Villa Julie College is moving away from its image as a girls-only commuter school.
Consider these recent developments. The coeducational college, located in the Stevenson area of Baltimore County, has added a 100-acre Owings Mills campus, built housing for more than 1,000 students, beefed up its athletics department and started to recruit outside the state.
“Folks don?t know a lot of these things about Villa Julie College because they have happened only in the past five or six years,” Villa Julie President Kevin Manning said.
Villa Julie, which opened in the 1940s as a school for medical secretaries, has doubled its enrollment in recent years to nearly 2,400 students.
“That?s a measure of all these changes,” Manning said.
Hoping to boost enrollment to 3,000 students, the school also recently broke ground on a new business school and purchased the Baltimore Ravens? former training facility in Owings Mills to house a new athletic campus.
But great change doesn’t happen overnight. With about 70 percent of Villa Julie students coming from the Baltimore region, some students complain the college “still feels like a commuter school.” And females continue to outnumber males at Villa Julie, which went coed in 1972. But school officials say the burgeoning athletic program could change that.
The most popular majors at Villa Julie, which prides itself on career training, are practical. Nursing, accounting, elementary education and graphic design rank among the largest programs.
Villa Julie senior Kristin Gagnon, of Forest Hill, picked the school because she wanted to be a nurse.
“I liked the way the nursing program was set up,” the 22-year-old said. “We?ve become good friends with some of our teachers.”
Gagnon, who lived on campus for two years, said she may have missed out on the social life that a bigger school would have provided. But, given the chance, she would pick Villa Julie again. “I feel I was able to learn better in a smaller environment,” she said.
And it?s paid off. Gagnon has a nursing job lined up with the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center when she graduates.
FAST FACTS
» Student population: About 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students.
» High school GPA: 3.4 (middle 50 percent: 3.1-3.7).
» SAT: 1050 (middle 50 percent: 950-1150).
» Full-time tuition and fees: $16,770 per year.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI
» Kevin Budny, Manager, Owings Mills Mall Center
» Tim Richardson, Maroon Public Relations Company
» Dr. Keri Jacobs, University of Maryland Hospital
» Former Delegate Martha Klima
» Donna Morrison, Deputy, Baltimore County Executive Office
