Skip Navigation
Sitetool Links HARDCODED
News
Directory
Virtual Tour
Calendar
Library
Give Now
Audience Links HARDCODED
Current Students
Alumni
Parents
Faculty & Staff
Main Sections Menu
Why R-MC
Admissions
Academics
Scholarships & Aid
Campus Life
Athletics
Offices & Departments
Search
Submit Search
Page Tools
Send to a Friend
Font
Why R-MC?
Why R-MC?
Home
Academics
Alumni Success Stories
Student Profiles
Career Success
Senior Success Stories
About Randolph-Macon
Top Ten Reasons
Ideal Location
Financial Aid Options
Athletics
Bassett Internship Program
First Year Experience
President's Message
SERVE Spotlights and Awards
Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
Study abroad
J-term
Four-Year Degree Guarantee
You Are Here
R-MC Home
Why R-MC?
Distinctions
College Distinctions
Randolph-Macon College is, by date of charter, the oldest Methodist-related college founded by Methodists in continuous operation.
Randolph-Macon College is the founding institution of what became a Randolph-Macon "system" of five colleges and preparatory schools. Of the four other institutions, Randolph-College (formerly Randolph-Macon Woman's College) and Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal continue in operation, but are no longer formally tied to Randolph-Macon College. Randolph-Macon College in Ashland became coeducational in 1971.
Among Randolph-Macon's current or past alumni are three state governors, four United States ambassadors, a U.S. Senate minority leader, and 12 college or university presidents
Randolph-Macon College has been a
Phi Beta Kappa
institution since 1923. Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most respected undergraduate honors society in the United States. For more than 200 years the society has pursued its mission of fostering and recognizing excellence in the liberal arts and sciences.
Recently, Randolph-Macon received recognition from the Phi Beta Kappa Society for having the most outstanding chapter at a liberal arts college in the nation.
Randolph-Macon is the only college in the nation with a direct affiliation to the
Agora Archaeological Excavations
in Athens, Greece. The director of the excavations, Dr. John M. Camp, II, serves on the Randolph-Macon faculty and leads travel/study courses for Randolph-Macon students in Athens during January Term and the summer months..
Randolph-Macon and Hampden-Sydney College play in the oldest small-college football rivalry in the South.
Three buildings on the Randolph-Macon campus are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
(Washington and Franklin Hall, Pace-Armistead Hall, and the Old Chapel).
Randolph-Macon was the first college in the nation to move from a Latin/Greek based curriculum to one that was based on the English language. After experimenting with this concept in the 1830's, the college, under the leadership of Professor Thomas Price, created America's first School of English in 1869. When Professor Price left Randolph-Macon to join the faculty at the University of Virginia and then Columbia University, these two universities also adopted his innovation. From Columbia, Professor Price's idea spread to Amherst and then Dartmouth and eventually to practically every American College and university in the United States.
Randolph-Macon was the first college in the South to build a gymnasium and the first in the nation to require physical education for a degree.
Randolph-Macon was the first college in the nation to require laboratory work in connection with science courses for a degree and is the founding college of
Chi Beta Phi
, the national science honorary, which was organized on the Ashland campus in 1916.