About
Founded in 1835, Oglethorpe University unites a close-knit campus community with big city culture and opportunities. Today, Oglethorpe enrolls 1,250 students, representing 33 states and 38 countries. Oglethorpe University provides a superior education in which liberal arts and sciences and professional programs complement each other in a small-college environment within a dynamic urban setting. Oglethorpe’s programs emphasize intellectual curiosity, close collaboration among faculty and students, and engaged learning in relevant field experiences. Oglethorpe educates students to be citizens in a global world, readies them for responsible leadership, and empowers them to pursue meaningful lives and productive careers.
What makes us special?
The Core :
Sure, every university has a core curriculum — a set of courses needed to graduate. But only Oglethorpe has the Core. Ask any student, and you’ll find the Core is as central to the Oglethorpe experience as the gray stonework of its gorgeous Gothic campus. The Core is a sequence of courses intentionally designed to challenge perceptions, evoke questions, transform perspectives, and create connections. It’s the kind of intensive intellectual exercise that could only happen in a small, supportive community like Oglethorpe. The Core is what makes our graduates sharper thinkers, better writers and stronger leaders, who excel in whatever they choose.
The Global Classroom :
Outside our green campus, there’s a thriving metropolis: Atlanta, the cultural cornerstone and economic powerhouse of the South. Oglethorpe students build their professional network and on-the-job skills through internships in Atlanta, home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 corporations in the US. They volunteer in our campus-wide days of service and take on active roles in community engagement, helping feed the hungry at soup kitchens, tend the vegetables in community gardens, mentor school children, and so much more. They also take advantage of our international study opportunities to travel abroad, whether for a semester or a two-week trip. Then they return to our multicultural campus — and our global city — with new experiences, new friends, and new perspectives about the world. Simply put, the Oglethorpe classroom is anywhere… and everywhere.