Getting To Know: St. Mary’s College of Maryland-Again
St. Mary’s College of Maryland was one of the first colleges that I profiled at Educated Quest. Considered ” A National Public Honors College,” it was named for the first capital of the state. The concept of a true public liberal arts college is interesting, especially when its student body size so closely resembles private liberal arts colleges. US News ranked St. Mary’s fifth among public liberal arts schools after the more selective military service academiies.
St. Mary’s is considered against liberal arts colleges as well honors colleges within large universities (including the Maryland public universities), only every St. Mary’s student benefits from the experience. Ninety percent of St. Mary’s students complete two or more high impact practices. Along the way, two-thirds have conducted research, half have completed an internship, and more than a third have studied abroad.
I invite you to listen to my interview with David Hautanen, the college’s Vice President for Enrollment Management. We talked about the honors nature of the college and more! So I hope that you will listen to the conversation. I’ve also updated the St. Mary’s Pinterest page for you.
At the time that I visited St. Mary’s I liked the college’s approaches to Anthropology, Applied Physics, Environmental Studies, Political Science and Public Policy. I still do. The three most popular majors are Psychology, Biology and Business. The college’s LEAD curriculum combines career development, experiential learning with the academics to help ensure that graduates have the skill set as well as experience to go on to employment or further education.
Less than six months after I visited, St. Mary’s gained some interesting notoriety for using a former cruise ship as temporary student housing after mold was discovered in a residence hall. Since then I’ve tried to follow the college in the media as often as I could. David also told me that all of the residence halls are all air conditioned and updated.
Summing up, my initial questions, outside of the academics, were:
Why don’t more people know about St. Mary’s College of Maryland?
It’s rare that you will find a liberal arts college that has a waterfront campus where you can learn to sail and kayak. I dropped a waterfront photo below. How many college campuses were designed to look like a 17th century settlement around their main academic center—and have had archeological digs on campus to find artifacts from that era? The college has also made a strong commitment to conservation, waterfront drecreation and historic preservation. I dropped an aerial campus photos below.
The dining hall (photo up top) has a nautical theme. There is no Greek social life at this school. But that’s a strength for some students who are considering a small college, and prefer one with fewer obvious cliques. This is a school that has some traditions, but the community is likely to come together around common interests or the academics.
When I visited I felt that St. Mary’s had a more liberal/progressive vibe than other private liberal arts colleges that students might have considered, One phrase that I have read that alludes to this vibe is “Keep St. Mary’s Weird” I have to ask: does a drive towards affordability lead to such a vibe on any college campus? I don’t know the answer to this question.
The St. Mary’s College of Maryland campus is nice, but what about going off campus for entertainment?
The college runs its own shuttle into Leonardtown which has downtown entertainment and dining 25 minutes from campusas well as First Friday events. Annapolis is over 90 minutes from campus, and it will take two hours to get to Washington DC. The drive to campus from either place is not that difficult, but it’s a bit far off I-67, the major interstate between Richmond and Washington DC. The college plans to add shuttle services to Baltimore as well as DC, which will make those places more accessible more often.
The college has also built an impressive performing arts center since my last visit,
] dropped some photos below, courtesy of David and the college.
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Admissions are quite achievable for an honors college.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland accepted 69 percent of applicants for the Class of 2028. Just under a fifth decided to come. The college welcomed approximately 400 freshmen. Total enrollment is approximately 1,650 undergrads. That;s up about 100 from Fall 2021 during the pandemic. St. Mary’s uses non-binding Early Action as well as Early Decision. Less than a fifth of the Class of 2027 arrived through Early Decision.
Admissions are test optional. Less than a third of applicants for the Class of 2027 submitted SAT scores, the middle 50 percent scored between 1150 and 1320. The average high school GPA was a 3.5.
Do the students appear to like St. Mary’s approach to”honors for all”?
Freshman retention for the Class of 2027 was 86 percent. That’s quite good, though other liberal arts schools do better. The four-year grad rate has averaged 59 percent for the classes that entered from 2017 to 2020. That, too. is pretty good, but other liberal arts colleges do better.
I find it hard to see why this school does not do as well, if not better than Washington College, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. St. Mary’s shares many strengths with this school: waterfront location, environmental studies and historical research opportunities as well as similarly popular majors. Washington College has more for an English major, but there’s a lot of academic overlap between these two schools. The smaller private school is fairly generous with merit aid, but it is not likely tp undercut St. Mary’s for most students. Both schools also share a negative: first and second-year residence halls that appear dated when you visit. To me, St. Mary’s offers more of what families seek: an alternative to private colleges at a lower price point. I’m wondering why the target market outside Maryland does not see that.
Other liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania such as Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson and Gettysburg have some academic overlap. However, they also have Greek life as well as football which may suggest that their campus cultures attract a different student. However, all three of these schools are closer to downtowns than St. Mary’s and they can be generous with merit-based and need-based aid.
Conclusion
St. Mary’s should be considered a “hidden treasure” for advocates of the liberal arts education. It meets the needs of families that prefer a small college environment, but forced to work with a more limited budget, especially if they are from Maryland.
Report Card: St. Mary’s College of Maryland
- Four-Year/Six-Year Graduation Rates: B/B
- Freshman Retention: B+
- Costs: B+
- Curriculum: A
- Community: B+
- Comforts: B
- Connections: A (Baltimore/Washington)/C (Elsewhere)
Listen to my conversation with David Hautanen now!
Buy my new book, The Good College!
Listen to my latest interview on ‘Tests and the Rest’ with Amy Seeley and Mike Bergin!
Check out my talk, What Exactly Is a Good College? hosted by test-prep experts Amy Seeley and Mike Bergin on Tests And The Rest!
Listen to my talk, College Is A Learning AND Living Community hosted by Dr. Cynthia Colon from Destination YOUniversity on Voice of America Radio!
