Mary Baldwin University

Private · VA

Photo: Ser Amantio di Nicolao (CC0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationVA · South

SettingUrban

Undergrads1,090

Student:faculty15:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate31.7%

6-yr grad rate39.3%

Drop-out rate33.2%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$34k

Out-of-state tuition$34k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity52.9%

Gender diversity74.8%

International2.7%

IdentityPresbyterian Church (USA)

Overview

Mary Baldwin University, in Staunton, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, grew out of one of the South's historic women's colleges. Its residential undergraduate college remains women-centered while graduate and other programs are coeducational, giving the university a somewhat layered identity between its historic mission and its current broader offerings.

Academics

Health sciences are a growing strength, alongside the university's distinctive Program for the Exceptionally Gifted, which admits younger students, often well below typical college age, directly into full-time residential study, a rare model nationally for accelerating gifted younger learners.

Campus & student life

The Staunton setting connects the university to the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse downtown, giving students in theater and English unusual access to a working Shakespearean stage. The Shenandoah Valley setting offers a quieter, small-city backdrop to campus life.

Worth knowing

The early-college program for gifted younger students is genuinely unusual: most early-entrance college programs exist as add-ons to a large public university, not as a defining feature of a small private one, and it shapes the residential college's age range and culture noticeably.

marybaldwin.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate—

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot reported

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying