W&M at a Glance

Small, smart & historic.

We're famous for our rigorous liberal arts and sciences curriculum and our dedicated, engaged professors. Our students are nothing short of exceptional; they're scholars, athletes, activists, musicians, world travelers and generous volunteers. Our campus, adjoining Colonial Williamsburg, is a masterwork of preservation and innovation.

A single column collapsible list of information about the university
Our History
  • Chartered on February 8, 1693, by King William III and Queen Mary II of England
  • The second oldest institution of higher learning in America, and the first to become a university
  • Severed formal ties with Britain in 1776
  • Became state-supported in 1906 and coeducational in 1918
  • Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's first academic Greek society, was founded here in 1776
  • Find more cool facts about William & Mary
Our Campuses & Locations
Williamsburg (William & Mary main campus)
  • 1,200-acres — including the Martha Wren Briggs Amphitheatre, Lake Matoaka and College Woods — located in historic downtown Williamsburg, Virginia
  • 75% of our students live here, on-campus
  • Sir Christopher Wren Building (1700) is the oldest university building still in use in the U.S.
  • Historic Campus section is restored to 18th-century appearance
  • Improvements to building efficiency and new LEED certified facilities mean we've expanded campus while reducing our energy use
Gloucester Point (Virginia Institute of Marine Science)
  • 42-acre campus at the mouth of the York River, a major tributary and passageway to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean
  • Chartered in 1940, VIMS is one of the leading marine research and education centers in the U.S.
  • VIMS is both an independent state agency and home to W&M's graduate School of Marine Science
  • Two satellite campuses on the Eastern Shore and Rappahannock River
  • Positioned across the York River from Yorktown, site of the decisive battle of the Revolutionary War
  • Home to the 93-foot research vessel Virginia, the most advanced ship of its kind of the East Coast.
Washington, DC (The Washington Center)
  • Runs Study in DC academic opportunities that enable W&M students to live, study and work in Washington, DC
  • Works with schools, departments and programs across William & Mary to help them navigate the DC-area's dynamic governmental, for-profit and non-profit institutions, and engage with the 17,000+ W&M DC alumni community
  • Manages a suite of office, classroom and event space in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Building, located steps from the Dupont Circle Metro station.
  • Provides leased housing that allows Study in DC faculty and students to live in safe, high-quality apartments in Downtown DC
Outstanding, Diverse Students
  • From 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and more than 60 foreign countries
  • 6,377 undergraduates and 2,450 graduate students
  • 33% identify as students of color
  • 75% of freshmen who are ranked graduated in the top 10% of their class
  • Middle 50% range for first-year students on SAT: 1320-1510 and on ACT: 30-34
  • Earn doctorates at one of the top rates for any public university in the nation
  • 70% of undergraduates participate in research with faculty
  • 450+ student clubs and organizations
  • 3,500+ students participate in community service annually
  • Approximately 58% of students study abroad at some point in their undergraduate career, in more than 50 countries each year.
Professors Who Teach
  • 12:1 student-faculty ratio
  • 99% of courses are taught by faculty
  • 86% of our classes have fewer than 40 students — nearly half have fewer than 20 students
  • 656 full-time faculty members across all undergraduate, graduate and professional programs
  • W&M has more recipients of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Outstanding Faculty Award than any other college or university
Academics
  • Programs in Arts & Sciences and our four graduate/professional schools: Business, Education, Law and Marine Science
  • More than 40 undergraduate programs and more than 40 graduate and professional degree programs
  • Degrees conferred: B.A., B.A.Ed., B.B.A., B.S., Ed.D., J.D., LL.M., M.A., M.A.C., M.B.A., M.Ed., M.P.P., M.S., M.S.B.A., Ph.D.
Campus Facilities
  • Earl Gregg Swem Library houses more than 2 million books, journals, films and e-resources, and its Special Collections Research Center is home to rare books, manuscripts and artifacts.
  • Swem Library's Reeder Media Center boasts two innovative classrooms, a screening room, collaboration lab and eight acoustically isolating studios for media recording, production and mastering.
  • The Muscarelle Museum of Art has a permanent collection of nearly 5,000 paintings, sculptures and works on paper.
  • The Integrated Science Center (ISC) is a massive collaborative research and teaching facility for applied science, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and psychological sciences undergrads, graduate students and faculty.
  • Throughout campus, W&M dining offers access to our two all-you-care-to-eat facilities, five specialty coffee houses, four convenience stores, a bake shop, food court and national franchises. 
  • The Mason School of Business is housed in Alan B. Miller Hall which provides 160,000 square feet of state-of-the-art facilities for instruction, student activities, faculty offices, visiting scholars and research.
  • The School of Education is in a 112,000-square-foot modern facility that brings together all of the school's programs, classrooms and offices under one roof (with room to grow).
  • Learn more about our historic and innovative campus spaces, as well as housing and dining.
Our Alumni
  • 100,581 and counting
  • Three U.S. presidents — Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler — were educated at William & Mary (four if we include George Washington's surveyor's license).
  • Some of our graduates have included award-winning poets, the head of the FBI, NASA's chief scientist, a performer in the Blue Man Group, an international banker, a crazy number of Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright scholars, and some dude named Jon Stewart.