College Facts
updated January 2012Colors: Royal Blue, Yellow Gold, and White
Mascot: Seahawk
Accreditation: St. Mary's College is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The Carnegie Foundation Classification for the College is "Baccalaureate - Arts and Sciences." SMCM was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in the fall of 1997.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland is a 2,000-student residential campus. Designated Maryland’s Public Honors College by statute in 1992, it is the state’s commitment to providing a residential, liberal arts education as a public trust—available to students of superior potential regardless of their backgrounds and personal circumstances. Each St. Mary’s student is a high-achieving student, living and studying in an environment that fosters independent thinking, social engagement, and environmental stewardship. St. Mary’s awards the bachelor of arts degree in 22 disciplines, a student-designed major, and a master of arts in teaching degree.
Performance Outcomes:
St. Mary’s has four- and six-year graduation rates of 71 and 79%, respectively. St. Mary’s has the highest four-year graduation rate of any Maryland public institution of higher education.
The average SAT score of the entering class in 2010 was 1213 (out of 1600), and the average GPA of that same cohort in high school was 3.58.
St. Mary’s uses creative strategies to make study abroad affordable, in most cases for the same price as studying on campus. Nearly half (45.6%) of the graduating Class of 2011 studied abroad.
69% of St. Mary’s alumni report attending graduate school within 10 years of graduation. Alumni satisfaction for graduate/professional school and job preparation is at least 97% in the most recent survey of graduates who are one-, five-, and 10-years out.
St. Mary’s is 13th among small schools nationwide for producing Peace Corps volunteers. Since Peace Corps’ inception, 106 alumni of St. Mary’s College have served in its ranks.
In the past five years, five students have been granted Fulbright scholarships to study and teach overseas.
Within one year of graduation from the St. Mary’s Master of Arts in Teaching program, 92% of graduates find employment as teachers.
Rankings and Awards:
The Chronicle of Higher Education named St. Mary’s a top producer of Fulbright Scholars for 2011-2012.
U.S. News & World Report 2012 ranked St. Mary’s College of Maryland in the top five public liberal arts colleges in the nation. St. Mary’s has been in the U.S. News’ national liberal arts colleges list for more than a decade.
Forbes magazine rates St. Mary’s College as the 25th best college in the South.
The Princeton Review chose St. Mary’s College as one of the best 376 colleges in its 2012 rankings, noting St. Mary’s for academics, quality of life, and for being green. St. Mary’s was also commended for its friendly student body, which scored well for race and class interaction.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named St. Mary’s College of Maryland as the Individual Conference Champion of the Capital Athletic Conference in the 2010-2011 College and University Green Power Challenge. It is St. Mary’s fourth consecutive year as the largest green power purchaser in its conference.
For the second year in a row, St. Mary’s College of Maryland was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. This is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its efforts in volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement. Of the Class of 2011, 77% did volunteer work while at St. Mary’s.
St. Mary’s is the first college in Maryland to be certified by Audubon International’s Cooperative Sanctuary Program. In 2011, the arboretum was approved by the Morton Register of Arboreta as a Level One Arboretum. The campus has been designated as a Tree Campus USA site by the Arbor Day Foundation of America, and the majestic willow oak at the Garden of Remembrance has been ranked in the state of Maryland’s “top 20” for that particular tree species.
Sports Achievements:
For the fourth year in a row, St. Mary’s College of Maryland led the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) with 53.6 percent of its student-athletes (147 of 274) earning a berth on the 2010-11 all-academic team in 15 CAC championship sports.
Seven St. Mary’s athletes were named All-Americans in their sport in 2010-2011, five in sailing and two in lacrosse.
St. Mary’s sailing teams have won 15 national championships and are regularly ranked in the Top 10.
The men’s basketball team clinched its third trip to the Division III NCAA Sweet 16 and its first trip to the Elite 8 in 2011.
January 2012 edition (PDF)
Programs:
