St. Mary's College of Maryland

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As Maryland’s public honors college, St. Mary’s offers an undergraduate liberal arts education and small-college experience like those found at exceptional private colleges. St. Mary’s shares the hallmarks of private institutions:

• an outstanding faculty
• talented students
• high academic standards
• a challenging curriculum
• small classes
• a sense of community
• a spirit of intellectual inquiry

But as a state institution of higher education, St. Mary’s is also committed to the ideals of affordability, accessibility, and diversity. By combining these virtues of public and private education, St. Mary’s provides a unique alternative for students and their families.

St. Mary’s is named for the place it marks: the 17th-century capital of Maryland. The spectacular waterfront setting is in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay region. The campus is 68 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., and 95 miles south of Baltimore.

Founded on the site of Maryland’s first capital, the College stands as a living legacy to the ideals of freedom and inclusiveness. Our beautiful residential campus on the banks of the St. Mary’s River inspires our work, our play, and our commitment to the environment.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland is Maryland’s honors college, a selective, public liberal arts college-a vibrant community of scholars and learners. We foster a rigorous and innovative curriculum experiential learning scholarship and creativity, close mentoring relationships, and a community dedicated to honesty, civility, and integrity. We are committed to diversity, access, and affordability. Our students, faculty, and staff serve local, national, and global communities and cultivate social responsibility.

The Board of Trustees is the governing body of St. Mary’s College, charged by the Governor of the state with responsibility for the institution's financial, administrative, and academic affairs. The College is distinguished from other public college boards by a 1992 charter that grants the Board of Trustees control over the governance and policies of the College. The Board of Trustees consists of 26 members, 23 of whom are appointed by the Governor. The President of the Alumni Association, an appointed student, and a representative from the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission are the remaining three members. The Board also selects the President of the College, who also serves on the Board. Additionally, there are 26 Trustee Emeriti.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland has been widely recognized for its successes. Ranked among the top 100 Kiplinger’s list of best values in public colleges (2016) and the top 10 best public liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report (2016), SMCM continues to build upon its solid reputation for academic excellence under Dr. Jordan’s watch. Under her leadership, the College continues to analyze and assess its programming to ensure students are provided opportunities to be engaged, productive global citizens and leaders.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland will increasingly serve as the liberal arts college of choice for intellectually ambitious students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds, attracted by a rigorous, innovative, and distinctive curriculum that integrates theory and practice a talented, professionally engaged, and student­ centered faculty and staff and a robust infrastructure. Students will be part of a collaborative learning community that embraces intellectual curiosity and innovation, the power of diversity, and the College’s unique environment. Our graduates will thrive as responsible and thoughtful global citizens and leaders.

The Core Curriculum provides the foundation of St.Mary’s College’s commitment to a broad liberal arts education. The fundamental liberal arts skills–critical thinking, information literacy, written expression, and oral expression–are the cornerstones of a liberal arts approach to education and are essential to our integrative curriculum. In the core courses, you will ask questions, identify issues, and solve complex problems, both within and across disciplinary boundaries. In so doing, students develop an openness to diversity of all of its forms, learn about the global community and environmental stewardship, and demonstrate social responsibility and civic-mindedness.

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