Sunday, November 22, 2009

Best Colleges 2010

Washington and Jefferson College

Work 60 S. Lincoln Street Washington, PA 15301
Work(724) 223-6025
Web site: http://www.washjeff.edu
  • 92Rank
  • 52Score
Tier 1
College Category:
Liberal Arts Colleges

Overview : Washington and Jefferson College

General Information  
Institutional Control: Private
Year founded: 1781
Religious affiliation: N/A
Academic calendar: 4-1-4
Total number of undergraduates: 1,519
Setting: suburban
Endowment: $101,091,273
Fall Admissions  
Application deadline: 3/1
Application fee: $25
Fall 2008 Acceptance rate: 38.2%
Selectivity: more selective
Expenses  
Costs: 2009-2010 Tuition and Fees: $32,895
Mission  
School mission: Washington & Jefferson College, offers an exceptional liberal arts education. W&J has been ranked first in the country per capita for producing attorneys and third in the country for producing physicians and medical researchers. Routinely, 90% of our applicants to medical and law schools are admitted. The last three years, 100% of W&J graduates passed the Pennsylvania bar exam. W&J offers students a personalized learning experience, with over 70% of classes having fewer than 20 students. With a 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio, professors hold classes in their homes, help students pursue advanced research projects, and attend athletic events to cheer them on. In addition, numerous alumni around the world offer students networking opportunities in nearly every discipline. Also, unique to W&J is the Magellan Project, which provides stipends for innovative internships, prestigious research fellowships, and independent study-travel programs either domestically or abroad. 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 our students by 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 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. 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. Almost 30% of students belong to Greek organizations. With close proximity to Pittsburgh, W&J students can easily travel into the city on college-run vans to see professional sports events, shop, eat in fine restaurants, attend theatre or ballet performances, or listen to renowned speakers. W&J was honored 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 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 1922 Rose Bowl, battling California to a zero-zero tie in the 1922 game. Student athletes from W&J include Charlie West, the first African-American quarterback 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, the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city in the United States. Students and graduates alike are experiencing incredible success in a variety of fields inside and outside the classroom, and the John A. Swanson Science Center is on track to open in 2010. W&J is a college on the move, looking to the future with great optimism while building on its historical past.

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