dictionary entry and uniquely us. Like dance breaks in one of our 17 residence halls and apartments. It’s family here.

Our hometown, Fredericksburg, has a cool, artsy downtown 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-making, life-changing internships, opportunities, and networking.

On campus, it’s gorgeous, green, and full of opportunity. Bring ideas to life in our ThinkLab maker space. Head to Ball

Circle to catch some sun and/ or Frisbees. Use the video green screens at the Hurley Convergence Center (aka our academic commons) or record a song in the multimedia editing lab. Get creative.

STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS

56 COUNTRIES

We live by a code. No lying. No cheating. No stealing. Period.

Hardcore.

Do what you love. Always make it matter.

UMW Eagles go the distance. We’re NCAA Division III and conference champs. Our women’s swim team dominated the CAC Conference for 30 years straight. We’re nationally ranked in tennis, lacrosse, and soccer. Our people made the U.S. Paralympics Swim Team. They’re named All-Americans, All-Stars, and Scholar Athletes. They reach that level because of deep support from the coaches. We work together to be the best versions of ourselves.

Service runs deep with Mary Wash athletes. Count on them to be there for the things that matter. They’re volunteering with Special Olympics, running community basketball clinics, and flexing muscle out in the community garden.

Find what matters to you — the next championship, a new personal best, your team — and then go for it with all you’ve got.

Welcome to the Battleground!

The UMW Eagle Athletic Complex is home to outdoor varsity teams, rugby teams, and indoor and outdoor tennis complexes.

20+

CLUB SPORTS Crew. Fencing. Ultimate Frisbee. Color guard. Cheer. Even ice hockey and Quidditch.

19

NCAA DIVISION III

SPORTS

Baseball Basketball (M/W)

Cross country (M/W)

Field hockey

Horseback riding (Co-ed)

Lacrosse (M/W)

Soccer (M/W)

Softball

Swimming (M/W)

Tennis (M/W)

Track and field (M/W)

Volleyball (W) +

USA Rugby D1A (M)

USA Rugby Division II (W)

This is about more than landing a job.

This is about building a life of meaning, a life that matters — to yourself, the people you love, and the world at large. That’s what we do at Mary Wash. And why this public university should matter to you.

Let’s go build your future: one that matters.

Make each second count.

We see you — your potential, your purpose, your future. We’ll be your partners in working toward it. That’s what we specialize in at Mary Wash. Then we connect you to internships, study abroad, research projects, community services — the experiences that will take you to the next level.

Take our theatre program. It teaches you every part of what it takes to create a performance - on stage and behind the scenes. This is where you’ll make theatre. That’s why our graduates are performing and working on Broadway. Other grads go on to lead teams developing cutting-edge treatments

for infectious diseases. They’re documentary and movie producers. Brand managers. Artists. Teachers. Nurses. They’re difference-makers — leading local nonprofits and volunteering overseas. And 89 percent of the class of 2020 are employed or pursuing grad school right now. We partner with graduate schools to offer accelerated pathways in engineering, law, and medicine available only to UMW students. Get fueled on experience. Once you’re clear on what matters to you, nothing will hold you back. Make each moment matter.

One of the “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” - Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine

$40 million+

IN FINANCIAL AID EACH YEAR

A Few Internships

U.S. Congress

Miami Dolphins

American Red Cross

National Aquarium

Madison Square Garden

Library of Congress

Walt Disney World

National Public Radio

Smithsonian Institution

U.S. Geological Survey

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

City of Fredericksburg Planning Agency

Department of Homeland Security

Connections matter.

Abigail Phelps ’21 is keeping the stories of Alaska homesteaders alive as an intern at Soldotna Historical Society and Museum.

Ready

find what matters to you?

umw.edu/marywash

Connect with us.

An unconventional, absolutely friendly, be-yourself public university in Fredericksburg, Virginia, filled with dynamic, smart, compassionate people – and lots of bricks and trees.