Mount Mercy University

Mount Mercy University, located in beautiful Cedar Rapids, Iowa, offers students a fulfilling education, promising people of all backgrounds solid preparation for a changing world. Our 1,800+ students come from around the globe, creating a vibrant, diverse, and open-minded campus community.
Established on five critical concerns — earth, immigration, nonviolence, racism, and women — Mount Mercy’s curriculum guides students to explore and work towards a more just, equal, and peaceful world. Hands-on work often accompanies classroom learning, giving students the experience needed to start their careers with confidence in a variety of newly-developed skills and knowledge.
Mount Mercy was founded on academic excellence, offering students a values-based curriculum. The university’s accomplished faculty is easily accessible with a faculty/student ratio of 15:1. Students are often involved in faculty-led research and career-oriented internships with local, national, and global organizations.
Focused on outcomes, 96% of MMU alumni are employed or in graduate school within nine months of graduation. With 74% of alumni residing in Iowa and 44% living in Linn County, students have a close-knit network of professionals to engage with.
Housed on a hill nestled in Cedar Rapids’ historical Mound View neighborhood, Mount Mercy’s main campus is safe, charming, and full of life. With over 30 on-campus clubs and organizations, students can connect with others who share similar values and interests. The university’s strong Campus Ministry culture engages students and encourages exploration of faith through daily Mass, spiritual direction, reflection groups, service-learning, and volunteer opportunities.
A forward-thinking undergraduate curriculum, in-demand graduate programs, and the region’s most successful accelerated program have led Mount Mercy to be recognized as a distinguished institution and national leader within the Conference for Mercy Higher Education.
Mount Mercy is a Catholic University that provides student-focused education in the spirit of the Sisters of Mercy and welcomes people of all beliefs to join our community to pursue baccalaureate and graduate education and compassionate service to those in need.
All Mount Mercy students are invited to consider their options for education abroad. Studying abroad can increase your global awareness, provide personal growth opportunities, enhance your academic learning, and offer you new professional contacts and prospects. Programs can be as short as a week or as long as an academic year, and subjects studied abroad can range from biology to marketing to literature. Also, to study abroad programs, students can investigate internship, volunteer, and work abroad opportunities.
At Mount Mercy, students of all ages and interests — undergraduate, graduate, and accelerated students — join together to create an active, welcoming campus community bound by a heartfelt commitment to doing well in the classroom, building rewarding lives and prosperous careers, and truly making a difference in the world.
It is easy to get involved at Mount Mercy. You can join more than 30 student clubs and organizations like our nationally ranked Enactus team, the Mount Mercy Times, the International Club, or the Student Government Association. And you can participate in time-honored events and activities, like the Thanksgiving Dress Dinner, Vegas Night, and Spring Fling.
Whether you live on campus or commute to school, you will benefit from a supportive network of personalized student services to help you launch your career, discover your leadership potential, or develop your spiritual life.
Mount Mercy is located in a quiet residential neighborhood of Cedar Rapids so that you will enjoy the best of both worlds: the culture and career opportunities of a vibrant Midwestern city with the safety and comfort of a grassy 40-acre campus.
A successful Mount Mercy student is confident, caring, quick to lend a hand, happy with who they are, and excited about where they are going. Our students come from wildly different backgrounds. Some are fresh out of rural high schools, while others are returning to college after decades in the workforce. What they have in common is a desire to realize their full potential — to live up to higher expectations and a higher calling.
Mount Mercy is an institution that offers diverse academic opportunities for traditional, transfer, accelerated, and graduate students. We continue to be a faith-guided, academics-focused institution, carrying on the Catholic intellectual tradition and values established by our founders, the Sisters of Mercy.
A small, active campus like Mount Mercy’s is the ideal place to build leadership skills. Each of our more than 25 clubs and organizations needs a president, vice president, and secretary. Service trips need team leaders. Residence halls need activity coordinators, residence advisors, and midnight ping pong tournament organizers.
The Sisters of Mercy established Mount Mercy Junior College in 1928 to fill a need – the need to unite people with opportunity through high quality, values-based education.
Mount Mercy flourished as a junior college and continued to have success as a four-year institution. Over the years, Mount Mercy has added new programs and curriculum that were reflective of the original institution's mission and values. Today, Mount Mercy University’s available course offerings are tailored to meet the needs of those who live and work around campus in our founders' same spirit.