Guilford College

Mission

Guilford’s purpose is to provide a transformative, practical and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse environment, guided by Quaker testimonies of community, equality, integrity, peace and simplicity and emphasizing the creative problem-solving skills, experiences, enthusiasm and international perspectives necessary to promote positive change in the world.

Toward that end, five academic principles govern all courses and other educational experiences at the College:

• student-centered instruction that nurtures each individual amid an intentionally diverse community;
• a challenging academic program that fosters critical and creative thinking through the development of essential skills: analysis, inquiry, communication, consensus-building, problem-solving and leadership;
• a global perspective that values people of other cultures and the natural environment in which we all live;
• a values-rich education that explores the ethical dimensions of knowledge and promotes honesty, compassion, integrity, courage and respect for the individual;
• access to work and service opportunities that forge a connection between thought and action.

Core Values

Guilford College is guided by seven core values: Community, Diversity, Equality, Excellence, Integrity, Justice and Stewardship. Learn more about Guilford’s mission and core values.

Students and Faculty

Academic Programs

Accreditation: Four-year liberal arts, accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Just the Facts

We’re ranked among the best:

• Guilford has been named a Best Buy in the 2012 edition of The Fiske Guide to Colleges, which examines cost, academic ratings and the quality of student life on campus. Only 49 colleges nationally – 24 public and 25 private – are named Best Buys.
• The Princeton Review included Guilford in its 2013 Best 377 Colleges guide, based on surveys of 122,000 college students. Guilford has been profiled in The Princeton Review’s annual college guide for each of the 21 years it has been published. Guilford’s student-run radio station WQFS is ranked 11th on The Princeton Review’s  ”best  college radio” list and has been included on the list for nine of the past ten years.
• The College has appeared in the Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges every year since 2010.
• On Forbes magazine’s “America’s Top Colleges” list, Guilford was ranked #387 overall of 650 colleges profiled; 285st among private colleges; 58th in the South; and 9th out of 19 North Carolina colleges appearing on the list. Guilford was ranked 167th among national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report.

Our students’ work is widely recognized:

• The Guilfordian tied for first place in its size category in the 2011-12 American Scholastic Press Association “Best Newspaper” contest.  The newspaper was also one of two from schools nationally in that category to win an “Outstanding Front Page” award.
  

We live our values:

• Guilford was awarded a “green” rating of 95 on a scale of 60-99 by The Princeton Review and was named one of the nation’s greenest colleges in the The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition.
  
• Guilford was named on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities
• Guilford is one of only 23 colleges in the nation selected to participate in the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation’s Bonner Scholarship program, mission is to transform the lives of students and their campuses and communities through community service.
• Guilford College has been ranked 29th among liberal arts colleges by Washington Monthly. Billing itself as “a different kind of college ranking,” Washington Monthly rated schools based on their contribution to the public good through social mobility, research and service. The social mobility category rewarded institutions for recruiting and graduating low-income students.

Special Programs

• Guilford College is a member of an area college/university consortium that enables students to take courses at seven other campuses without additional charge.
• Semester- and year-long study abroad programs are available in Ghana, China, England, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Scotland, Spain, Ireland, Wales, the Netherlands and Washington D.C.
• Five cooperative pre-professional programs are available in association with various universities and one medical school.
• Internship programs offer practical experience in business, industries and nonprofit agencies.

Notable Campus Facilities

• Hege Library houses more than 240,000 books, periodicals and non-print media. Almost 2,000,000 are available to Guilford College students through a consortium of area colleges and universities (700,000 are available through the consortium libraries’ electronic database).
• Ragan-Brown Field House houses 64,000 square feet of indoor space that includes a weight room, cardio room and basketball courts.
• Cline Observatory is home to a 16-foot telescope. Guilford College also shares a 32-foot telescope off-campus with two other institutions.
• Guilford’s Forensics Institute has a Leica Geosystems ScanStation C10 3-D laser scanner, which is used both on campus and off campus to assist local law enforcement and to train our students in the latest crime scene investigation.

Athletic Programs

• NCAA Division III: Old Dominion Athletic Conference
• Men’s varsity sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track and field
• Women’s varsity sports: softball, basketball, cross country, volleyball, swimming, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track and field
• Club sports: men’s rugby, women’s rugby, Ultimate Frisbee and cheerleading