Washington and Jefferson College

Washington and Jefferson College is a private institution that was founded in 1781. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,362, its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 60 acres. It utilizes a 4-1-4-based academic calendar. Washington and Jefferson College's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, 100. Its tuition and fees are $43,226 (2015-16).

Washington & Jefferson College offers an exceptional liberal arts and sciences education, having been ranked first in the country per capita for producing attorneys and third in the country for producing physicians and medical researchers. 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.

With an 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio, professors 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.

Our students land research internships at The Pasteur Institute, The Mayo Clinic, Los Alamos Labs, and most recently, Harvard Medical School, to name a few. W&J challenges its 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 more than 40 study abroad programs in countries such as Australia, China, France, Germany, Spain, and South Africa. W&Js nationally recognized Magellan Project won the prestigious Andrew Heiskell Award for innovation in study abroad. W&J is also one of just three institutions nationwide selected to receive 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.

Nearly 42 percent 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 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.

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 the 1922 game. Student athletes from W&J include Dan Towler, Dr. Charles Pruner 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 former Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl '03, who at the time of his election was the youngest mayor of a major U.S. city.