Washington College (MD)

Washington College (MD) is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland, founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington. The college serves undergraduate students on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and organizes its academic work around close faculty-student engagement, a residential campus, and a broad liberal arts curriculum. Its location in Chestertown places it within the Chesapeake region, and that setting shapes parts of the institution’s teaching and public programming. The college offers majors and minors across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and it emphasizes experiential learning through research, internships, and study away. Washington College also operates named centers and programs that give its mission concrete form. The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience supports scholarship and public humanities work focused on American history and culture. The Center for Environment & Society connects academic study with the ecology and communities of the Chesapeake Bay region. The Sophie Kerr Prize, awarded by the college, is a nationally notable undergraduate literary prize tied to creative writing at Washington College. Washington College’s identity is also rooted in civic and historical traditions. George Washington consented to the use of his name and served on the Board of Visitors and Governors, a distinction the college continues to highlight in its institutional history. Today, the college combines that historic legacy with undergraduate teaching, campus life, athletics, and community engagement in Chestertown and the wider Mid-Atlantic region.