Schools and Centers

Washington and Lee's two undergraduate divisions share a single admissions process, and all undergraduate students, whether they intend to pursue majors in the College or in the Williams School, are enrolled in the College during their freshman year. Although each has its own faculty and is administered by its own dean, there is a close relationship between the two divisions, and students are free to take electives in each during their time at Washington and Lee.

While law schools have traditionally taught all students in the same way for all three years, at W&L Law, you will encounter a sequence of learning experiences rooted in the basic assumption that each year of law school should present new and different challenges while pushing you further along the continuum from beginning law student to lawyer-to-be. This allows the School to produce lawyers who are better positioned to provide valuable service to their clients and employers from the outset of their careers.

The College

The College is the heart of the W&L liberal arts education. It is the home of twenty-one departments, four interdepartmental majors, and seven interdepartmental programs in the humanities, natural sciences, mathematics, computer science and in certain social sciences. Students may earn either the B.A. or B.S. degree in forty different majors, and may also pursue one or more of fifteen minor programs, including Creative Writing, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Environmental Studies, and Museum Studies. All students, whether they intend to pursue majors in the College or in the Williams School, are enrolled in the College during their first year.

The Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics

The Ernest C. Williams School of Commerce, Economic, and Politics offers both a B.A. and a B.S. degree, with majors in business administration, business administration and accounting, public accounting, economics and politics. Within the major areas, students can design a program of study from over 85 courses offered and participate in a variety of co-curricular opportunities. Additionally, students majoring in other disciplines may take elective and/or general education requirement courses in the Williams School as a means of complementing their work in the arts, sciences, humanities, and languages.

The School of Law

One of the smallest of the nation's top-tier law schools, W&L Law has long been an innovator in legal education, and these innovations have allowed the School to build a singular community that educates students for character and challenges them to solve the problems they will face in a complex world. It fosters a desire not simply to act, but to act intelligently and ethically. The combination of the demanding study of legal doctrine and analysis with simulated and actual practice experiences creates a unique opportunity for our students to learn in context and to be truly prepared for the legal profession when they graduate.

The Mudd Center for Ethics

The Mudd Center for Ethics was established through a gift to the University from award-winning journalist Roger Mudd, a 1950 graduate of W&L. The Mudd Center supports faculty who wish to develop new courses to enhance the study of ethics across the curriculum and engages in programming that fosters serious and sophisticated conversation about public and professional ethics at the University.