Founded in 1782, Washington College was the first college chartered in the sovereign United States of America. General George Washington gave permission to use his name and contributed 50 guineas toward the founding of the College. The core values of the College then remain true today—integrity, determination, curiosity, civility, leadership, and moral courage—all of which contribute toward our mission to challenge and inspire emerging citizen leaders.

Intellectually Challenging
Washington College’s reputation is built on outstanding faculty and the quality of our rigorous academic programs. Whether you are engaging in a class discussion with students from diverse backgrounds, presenting research, or continuing a discussion with a professor after class, we offer opportunities to expand your mind.  Here, you learn how to connect the knowledge and skills you gain in class and discover how they apply in the real world.  

With a favorable student-faculty ratio and small average class sizes, Washington students get to know their professors, and professors their students. Faculty are respected experts in their fields who love to teach. Professors work closely with our students as advisors, research partners, and mentors, and they actively motivate students to achieve beyond their personal expectations.

There are three Washington College centers for excellence on campus—The Center for Environment and Society, The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and the Rose O’Neill Literary House—which provide opportunities, both on and off campus, for students in all majors to engage in internships, research, and civic engagement programs to build their résumés and gain real-world experiences.

A Place Like No Other  
The College is located in the historic town of Chestertown, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Our 112-acre main campus, the Hodson Boathouse and Semans-Griswold Environmental Hall on the Chester River waterfront, and the 5,000-acre River and Field Campus provide students with enriching opportunities. Faculty and students take advantage of our location with outdoor lectures, field work, labs, field trips, and more. Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia are each less than a 2-hour drive away, making cultural and professional opportunities at nationally significant institutions accessible to Washington students.

Working closely with partners in Chestertown and along the Eastern Shore affords our students unique opportunities to participate in a range of civic engagement activities that make a real difference in the lives of those in the region. Our location also puts us at the forefront of building resilience in both the environment and civic life. At Washington, we believe that caring for our environment grows from nurturing healthy, sustainable communities. Our holistic approach to education includes combining environmental efforts, civic engagement, and service to create a healthy community for our students, faculty, and staff on campus and for our neighboring communities.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Washington College is committed to fostering a stronger culture of equity and inclusion on campus and in the community.

We, the students, faculty, staff, and Board of Visitors and Governors of Washington College, welcome, invite, value, and support a diverse community of individuals. We strive to create a place where all can study, work, and thrive. We believe in the worth, dignity, and safety of human beings of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, gender identities and/or expressions, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, cultural backgrounds, cognitive or physical abilities, emotional and behavioral characteristics, ages, and educational levels. In the pursuit of academic excellence, we endeavor to be a community made up of people from a variety of backgrounds with differing perspectives, life experiences, religious, philosophical, and political beliefs, lifestyles, and ideologies.

We pledge to create a respectful and supportive environment for collaboration, empathy, and the building of meaningful relationships among members of Washington College. We commit to fostering a more equitable, inclusive, and engaged community that embraces all the complexity that each person brings to campus.

Careers
Here at Washington College, we are a community of administrators, faculty, and staff that are engaged and committed to the success of our students!  We offer an excellent work environment with a stable Monday to Friday work week and offer generous leave programs to assist with work-life balance.  We encourage you to review this page often and apply for all positions that you have interest in.