Franklin & Marshall College offers students a hands-on education that emphasizes close relationships with faculty. With a 230-year history of academic excellence, the college unleashes students' potential to help them achieve beyond what they thought possible. Students flourish in a supportive community that treats them as individuals, and their successes continue long after F&M. The college is a national leader in launching students and alumni to make a difference in the community and the world.
F&M's unique College Houses are the first step on a journey where students find unique places to belong. These are not the run-of-the-mill dormitories. In these lively hubs of intellectual and social activity, faculty dons and deans partner with students to create affluent learning communities.
F&M has built a national reputation for launching students to success beyond college. More than 90% of graduating seniors reported working, pursuing post-graduate education full time, or being involved in a fellowship or volunteer activity within ten months of graduating.
There is a heartbeat of F&M. You can feel it pulsing through the conversations in the classroom. You can hear it pounding in Mayser Gym when the Diplomats defend the home court. Moreover, you can sense it swelling with pride at Commencement. Before long, every member of our community becomes a part of that heartbeat.
At F&M, the cornerstone of the educational experience is students working side-by-side with faculty who want to help them test ideas, not just talk or read about them. These are not experiences students have to wait until graduate school to pursue. It is a core part of what we do. More than 50 percent of F&M seniors participate in an independent study or self-designed major, far more than students at other leading national liberal arts colleges. Our students develop intellectual skills and have real-life experiences that serve them well beyond graduation.
Students who learn to confront today's world's complex issues become the leaders who solve everyday problems in whatever path they choose in life. The Franklin & Marshall curriculum provides a framework for our students' intellectual development over their four years at F&M. It helps them become creative, responsible, and ambitious participants in learning who will be exceptionally prepared to live and work beyond their years in college.
At Franklin & Marshall College, we believe that undergraduate research can be a student's most meaningful and significant experience at F&M with the careful mentoring of a faculty supervisor. It should not be a "rare" experience for just a few hand-picked students.
At Franklin & Marshall College, we believe that college is not a four-year break from the real world—it is the beginning of a lifelong, life-changing engagement with the world. We believe that college is an invitation to do more, discover more, and start now.
Your source of all things Franklin & Marshall: enrollment, demographics, fields of study, our home city of Lancaster, etc. F&M offers 59 fields of study spanning the liberal arts continuum to satisfy your curious mind and provide a solid foundation for life after college. We are committed to making a Franklin & Marshall education affordable for all deserving students. More than half of our students receive some form of need-based aid. Think of the college search and application process as an adventure. There will be amazing discoveries, a-ha moments, and the occasional detour, but your perfect college fit awaits at the end of the journey.
There is a robust global presence at F&M. With 15.6% of our students coming from countries outside of the United States, we value students' perspectives from different cultures. They enrich our campus community. F&M is a welcoming place for transfer students. We offer orientation programming for incoming transfer students to ensure a smooth transition. We hope you will make F&M your new college home.
With a distinctive approach to college housing, more than 140 active student clubs and organizations, dozens of fitness classes, club and intramural sports teams, its art museum, and abundant opportunities to engage in volunteer service, Franklin & Marshall provides students with a vibrant campus life experience to complement their academic pursuits.
Activity in student groups, the arts, civic engagement, and athletics and recreation all enhance the culture of teaching and learning at F&M by allowing students to form new friendships, create meaningful and memorable community experiences, discover essential life lessons outside of the classroom, and make the most of their years at F&M.
As Benjamin Franklin, one of our college's founders put it so well: "Tell me and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn." We invite you to get involved, to open new horizons of learning and service. The classroom might provide you with intellectual grounding, but the 115 or so clubs and organizations at F&M offer fun and independent exploration of favorite topics.
F&M's College Houses are more than mere places to hang out, sleep, and study. They are places to acquire and hone leadership and collaboration skills. Moreover, to help fuel all of that activity, Campus Dining provides an innovative and appealing dining services program. From late-night rides around Lancaster to reserving meeting space, finding out if the nearest washers and dryers are available, F&M's many Campus Services provide information, resources, and tools that help students and other members of the community with a broad range of questions and needs. Guided by the standing Campus Sustainability Committee, F&M is embarked on a range of activities to make the College and surrounding community more green, from promoting increased bicycle usage through its bike loan program to the installation and maintenance of a living rooftop.
