Learn with purpose.
Lead with impact.
F&M’s top-tier academics, hands-on experiences, and transformative connections will prepare you to shape the future — starting now.
Own Your Influence. Effect Real Change.
At Franklin & Marshall, we believe your college years are a launchpad for lifelong leadership. That’s why we created four distinctive fellowship programs for students who are curious, motivated, and eager to make a positive and immediate impact in the fields of climate and sustainability, creative writing, entrepreneurship, and public service. Every Fellow receives a four-year merit scholarship ($15,000 annually), deep mentorship from tenured faculty who are experts in their fields, and membership in a living-learning community focused on their specific area of intellectual and leadership development.
Learn more »Leadership Through Service to Others
Own your influence and effect real change. F&M’s Public Service Leadership Fellows program empowers future leaders like you by offering a four-year merit scholarship, mentorship from a tenured professor, leadership workshops, public service shadow opportunities, and more.
Learn more »Internship Provides Compelling Evidence for a Future in Law
At Franklin & Marshall, we want you to transform theory into practice — not just read about it in a textbook. For government and psychology double major William Gerber ’26, this meant interning for the President Judge of the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, an experience that reinforced his decision to pursue a future in law. “It’s one thing to learn about judicial reasoning in the classroom, but another entirely to see it applied in real time and in real cases,” he said. “This practical experience I’ve gained – by analyzing case patterns, drafting legal documents and understanding court operations – has proven to be crucial in aiding my decision to apply to law school.”
Read more »Leadership Through Service to Others
Own your influence and effect real change. F&M’s Public Service Leadership Fellows program empowers future leaders like you by offering a four-year merit scholarship, mentorship from a tenured professor, leadership workshops, public service shadow opportunities, and more.
Learn more »Leadership Through Service to Others
Own your influence and effect real change. F&M’s Public Service Leadership Fellows program empowers future leaders like you by offering a four-year merit scholarship, mentorship from a tenured professor, leadership workshops, public service shadow opportunities, and more.
Learn more »Preservation with Impact
Are you ready to learn how you can immediately help preserve the Chesapeake Bay? F&M’s Chesapeake Watershed Leadership Fellows program will engage you in meaningful field and laboratory research within the local Conestoga River watershed, a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Chesapeake Watershed Leadership Fellows not only receive a four-year merit scholarship, but also mentorship from tenured professors, hands-on experience in original, action-oriented research, and more.
Learn more »Preservation with Impact
Are you ready to learn how you can immediately help preserve the Chesapeake Bay? F&M’s Chesapeake Watershed Leadership Fellows program will engage you in meaningful field and laboratory research within the local Conestoga River watershed, a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Chesapeake Watershed Leadership Fellows not only receive a four-year merit scholarship, but also mentorship from tenured professors, hands-on experience in original, action-oriented research, and more.
Learn more »Preservation with Impact
Are you ready to learn how you can immediately help preserve the Chesapeake Bay? F&M’s Chesapeake Watershed Leadership Fellows program will engage you in meaningful field and laboratory research within the local Conestoga River watershed, a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay, in southeastern Pennsylvania. Chesapeake Watershed Leadership Fellows not only receive a four-year merit scholarship, but also mentorship from tenured professors, hands-on experience in original, action-oriented research, and more.
Learn more »“At F&M, I wasn’t just learning what to think—I was learning how to think.”
A Franklin & Marshall liberal arts education taught Nicolas Rios ’23 how to think critically, communicate effectively and approach problems from multiple angles. “At F&M, I wasn’t just learning what to think—I was learning how to think,” he said. “That ability to analyze, adapt and connect ideas across disciplines has been incredibly valuable in the workforce.” Rios, a business, organizations and society graduate, is now an analyst at Goldman Sachs. “In fast-paced environments like Goldman Sachs, technical skills are important, but what really sets you apart is your ability to collaborate, ask thoughtful questions, and think strategically,” Rios said. “Liberal arts graduates are often more comfortable navigating ambiguity, because we were trained to engage with complex issues and see the bigger picture.”
Read more »“This experience showed me how classroom knowledge can be used to solve real-world problems.”
To shape the world, start right where you are. Our home city of Lancaster is an integral educational partner teeming with opportunities to learn, serve, and engage with the local community. For Nancy Nguyen ’26, a double major in economics and data science, this meant turning a passion for mathematics into meaningful solutions for the Power Packs Project, a nonprofit combating food insecurity in Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties. Alongside her professor and peer, Nguyen built digital tools to better understand the cost of the meals provided. This included organizing hundreds of recipes, analyzing ingredient price trends, and designing and launching a website for better accessibility and future planning. “This experience showed me how classroom knowledge can be used to solve real-world problems,” Nguyen said.
Read more »“I felt a sense of community and shared academic passion that day that I had not felt anywhere else.”
As a high school senior, Skylar Zachian ’25 logged on to a virtual admitted students event during which Associate Professor of English Erik Anderson taught a creative writing lesson. “I could have stayed on that Zoom meeting for hours,” Zachian said. “I felt a sense of community and shared academic passion that day that I had not felt anywhere else. I could truly picture myself as an F&M student, studying English on the College’s unique creative writing track and engaging with distinguished authors at The Philadelphia Alumni Writers House.” During her time on campus, Zachian honed her craft as a writer while exploring new subjects, becoming a double major in English and film and media arts, with a minor in theatre. “I loved F&M’s focus on academic exploration and knew that I would have room to explore new interests along with writing,” she said.
Read more »Connecting Classroom Theory to Behavioral Reality in a Yale Lab
Your ideas may start in the classroom, but they won’t be contained there. Learning by doing is part of our DNA as Diplomats. Noah Katzer ’26, a psychology and government double major, exemplified the F&M tenets of exploration and discovery by interning at the Emotion Health and Psychophysiology Lab at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. “I've learned new research methods and gained insight into new subsections of psychology that have changed the way I think about achieving my goals and the type of research I want to conduct,” he said.
Read more »“The arts at F&M have been an integral part of my college experience.”
“Singing with F&M's Chamber Singers and playing piano in the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and orchestra have allowed me to foster meaningful relationships with my professors and fellow students. I love being a part of F&M's musical community and find it incredibly meaningful to be part of something that is bigger than myself. Some of my closest friends are people I met through ensembles, and a lot of my favorite college memories are from my three and a half years involved in music.” — Eleanor Metz ’27
Explore music at F&M »A Diplomat’s Deep Dive into Marine Biology
Learning by doing is part of our DNA as Diplomats. Jaeyun An ’26 dove headfirst into this philosophy, spending a semester in the turquoise waters of Turks and Caicos researching the island’s diverse marine life. “My time was spent equal parts in the classroom and in the field,” An said. “We would learn about a certain topic in class, such as species identification, and in the field exercises, we would go out to the ocean, and have a quiz identifying creatures we see while snorkeling. I saw sharks, eagle rays, turtles, dolphins, and even whales!” An plans to pursue an advanced degree in marine biology after graduating from F&M. “This experience gave me the confirmation that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he said.
Read more »“I have a strong passion for hands-on mechanical and electrical engineering projects.”
Learning by doing is in our DNA as Diplomats. Inna Shapovalenko ’26, a computer science and physics double major from Ukraine, exemplifies F&M’s tenets of exploration by moving from theory to purpose-driven action. As a summer intern at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), Shapovalenko assembled two versions of NASA STELLA spectrometers. She later developed an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV)—a “drone for exploring the ocean”—while interning for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Most recently, she collaborated with fellow Diplomats in a Human-Robot Interaction course to code a robot that leads campus visitors through a playful quiz about the College. “I have a strong passion for hands-on mechanical and electrical engineering projects,” she said.
Read more »“The vivarium is this beautiful gem in the crown that is F&M.”
At F&M, you’ll step beyond the classroom and into the vivarium. The campus vivarium is a non-invasive behavioral research facility that houses a variety of rodents, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and nonhuman primates (capuchin monkeys). F&M is one of the only institutions in the country offering undergraduate students direct access to onsite nonhuman primates through an established program built around training, enrichment and animal caretaking. “The vivarium is this beautiful gem in the crown that is F&M,” said Lillian Basom ’08, Director of Operations, College Vivarium. “There are very few facilities that offer undergraduate students that kind of hands-on, experiential learning right from the moment they step on campus. The facility and our programming, which supports up to 80 students a semester, wouldn't exist without the commitment of our incredible students.”
Read more »How We Do It
World-Ready Leaders
We prepare you to be world-ready, equipping you with the skills to excel in not just one career, but many. You’ll become a purpose-driven leader committed to shaping a better world.
Learning by Doing
We ensure you learn with purpose through hands-on experiences. You’ll discover Lancaster is the ideal place to practice, participate, and contribute to a thriving community that’s a microcosm of the world.
Creative Collisions
With a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio, we offer unparalleled access to faculty who are leading experts in their fields. You’ll experience creative collisions that spark transformative connections within a community devoted to your success.
Our Commitment to Affordability
- Pennsylvania residents with household incomes below $75,000 attend F&M tuition-free.
- Those earning between $75,000 and $150,000 pay no more than in-state tuition at Penn State University.
February 20, 2026 Lillian Basom ’08 loved Franklin & Marshall’s vivarium so much that she never left. In fact, she has been the director of operations since 2011. The research facility houses a variety of rodents, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and capuchin monkeys. February 18, 2026 Franklin & Marshall College announced a distinctive interdisciplinary certificate to empower students to successfully lead and thrive in a rapidly evolving world. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Liberal Arts Certificate is a reflection of the College's signature approach to examining AI through a blended lens of humanistic inquiry and technical proficiency. February 16, 2026 Imagine 1,600 computer processors combining power toward one task. This is the engine driving innovation at F&M. Called a High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster, this elite shared resource accelerates discovery, empowers large-scale research, and fuels the collaborative spirit that defines the F&M experience.The Latest from F&M
Work on the Wild Side with Lillian Basom '08, F&M Vivarium Director
An AI Certificate to Prepare World-Ready Leaders
Powering Innovation: Inside F&M’s Campus Supercomputer
Featured Story
Ken Mehlman ’88 Makes Historic $7.5 Million Gift to Power F&M Athletics and Wellness
Read More »
#7 Best Small College in Northeast (Wall Street Journal) #35 National Liberal Arts Colleges (U.S. News & World Report) 100% Demonstrated Financial Need Met for All Enrolled Students Top 50 Best Value College (U.S. News & Princeton Review) 92% Employed or in Graduate School Within Six Months of Graduation (Class of 2025) $76,124 Early Career Median Salary (U.S. Dept. of Education) #24 Most Accessible Professors (Princeton Review) #33 Best Undergraduate Teaching (U.S. News & World Report) F&M's extraordinary home city is an urban oasis. Lancaster, PA offers arts, culture,
and experiences for every taste and preference and is full of extraordinary opportunities
— all within safe walking distance of campus.Notable Rankings & Outcomes
Our Home: The City of Lancaster