St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) is a public liberal arts college in St. Mary's City, Maryland. Established in 1840, St. Mary's College is an honors college that claims to "offer an experience similar to that of an elite liberal arts college". With about 1,600 enrolled students, the institution offers bachelor's degrees in 21 disciplines, as well as a master's program and certification programs.
The college shares much of its campus with Historic St. Mary's City, the site of Maryland's first colony and capital. It is also the site of the fourth colony in British North America. The Historical Archaeology Field School is jointly operated by St. Mary's College of Maryland and Historic St. Mary's City. The campus and the rest of St. Mary's City combined are considered to be one of the premier archaeological sites in the United States.
History
St. Mary's College of Maryland is located on the original site of Maryland's first colony, St. Mary's City, which was also the first capital of Maryland and is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in America.
Colonial St. Mary's City was actually only a town and at its peak had between 500 and 600 residents. However, as the colony quickly expanded and settlements spread throughout the Eastern part of what is now Maryland, the town remained the capital and representatives would travel from all over the colony to participate in the Maryland General Assembly, the colony's first legislative body.
The Colony was founded under a mandate by the colonial proprietor, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore of England, that the new settlers engage in religious tolerance of each other. The first settlers were both Protestant and Catholic during a time of persecution of Catholics. This mandate was unprecedented at the time, as England had been wracked by religious conflict for centuries.
The college is secular and has been since it was started in 1840. Its name St. Mary's commemorates Maryland's first colony, "St. Mary's City", which once stood where the college stands now. It has been coeducational since 1949.
Academics
St. Mary's College offers 21 majors (with 5 additional in development), 29 minors, seven pre-professional programs and it has a master's program in education. It is a public honors college, one of only two such colleges in the United States. As such, it maintains a core honors-level curriculum that all of its students, regardless of major, must complete.
The college underwent its first ever large-scale program review or program prioritization process in February 2021, resulting in the discontinuation of several majors and minors.
It has an 81% overall graduation rate (including longer than four years). The college has a 70% four-year graduation rate, the highest of any public institution in Maryland and third highest in the United States among public colleges. 69% of students pursue dual concurrent degrees or dual minors, which may take longer than four years, in some cases. 10% of students transfer from St. Mary's College to other institutions and 83% of students enroll for a second year.
79% of students are receiving financial aid, with 66% of students receiving grants or scholarships.
The school is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Tuition
According to the Maryland Higher Education Commission, St. Mary's College, despite being a public institution, competes mostly with elite private colleges. The commission reported in 2014 that the cost of obtaining a degree at St. Mary's College is $30,000 less when compared to the average costs of the elite private colleges that it competes with.
Campus
Accreditation and charter
The college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Although it is a state-operated institution, St. Mary's is independent of the University System of Maryland as it opted out of the system in 1992. However, in early 2006, St. Mary's College joined the University of Maryland Academic Telecommunications System (UMATS), which interconnects the University System of Maryland with several other networks, including the Internet and Internet2 networks.
Administration
St. Mary's College's president, Tuajuanda Jordan, was appointed in 2014. She is the former dean of two other colleges and holds a PhD in biochemistry. She is the first black woman to become the president of St. Mary's College.
The school has 150 full-time faculty, 14 of whom are current Fulbright scholars (the college faculty has earned 30 Fulbright research awards in the past 20 years). There is a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio, one of the lowest in the nation.