Founded by the Sisters of Charity of New York, the College of Mount Saint Vincent is an academically excellent, authentically inclusive, independent liberal arts college. Committed to the Catholic tradition and ecumenism, the College combines a strong core curriculum with a full array of majors in the liberal arts and, within the tradition of liberal education, selected professional study fields.
At Mount Saint Vincent, a student's education extends beyond knowledge, skills, and work preparation. We seek the development of the whole person. In the spirit of Vincent de Paul and Elizabeth Ann Seton, we foster an understanding of our common humanity, a commitment to human dignity, and a full appreciation of our obligations to each other. Mission Statement of the Office of Professional and Graduate Studies.
The Office of Professional and Graduate Studies is the College's entrepreneurial arm. Its programs are consistent with the College's Mission, extensions of strengths in the Undergraduate College, and contribute positively to the College's net income. It offers academically excellent undergraduate, graduate, and not-for-credit programs to adult students seeking professional advancement credentials.
Through the Office of Professional and Graduate Studies programs, the College calls professional and graduate students to extend education beyond knowledge, skills, and work preparation. In the spirit of Vincent de Paul and Elizabeth Ann Seton, the College fosters an understanding of our common humanity, a commitment to human dignity, and a full appreciation of our obligations to each other.
Vibrant though it was, the French royal order of the Ancien Régime was awash in racism, chronic war, hierarchical privilege, and systemic injustice. Saints Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac evaded many of their day's doctrinal and political battles. This Vincentian message is the charism of the Sisters of Charity. It summarizes the moral foundation of democracy. It is the reason the Sisters of Charity founded the College of Mount Saint Vincent: to prepare themselves and others for lives of accomplishment, leadership, and service. Democracy releases people from oppression—oppression imposed by power, exacted by privilege, or afflicted by circumstance. An excellent education is democratic. It enables people to employ their gifts both for their well-being and in service to others.
In 1817, one hundred and fifty years after Saints Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac inspired France; Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton sent a contingent of Sisters of Charity from Maryland to New York City to staff an orphanage on Mott Street. Knowing that children need not only care but also education in order to thrive, the Sisters began founding schools, beginning at Mott Street and eventually spreading across the diocese. This was the beginning of the parochial school system of New York. Soon, they had what may well be the first system of genuinely free schools in the world, using revenue from those who could afford to pay to open free schools for those with no financial means at all.
Building on its strengths, the College of Mount Saint Vincent aspires to be recognized among the finest, most authentically inclusive, Catholic and ecumenical liberal arts colleges. Toward that end, the College has adopted this Ten-Year Strategic Plan, which will guide its annual priorities and focus on how the College allocates its resources.
A College of Mount Saint Vincent education prepares students for careers, not just jobs. Through a strong core curriculum, a broad array of majors and minors, and robust pre-professional programs, students build analytical and critical thinking skills. Our students develop a lifelong commitment to ethical inquiry and clear, persuasive communication. Students are offered abundant opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world experience. This depth and breadth give students the knowledge, experience, and wisdom needed to lead an accomplished, meaningful life.
Exceptional faculty will support and challenge you while guiding your educational and professional development. Stimulating and relevant, our curriculum fuses the most sought-after elements of a proper liberal arts education to enhance your critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. Our history, deeply rooted in the Catholic tradition, will strengthen your decision-making with moral and philosophical principles. The campus—located along the banks of the majestic Hudson River with views of the iconic George Washington Bridge, just minutes from midtown Manhattan—is idyllic and inclusive. Your classmates, like you, value service, mutual respect, community involvement, and the College of Mount Saint Vincent legacy, built on service to others and the whole person's development.
For more than a century, the College has grown, revised curricula, become coeducational, added a constellation of majors, added undergraduate and graduate extension programs in what is now called the Office of Professional and Graduate Studies, and stayed abreast of and led innovations in higher education.
The College's mission has been consistent throughout. It offers undergraduate programs of exceptional quality in the Catholic and ecumenical tradition. Its abiding commitment to liberal education is based on the conviction that the liberal arts offer adequate preparation for a life of accomplishment, responsibility, leadership, and service. Therefore, across all disciplines, students are required to develop a repertoire of analytical skills, critical thinking, and clear oral and written expression. Confident that a good life demands thoughtful judgment, the Mount calls every student to learn about religious, moral, and ethical thinking. It lives its motto: "Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge."
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