Washington and Jefferson College

Washington & Jefferson College offers an exceptional liberal arts education, having been ranked first in the country (per capita) for producing attorneys and third in the country for producing physicians. Routinely, 90 percent of our applicants to medical and law schools are admitted. More than 90 percent of seniors seeking employment find work or admission to graduate school before graduation.

W&J offers students a personalized learning experience -- over 70 percent of classes have fewer than 20 students. With an 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio, professors hold classes in their homes, help students develop advanced research agendas, and attend athletic events to cheer for teams. In addition, alumni around the world offer students networking opportunities in nearly every discipline.

The result is student achievement of the highest caliber. Our students land research internships at The Pasteur Institute, The Mayo Clinic, and Los Alamos Labs, to name a few. W&J challenges its students by giving them sending them to national meetings where their research is presented alongside that of professional researchers, graduate students, and faculty from other institutions.

More than half of our students take advantage of more than 40 study abroad programs in countries such as Australia, China, France, Germany, Spain, and South Africa. W&J students put their liberal arts educations to work, testing their professional aspirations in the real world while becoming global citizens. W&Js nationally recognized Magellan Project won the prestigious Andrew Heiskell Award for innovation in study abroad. W&J also received the 2012 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award from NAFSA: the Association of International Educators, for an initiative that contributes to comprehensive campus internationalization. Named for the late Senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.), the award recognizes outstanding and innovative achievements in campus internationalization.

The Intersession term, a distinctive feature of our 4-1-4 academic calendar, allows students to take one course, intensively, during the month of January. They may travel to London to study theatre, camp out in Africa to watch animals migrate, or stay on campus to design robots or study with a prize-winning journalist.

W&J students study hard, but they are also active outside of the classroom. Nearly 41% of students belong to Greek organizations. With close proximity to Pittsburgh, students frequently travel to the city on college-run vans to see pro sports events, shop, eat in fine restaurants, attend theatre or ballet performances, or listen to renowned speakers.

W&J has been honored numerous times with the President's Honor Roll for Community Service with Distinction; students volunteer more than 15,000 hours a year in service to our community. They raise money for cancer research, volunteer at the Humane Society, read to first graders and to the blind, and help staff the Washington Women's Shelter.

W&J also has a strong tradition of producing student athletes. The College fields 24 intercollegiate sports and is still the smallest college ever to compete in the Rose Bowl, battling California to a scoreless tie in 1922. Student athletes from W&J include Dan Towler, Charlie West (the first African-American QB in the Rose Bowl game) and legendary coaches such as John Heisman.

With about 12,000 living alumni, W&J has graduated leaders in almost every field, from architecture to zoology. The College boasts civic leaders like James G. Blaine (1847), who served as secretary of state and ran for president three times; as well as pioneers such as Joseph Walker, who made the first NASA x-15 flight and was the first to pilot the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle; and Jesse Lazear, who studied yellow fever in Cuba with Walter Reed. W&J also educated NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell '81 and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl '03, at the time of his election the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city.