W&L at a Glance

Washington and Lee University Admissions & Aid Join Our Mailing List W&L at a Glance
📢 Hey, you! We appreciate you stopping by. Review sites are a great resource for learning about colleges, and we’re proud of our online presence and reputation. Here are a few additional things we’d like you to know. We’d also love for you to join our mailing list (scroll toward the bottom of this page), so that we can keep the dialogue going.

About Washington and Lee University

  • College Type: Liberal Arts & Sciences (and then some)
  • Size: ~1,850 undergraduates, ~380 law students
  • Location: Lexington, VA (rural, not remote)

W&L is a bit different. On the outside, we look like many small liberal arts colleges. Our campus is nestled in a charming town in a beautiful valley, comprised of centuries-old buildings oozing timelessness and classic good looks. Our students are whip-smart, curious, inventive, and ambitious, but without being competitive. They outnumber our faculty only 8 to 1.

Dig deeper, and you’ll find academic programs not offered among our peer schools, like business, engineering, and journalism. Our goal is to graduate leaders who will be a positive force in a global and diverse society. That requires professionals with ethical interests and free-thinkers with practical solutions. We aim to achieve a balance at the intersection of liberal arts and professional programs. And we’re good at it.

W&L graduates are bound for life with a sense of integrity and service to others that come from their time living in this community under the protection of an honor system that works. They emerge with real-world, hands-on experience and find immediate success in the workplace or graduate school (97% employment within 6 months, 90%+ acceptance rate to law and medical schools). Students are successful thanks to faculty and staff mentors who encourage them to pursue every opportunity, and we’re able to offer an abundance of opportunities because we have the resources to do so. With an endowment per student ranking in the top 25 of all U.S. colleges, we have the freedom to invest in your success. That means substantial financial aid and scholarships, and also first-rate facilities, amazing travel and experiential learning programs, competitive Division III athletics, and professional-quality performing and studio arts.

We’re a small school with large school bona fides, and we have big plans for you.

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Office of Admissions

  • Gilliam House
    19 Letcher Avenue
    Lexington, Virginia 24450

Why W&L?

The opportunities students have at Washington and Lee allow them to grow as scholars, compete as athletes, evolve as leaders, succeed in their careers and apply their skills to lead lives of consequence.

Our commitment to community means a commitment to affordability.
Affordability: Students with the intellect to excel and the selflessness to care should have the opportunity to lead. Through generous need-based aid and our renowned merit-based Johnson Scholarship, we aim to make our first-rate education accessible.
Students join a community strengthened by a student-run Honor System.
Community: At its core, W&L’s Honor System is a student-governed code of conduct that ensures fairness and honesty. Our students are expected not to lie, cheat, or steal, but that’s only part of the equation.
Students are welcomed into an active and engaged campus community.
Community: The number one thing to understand about life at a small college is that the campus is happening. Lively student activities programming, a thriving arts and music scene, 24 NCAA Division III sports, and outdoor adventure on the edge of campus ensure there.
Our pre-professional programs jump-start students' careers.
Opportunities: With a core liberal arts college, an undergraduate school of business, and a law school that integrates undergraduate studies in innovative ways, Washington and Lee University is uniquely capable of meeting the challenges of the modern world.
Our Spring Term allows students to delve deeply into an area of interest.
Opportunities: Washington and Lee University’s innovative 4-week, one-class Spring Term at the end of each academic year is interdisciplinary, intense, and anything but traditional.
Our students graduate with a degree that opens doors.
Outcomes: There’s a reason that Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Niche.com, Time/Money magazine, and U.S. News & World Report all consider Washington and Lee one of the best college values in the nation.
Our students are engaged leaders in the community.
Outcomes: Graduates will be prepared for lifelong learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society.