The University of Mary Washington continues to be among the top universities in the college guidebooks. UMW is ranked regionally as a “best bang for the buck” choice and listed among the nation’s top 100 liberal arts colleges in Washington Monthly. Mary Washington is also included in The Best 390 Colleges, the latest higher education rankings edition from The Princeton Review.

The Princeton Review rankings come straight from student surveys focused on their college experiences. For UMW, the survey says that students are happy, love Fredericksburg, Virginia, and find majors and activities that matter to them. Biology, psychology, business administration, and communication and digital studies rise to the top of the list of popular pursuits, and UMW Theatre earns a spot in the best 25 theatre programs for the second year in a row. Mary Washington also received a place in the publication’s Best Regional Colleges category, landing among the top 100 schools in the Mid-Atlantic region.

UMW also comes in 96th among the nation’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges and 103rd in the Best Bang for the Buck category in the Southeast region in the Washington Monthly 2024 College Rankings. Noted for offering a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary programs and a “small community with plenty of individualized attention for students,” Mary Washington and its accolades center on students.

Applications for admission to UMW are open now for fall 2025 with more information available at https://umw.edu/apply. Read more.

The University of Mary Washington is a premier, selective public liberal arts and sciences university in Virginia, highly respected for its commitment to academic excellence, strong undergraduate liberal arts and sciences program, and dedication to life-long learning. The university, with a total enrollment of about 4,000, features colleges of business, education and arts and sciences, and three campuses, including a residential campus in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a second one in nearby Stafford and a third in Dahlgren, Virginia, which serves as a center of development of educational and research partnerships between the Navy, higher education institutions and the region’s employers.