Getting to Know the College of William and Mary

The College of William and Mary is a public university located in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded by Royal Charter in 1693, it is the second oldest college in the country. William and Mary has a long history of liberal arts education and a growing research and science curriculum that demonstrates a strong commitment to undergraduate research.

The school’s 1,200-acre campus is located approximately 150 miles south of Washington, D.C., midway between Richmond and Norfolk, VA. The student body is comprised of just over 7,500 full-time students with its 758 instructional faculty providing an 11-to-1 student/faculty ratio.

• Known as “the alma mater of a nation,” William and Mary has graduated three U.S. Presidents: Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler
• The College is the only institution in the United States that has a Royal Charter from the British Crown and is also the only one that carries the name of members of the Royal Family
• The William and Mary Law School, established in 1779, is the oldest law school in the United States
• Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's premier academic honor society, was founded at the College in 1776
• William and Mary was the first college in the nation to institute an honor code of conduct for students
• Founded in 1842, the William and Mary Society of the Alumni is the sixth oldest such group in the U.S.
• Although William and Mary retains its traditional title of "College," it is in reality a small university that offers advanced degrees in several fields
• William and Mary has long been considered by many as a "Public Ivy," a state-assisted institution that offers a superior education at a cost far below that of private Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Princeton and Yale. U.S. News and World Report, for example,ranks the College of William and Mary as the top small public university in the U.S.