About USM

The University of Saint Mary offers a variety of undergraduate degree-completion and graduate programs designed for busy, working professionals.

USM will prepare you for some of today’s highest employment opportunities and help you maximize your earning potential while you expand your expertise in your field.

Classes meet for one night a week at our safe and convenient locations in Overland Park, Shawnee, Kansas City, Kansas, and Leavenworth.

And the quality of USM’s education is drawing national recognition. For the past seven years, The Princeton Review has named USM a “Best Midwestern College” for meeting high standards of academic excellence and feedback from students and educators.

Our professional staff looks forward to helping you achieve your educational and career goals. And our instructors, rich in real-world experience, are ready to help you take your career to the next level.

USM offers six master’s programs in business administration, education, teaching, adaptive special education, psychology, counseling psychology, and six undergraduate degree completion programs including an RN-to-BSN for busy working nurses.

Class Locations

• The University of Saint Mary Overland Park Campus is located at 11413 Pflumm, adjacent to Saint Thomas Aquinas High School. The Overland Park Campus is safe, well lit, with convenient parking just a few feet from the front door.
• The University of Saint Mary Kansas City, Kansas class site is located inside Providence Medical Center, at 8929 Parallel Parkway. Students may take MBA classes as well as some undergraduate degree-completion courses at this location.
• The University of Saint Mary main campus is in southern Leavenworth, Kansas at 4100 South 4th Street. It offers traditional daytime classes as well as classes in the Master of Arts in Education program. The business office, financial aid office, registrar’s office, career services office, computer helpdesk, and administrative offices are all locate on the main campus.
  

The University of Saint Mary is fully accredited as an institution of higher learning by the:

• Higher Learning Commission of the North Central   Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (NCA)
• National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education NCATE),* the standard of excellence in teacher preparation
• Kansas State Department of Education
• International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE)**
• Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) Accreditation***

* University of Saint Mary is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). This accreditation covers initial teacher preparation programs and advanced educator preparation programs. NCATE is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation to accredit programs for the preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel.


** The University of Saint Mary has received specialized accreditation for its business programs through the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE), located in Olathe, Kansas. The business programs in the following degrees are accredited by the IACBE:

• Bachelor Degree of Science in Business Administration and Accounting, with concentrations in general management and marketing.
• Master Degree of Business Administration with concentrations in General Management, Human Resource Management, Finance, Health Care Management, and Marketing/Advertising Management
  Business & Accounting Undergraduate and Graduate Programs Learning Outcomes and Assessment Report [PDF file]

*** The Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the University of Saint Mary is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 530, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 887-6791.

The USM Difference
 

The University of Saint Mary first opened in 1923 as Saint Mary College, a junior college for women. The college evolved from St. Mary’s Female Academy established by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth in 1859. It became a four-year institution in 1930 and became residentially co-ed in 1988. In July 2003, the college expanded to meet the growing demands of the 21st century student, becoming the University of Saint Mary.

Today, USM is a fully accredited, fully modern educational institution with four locations, 26 undergraduate programs, five graduate programs, as well as online programs.

The Sisters of Charity, the founders and sponsors of the University of Saint Mary, first arrived in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1858. They came to establish a religious community to serve the needs of the frontier people of Kansas. Within days of their arrival, they began teaching children. They quickly realized their three missions: education, nursing, and care of children.

The college flourished for decades in Leavenworth. As part of a plan to expand educational offerings to working adults in the Kansas City Metropolitan area, Saint Mary opened the Overland Park Campus in the year 2000. Located at 11413 Pflumm, the Overland Park Campus is centrally located near I-35 and I-435 for easy access and is frequently used for meetings and training sessions by high-caliber companies such as Sprint Corporation and John Deere.

The University of Saint Mary has gained a reputation for developing value-centered graduates who are strong decision-makers, problem-solvers and business and community leaders. The university’s concept of applied liberal arts embraces the rich history and meaning of the liberal arts tradition, while intentionally connecting learning to the real world in concrete and practical ways.

The University of Saint Mary educates students of diverse backgrounds to realize their God-given potential and prepares them for value-centered lives and careers that contribute to the well being of our global society.

USM Values

The University of Saint Mary believes in the dignity of each person’s capacity to learn, to relate and to better our diverse world. These values include community, respect, justice, and excellence.

USM Founders & Sponsors

The University of Saint Mary is shaped by the educational mission of the university’s founders and sponsors: the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.

“In all our ministries we see Christian education as one of the great acts of charity: serving others at the fullest points of their needs and ministering to their need to know and come to the truth, to be opened to the good and the beautiful, to understand the past, to confront and help shape the future, to be called to justice, to be more fully and completely human and Christian.”
— Constitution of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth

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