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The University of Mary Washington is a coeducational, state-funded, four-year liberal arts college in Fredericksburg, Virginia about 55 miles north of Richmond and 50 miles south of Washington, DC. The university's undergraduate campus has about 4,000 students and its graduate campus has about 1,000 degree-seeking students.
Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women, the college was renamed Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Washington, mother of the first president of the United States of America, George Washington. Most of the architecture on the Mary Washington campus can be described as neo-classical, Georgian, or Jeffersonian (because of its similarity to Thomas Jefferson's design of the University of Virginia). In 1944 the college became associated with the University of Virginia as that institution's undergraduate liberal arts college for women. Following the University's transition to coeducational status in 1970, the Virginia General Assembly reorganized Mary Washington College in 1972 as a separate, coeducational institution.
On July 1, 2004, the institution became University of Mary Washington, after approval by the General Assembly of Virginia. The institution sought university status to reflect the addition of master's degree programs and increasing enrollment at its College of Graduate and Professional Studies, formerly the James Monroe Center for Graduate and Professional Studies, located in nearby Stafford County. Here students can earn an MBA, M.Ed., BPS or other graduate certificates or professional certifications.
Academic departments at UMW's undergraduate campus include Art and Art history; Economics; Historic Preservation; Political Science and International Affairs; Biological Sciences; Education; History and American Studies; Psychology; Business Administration; English, Linguistics, and Speech; Mathematics; Sociology and Anthropology; Chemistry; Environmental science and Geology; Modern Foreign Languages; Theatre and Dance; Classics, Philosophy, and Religion; Geography; Music; Computer science; Health and Physical education; and Physics.
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