College of William & Mary

The second oldest institution of higher education in the United States, William & Mary remains one of the top public colleges in the country.

By the time of the American Revolution, the College of William and Marywas already into its eighth decade as the academic source of what the new nation would become and how it would relate to the larger world.

Its land had been surveyed by George Washington, and its first honorary degree had been given to Ben Franklin. It would go on to educate two signers of the Declaration of Independence, three American presidents, and three justices of the Supreme Court. Chartered by British royalty in 1693, the college retains that connection to its roots into the 21st century. Remarkably through history, the College of William and Marywas, and remains, a public university--one of 16 in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

At a time in American history when the 18th-century thought and practice of Thomas Jefferson has become part of the contemporary conversation, the college from which he graduated in 1762 continues to pursue his simple notion that worth and genius, be] sought from every condition of life.