First-Year Applicants

When you apply for admission, we review your application in a holistic manner. This means we consider both your academic achievements and personal strengths, as evidenced by your transcript, essay, recommendations, any test scores, extracurricular activities, and what you tell us on your application. Admission is not based on a formula. It is a thoughtful process. The Admission Committee takes the time to get to know you as a student and as a person as we consider you becoming a member of the St. Mary’s College Seahawk community.

Academic Factors

The most important factor in the admission committees review is your academic preparation and achievement as shown on your secondary school transcript(s). Your transcript gives us insight into your academic performance over time. It also tells us how you have chosen to challenge yourself by taking any honors, AP or IB classes (if offered at your school), by participating in a dual enrollment program or through other types of academic enrichment courses/programs.

While these are not minimum requirements, most of our strongest applicants have taken:

• Four years of English
• Three or more years of mathematics
• Two or more years of science
• Three or more years of social science
• Two or more years of a world language (if offered at the school)

SMCM is test optional. This means you have the choice as to whether or not to submit your SAT and ACT scores. If you’ve taken the SAT or ACT multiple times, we will take the best scores of each section to calculate a super score for you. You may self-report your standardized test scores in lieu of sending an official score report for the admission process. For more information, please see our test optional policy.

Personal Factors

Personal factors are important in the admission decision. All members of the campus community commit to following the St. Mary’s Way and to join in work with others to develop the College community. Your experience will likely reflect your engagement as a member of our community and the Admission Committee wants to understand how active and engaged you have been in your school or community or in support of your family given your personal context. Have you been involved in the arts, athletics, student government, religious organizations, or other interests? Have you been a leader or are you one who can always be counted on? Do you have significant work experience? Have you provided support to your family? Your activity list in your application, your letters of recommendation, and your essay give us insight into your interests, strengths and contributions.

Recommendations should come from people who know you well. Counselors, teachers, coaches, or supervisors are great examples of people to ask for letters of recommendation.

The secondary school report, which is usually completed by your school counselor, will provide the Admission Committee with information about your school and community, the school’s academic curriculum, and information about how your performance compares with that of your peers.

Your responses to the essay and short answer question prompts are your opportunity to tell us more about you while we also get a sense of your writing ability and style. Don’t hesitate to be creative with the short answer!

The Admission Committee looks forward to receiving your application and getting to know you!

Apply today

A complete application includes the following:

• The Application
  • Includes the essay (and our supplement) submitted by the applicable deadline
• Official transcript of high school
  • Grades from the first marking period of your senior year or work to date
  • If applicable, college work must also be submitted
  • If you have already graduated from high school, please submit your final, official high school transcript with date of graduation
• Recommendations
  • Secondary School Report/Counselor Recommendation: 1 Required
  • Teacher Evaluation(s): 1 Required, 1 Optional
  • Other Evaluation(s): 0 Required, 1 Optional
• Standardized test scores (NOT required)
  • Check out our test-optional policy, so you may decide if you want to submit your standardized test results
  • If you do, you may choose to self-report your scores by submitting a screen shot of your results, or
  • You may have the scores sent from the testing agency; provide SMCM codes: SAT (code 5601) or ACT (code 1736)
• $50 application fee (Note: Fee waived for all first-generation applicants and for students with a fee waiver)
• Campus visits (in person or virtual) are highly recommended
  • One-on-one Counselor conversations are encouraged for admission committee members to learn more about applicants
  • View our visit options and schedule or call us at 240-895-5000
• The Arts
  • We recognize achievement in the arts, and we encourage you to submit samples of your work for review by our faculty.
  • You can share these samples through the Portfolio section of the Applicant Gateway after you submit your application.
• Home-Schooled Students
  • If you’ve been home-schooled, you should submit your application and provide a transcript with the following: course descriptions, books used, methods of evaluation and grades received. You should meet the same minimum high school course requirements expected of all applicants. Standardized testing is required; your SAT and/or ACT scores will be strongly considered in the review of your application.
  • Please also include general information about your home-schooling program or agency and a letter of recommendation from both an academic professional and the home-schooling teacher/parent. If you’ve taken college-level courses, you should also include an official college transcript with your application.

First-year Application Dates & Deadlines

	Application Deadline	Decision Notification	Deposit Deadline
Early Decision (binding)	November 1	By December 1	January 15
Early Action (non-binding)	November 1	By January 1	May 1
Regular Decision	January 15	By April 1	May 1
After deadlines have passed*	Rolling	Rolling	Rolling

*Applications considered on a space-available basis. Apply as soon as possible to be considered.

Mailing Information

St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Office of Admission
47645 College Drive
St. Mary’s City, MD, 20686-3001

Apply today to join our Honors Community!