“A career-focused private university in suburban Baltimore with signature programs in nursing, fashion design, and film.”
Stevenson University is a private, independent, career-focused university in the Baltimore suburbs of Owings Mills and Stevenson, Maryland. Founded in 1947 as Villa Julie College by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the institution opened as a women's two-year college training medical secretaries, became coeducational in 1972, separated from the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1967, and adopted its current name in 2008 when it transitioned to university status under the leadership of then-president Kevin Manning. The 'Stevenson' name reflects the original Stevenson, Maryland campus location. Academically, Stevenson is built around an applied, career-focused model: every undergraduate program embeds internships, professional advising through the Stevenson Career Connection Center, and industry-mentor relationships, and roughly 92% of recent graduates report a positive first-destination outcome (employment or grad school) within months of commencement. The seven schools — the Brown School of Business and Leadership, the School of Design, the School of Education, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Beverly K. Fine School of the Sciences, the School of Health Professions, and the School of Nursing — together offer more than 90 majors, minors, and pre-professional tracks. Signature programs include one of the few BFA Fashion Design programs in the mid-Atlantic, a hands-on Film and Moving Image major, a strongly clinically-placed Nursing program, and a well-regarded Criminal Justice / Forensic Studies offering tied to the Baltimore-DC corridor's federal employer base. Student life centers on the 398-acre, two-campus footprint (academic life on the Owings Mills campus, residential life and athletics on the Stevenson campus), with the Mustangs competing in NCAA Division III as part of the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC Commonwealth). Stevenson fields 29 sports teams and won the 2013 NCAA Division III men's lacrosse national championship. The campus is car-friendly, sits about 25 minutes from downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor, and roughly an hour from Washington, D.C. — placing students within reach of major mid-Atlantic internship markets without the cost or chaos of an urban campus.
Visa, OPT, H-1B alumni outcomes, and acceptance rates by country — sourced from FOIA, USCIS H-1B Hub, and DHS SEVIS.
Regional Universities North
US News Best Colleges 2026
Best Value Schools — Regional Universities North
US News Best Colleges 2026
Test Optional — You can submit scores if they help your case, but they're not required.
Official SourcePresidential Fellowship
Required for full-tuition Presidential Fellowship consideration; not open to international students.
Priority Scholarship
Priority deadline for merit scholarship review.
International Priority
Recommended deadline for international students applying for fall admission.
Regular Decision
Final freshman application deadline; later applications considered on space-available basis. Rolling decisions thereafter.
International Spring
International deadline for spring semester admission.
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Tuition & Fees (All Students)
$41,278
/yr
Beyond the sticker price — every named scholarship, the financial aid policy, need-aware notes, and a personalized net-cost estimate.
How life on campus actually feels — clubs, sports, traditions, housing realities, and how the school integrates with its city.
Stevenson's largest professional school, with extensive Baltimore-area clinical placements (Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Medical System, LifeBridge Health) and one of the strongest job-placement records on campus.
Houses Stevenson's signature creative programs in a studio-driven, BFA-style model. Notable for one of the few BFA Fashion Design programs in the mid-Atlantic and a hands-on Film and Moving Image program with full production facilities.
Career-track business education with concentrations in accounting, finance, marketing, business communication, and business information systems, integrated with required internships through Stevenson's Career Connection model.
Pre-health and STEM home to biology, chemistry, biochemistry, biomedical engineering, computer information systems, and the well-known Forensic Studies and Forensic Science programs that draw on Baltimore-DC federal lab partnerships.
Includes Criminal Justice (one of Stevenson's largest majors), Psychology, English Language and Literature, Public History, and Legal Studies.
Teacher-prep programs leading to Maryland State Department of Education certification, with field placements in surrounding Baltimore County school districts.
Allied health programs including Medical Laboratory Science, Public Health, Healthcare Management, and pre-physical-therapy / pre-occupational-therapy tracks.
4 years
One of the few BFA Fashion Design programs in the mid-Atlantic. Studio-driven curriculum covers consumer psychology, materials, apparel construction, and runway production, with annual student fashion shows and NYC industry mentor visits.
4 years
Clinically-intensive program with rotations across Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland Medical System, and LifeBridge Health. Among Stevenson's top programs by both enrollment and median post-graduation salary (~$68K).
4 years
Hands-on production major with full studio, sound, and editing facilities, optional Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development minor, and capstone festival showcases of student work.
4 years
Lab-rich program leveraging Baltimore-DC corridor federal partners (FBI, ATF, state crime labs) for internships and capstone casework.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $40,560
Net-cost estimate is US-resident-only — international applicants are typically excluded from need-based aid at most schools and should treat the sticker price as the planning baseline.
