Mary Washington College Admission
Mary Washington College Undergraduate Program
Mary Washington College Application

The Facts

Mary Washington College is a moderately sized, public, liberal arts and sciences school located in the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and is home to over 3,600 undergraduate students and approximately 600 graduate and part-time professional students. The school is perhaps best known for its difficult general education requirements, as well as for the one-on-one attention received by students. The school also has a wonderful student research program that is driven by the college’s large endowment fund. Some of the most popular majors include business administration, psychology, biology, English, and history.

Admission to Mary Washington College is pretty competitive, but as the years progress, the applicant pool has been growing both in number and accomplishment. Last year, over 4,500 students applied for admission to the school, and approximately 2,700 of those students were accepted; of those, about 900 matriculated. The admitted students had an average combined SAT score ranging from 1130 to 1300, and an average comprehensive ACT score ranging from 25 to 29. Additionally, over 88% of those admitted were ranked in the top 25% of their high school graduating class with an average high school GPA of about 3.63.

Mary Washington College has a deceptively large student to faculty ratio of 17:1; however, it is rare to find even a freshmen class with more than thirty students. Some of the upper level classes are even small discussion groups of about ten students. The professors always make an effort to get to know each and every one of their students, and make sure they are available as often as possible, and have even been known to give out their home phone numbers so they can be available literally 24-7. Another academic plus is that no teaching assistants or graduate students instruct any undergraduate classes at the college.

The Social Scene

The town of Fredericksburg is located only about fifty miles away from Washington, D.C., and the city is very easily and cheaply accessible by train. Many students do own cars, so weekends road trips are a popular option. The Mary Washington campus itself is quite lovely; the buildings are old, but kept in mint condition. There are no cars allowed on campus, so the grounds are extremely quiet and pedestrian friendly.

There are no fraternities or sororities at the school, and drinking is less than popular among MWC students. While there isn’t much to do in the surrounding town, the student activities committee brings plenty of activity to campus. There are movie nights, improv and comedy shows, concerts, and even a coffee house to keep students' weekends quite full. Sports are also another popular activity, and the school offers everything from synchronized swimming to rugby.

The dating scene is quaint, to say the least. We do hear that there are some very attractive aspiring CEO's...

What’s Good

“The campus is just gorgeous, and it’s nice to be able to do your work on the weekends in peace.”

“The dorms are amazing, and they feel more like furnished apartments than anything else.”

“The environment is extremely focused, and it makes it easy to concentrate on what’s important.”

What’s Bad

“There is absolutely no party scene here, which is pretty depressing. On the weekends, you have to go to D.C. if you want to have any kind of fun.”

“The school isn’t really diverse, and you get pretty sick of seeing the same homogenized people over and over again.”

“There is nothing to do in Fredericksburg besides go to the grocery store. If you don’t have a car, it’s pretty boring.”

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