Goucher College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Goucher" redirects here. For the runner, see Adam Goucher.

**Goucher College**

Motto	Gratia et Veritas
Established	1885
Type	Private
President	Sanford Ungar
Faculty	146
Undergraduates	1,300
Postgraduates	1,000
Location	Towson, Maryland, USA
Campus	Suburban 287 acre (1.2 km²)
Athletics	17 varsity teams
Mascot	Gopher
Website	www.goucher.edu

Haebler Memorial Chapel, a non-denomonational chapel in the heart of Goucher College

Goucher College is a co-educational liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson, on a 287 acre (1.2 km²) campus. The school has approximately 1,350 students studying in 33 undergraduate subjects and about 1000 students studying in graduate subjects. It was one of the first colleges to embrace internships and allow its students to take a more individualized approach. In 2004, Newsweek called Goucher the college with the happiest students.

Recently, Goucher College has instituted a study abroad requirement—each undergraduate must complete at least one study abroad experience. To help students fulfill this requirement, the college offers a wide range of three-week "intensive courses abroad" as well as semester and year-long programs, in concert with vouchers to subsidize the costs.

1 History
2 Campus demographics
3 Academics
4 Extracurricular activities
5 Other programs on campus
6 Notable alumni
7 External links

[edit] History

Founded in 1885 as a women's college, The Women's College of Baltimore, the school was renamed in 1910 in honor of its founding members and benefactors, John Goucher and Mary Fisher Goucher. The original campus was in the southern part of what is now the Charles Village neighborhood in Baltimore City. Goucher moved to its present suburban location in 1953. The college has been co-educational since 1986.

[edit] Campus demographics

Female students still predominate on the undergraduate level at about 67%, a fact partially vestigial from Goucher's days as a women-only college, but also probably a result of Goucher's dance program and equestrian facilities. This number is even higher at the graduate level, where almost 80% of the students are female. About 11.5% of the undergraduate population are either African-American, Asian, Hispanic or Native-American. At the graduate level the number is 14%. Two of the most popular majors are Communications and Psychology. Politically, most students lean towards the Democratic side of the spectrum. [1] U.S. News and World Report ranked Goucher college #94 in its annual rankings of national liberal arts colleges, tied with Augustana College in Illinois, Hanover College in Indiana, Hope College in Michigan, Washington and Jefferson in Pennsylvania, and Wells College in Upstate New York. Its most well-known faculty members include Dr. Jean H. Baker and Dr. Julie Roy Jeffery of the History Department, President Sanford Ungar, and the writer Madison Smartt Bell, who oversees the college's Kratz Center for Creative Writing. Goucher is one of forty schools profiled in the book Colleges That Change Lives by Loren Pope.

[edit] Academics

[edit] Undergraduate level

Goucher requires its students to complete general education requirements in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and the arts. There are special introductory courses for freshmen to orient them to the campus as well as college life at Goucher. Undergraduate students are also expected to fullfill an off campus learning requirement either through an internship or a study-abroad experience. A popular choice among many Goucher students is to participate in a "three week intensive" course abroad made up of an on-campus classroom component followed by three weeks abroad during the winter or spring. Goucher also allows students to participate in semester and year long study-abroad programs offered by other schools. Goucher recently announced that starting with the class of 2010 all students will be required to have at least one study-abroad experience in order to graduate, thus making it one of the first colleges to require such an experience of its students. Goucher is well-known for its creative writing, dance, and pre-med departments.

[edit] Graduate level

Goucher offers the following graduate programs:

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction
Master of Arts in Historic Preservation
Master of Arts in Arts Administration
Master of Arts in Teaching
Master of Education

[edit] Certificate and continuing education programs

Historic Preservation Certificate Program
Post-Baccalaureate Premed Program (having a 94% acceptance rate to medical school over its entire history)
Teacher's Institute
Educational Technology Certificate

[edit] Extracurricular activities

Goucher offers many student-run clubs in different areas such as the French club, the theater club or a philosophy club. It has a bi-weekly school newspaper called the Quindecim and a literary arts journal called Vagabond.