About Winthrop University
Institutional Focus
Nationally recognized for its quality and value, Winthrop is a learning community that embodies the characteristics essential to being one of the best universities of its kind: a carefully selected student body of high academic achievement and cultural diversity; a national caliber curriculum of the arts, sciences, and professions; a residential educational experience emphasizing personal identity and close relationships; and values that emphasize deep learning, quality teaching, and engaged public service. Winthrop students have the opportunity to develop their individual capacities to become leaders in their professions and communities through a variety of highly personalized, engaging, and progressively developmental academic and co-curricular programs predicated on national standards of excellence. The Winthrop Experience is one that prepares students to live, learn, and lead for a lifetime.
History
Winthrop's history dates to 1886, when 21 students gathered in a borrowed one-room building in Columbia, S.C. David Bancroft Johnson, a dedicated and gifted superintendent of schools, headed up the fledgling institution, whose mission was the education of teachers. Winthrop has changed dramatically since moving to its permanent Rock Hill home in 1895, growing from a single classroom to a comprehensive university of distinction. Winthrop's historic campus is a setting of exceptional beauty, as is its recreational area known as The Farm. Today, more than 6,000 students take courses in arts and sciences, education, business administration, and visual and performing arts, all of which are supported by University College.
Take a Virtual Tour of Winthrop's beautiful campus.
Academic Programs
Winthrop is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, master's, and specialist degrees. A total of 42 undergraduate and 26 graduate degree programs are available in the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business Administration, the Richard W. Riley College of Education, and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Within the four colleges more than 90 undergraduate and 50 graduate programs of study are offered through concentrations and options. An engaging liberal arts core provides the foundation for all degree programs. Additionally, the university is one of the few in the region that has achieved 100 percent national, specialized accreditation in all eligible programs.
Faculty
Winthrop's selective faculty recruitment process ensures that students learn from an outstanding faculty known for its focus on learning and student engagement. A student to faculty ratio of 14:1 fosters personal contact and close relationships. The average size of undergraduate lecture classes is 24, and all classes are taught by faculty. Classroom instruction is further enriched by the expertise of distinguished visiting scholars, artists, and practitioners.
Learning environment
- 14:1 faculty/student ratio
- 286 full-time faculty
- 86.36% hold terminal degrees in their fields
Student Life
A vibrant, highly residential student life program provides opportunities and services to foster student development along cognitive, personal, and interpersonal dimensions. Eight residence halls and the apartment-style Courtyard at Winthrop provide a variety of living arrangements on campus. Academic success communities and theme floors are designed to foster a supportive environment where students live, learn, and have fun together. Further opportunities for service, participation, and leadership are available through more than 160 clubs and organizations and an energetic array of recreational sports. The DiGiorgio Student Union board has earned national acclaim for its programming efforts. The Winthrop Eagles are championship caliber and compete in NCAA Division I. Scholar-athletes at Winthrop compete in men's and women's basketball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, indoor/outdoor track, cross-country and soccer; women's softball and volleyball; and men's baseball.
Enrollment Profile
- 6,170 Total Enrollment
- 1,141 graduate students
- 5,029 undergraduate students
- 1,143 freshmen population
- 40 percent minority population
- 34 states and 37 countries represented
Student Engagement
Alumni
Upon graduation, Winthrop students continue their education in prestigious graduate and professional programs or enter a wide variety of positions in business, education, medicine, the arts, government, or law. Winthrop's exceptionally loyal alumni currently total more than 42,000 worldwide.
Campus
Approximately 20 minutes from Charlotte is Winthrop's tree-lined campus, which encompasses a rich architectural blend of neo-Georgian buildings and is included in the National Register of Historic Places. Behind its stately facade is a community of learners who engage in their educational pursuits in spacious academic facilities, enhanced with SMART technology, and in laboratories and performance venues suitably equipped for rising professionals. The campus' computing infrastructure provides a state-of-the-art learning environment, including high-speed Internet access from all campus buildings and residence hall rooms, and wireless access at many locations.
One half of Winthrop's students live on campus, only a short walk from classrooms, the DiGiorgio Campus Center, dining locations, art galleries, Dacus Library, and West Center. A large, attractive recreational area surrounds Winthrop Lake and includes a 6,100-seat coliseum, a 2,000-seat ballpark, softball, track, soccer and tennis complexes, a 9-hole golf course, an 18-hole disc golf course, and numerous recreational athletic fields.
View the Winthrop University Profile sheet in pdf format.
Most information is based on fall 2012 data.