Albright College

Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when "Union Seminary" opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several institutions: Albright Collegiate Institute, Central Pennsylvania College, and Schuylkill College. "Albright Collegiate Institute" opened in 1895 and was renamed Albright College three years later. "Union Seminary", meanwhile, became "Central Pennsylvania College" in 1887 and merged with Albright College in 1902. "Schuylkill Seminary", the third institution, was founded in 1881, became "Schuylkill College" in 1923, and merged into Albright in 1928. [ 4 ] Albright's campus relocated from Myerstown , to Schuylkill College's campus, which is the present location of Albright, at the base of Mount Penn in Reading. College main building in 1947 The college is named for Pennsylvania-German evangelical preacher Jacob Albright , who founded the Evangelical Association (later known as the Evangelical United Brethren Church ). Born in 1759 in Douglass Township , (now Montgomery County ) with the given name of Johannes Jacob Albrecht, the family changed their surname to "Albright" following Jacob's 1808 death. [ 5 ] In the late 2010s, enrollment began to decline at the college. By 2023, enrollment had declined to 1,652 students, a decline of nearly one-third from what it was in 2010. This had significant financial implications for the college which had a $20.3 million deficit in 2023. In response, the college laid off 53 employees between 2022 and 2024. In late 2024, the college also requested permission to draw a $25 million loan from its $53.1 million dollar endowment. Shortly thereafter, the college's interim president announced plans to cut two degree programs but also launch several new programs and athletic teams.

[ 6 ] [ 7 ] In 2025, the college fired the staff of the Freedman Gallery and sold off the gallery's art collection, including works by Romare Bearden , Elizabeth Catlett , Salvador Dalí , Jasper Johns , Jacob Lawrence , and Robert Rauschenberg . The move prompted outrage by Albright donors and museum professionals, especially since the sale would do little to help Albright's budgetary problems. [ 8 ]

Albright College students are encouraged to cross and combine areas of study without taking longer to graduate. The college offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, as well as a Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees in education. The college also offers online and accelerated degree programs. Albright offers a wide range of classical and pre-professional programs. It created one of the first undergraduate psychobiology programs in the nation in the 1960s. The college's liberal arts curriculum has a cross-program focus that allows students to create an individualized education. Fully half of Albright students have concentrations that combine two or three fields of learning. [ 5 ] The theatre program has been honored by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival consistently for many years. [ 9 ] Albright's Domino Players Company has been invited to perform at the Region II KCACTF Festival 10 times in the last 18 years (2004, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020). At the National Conference held every April in Washington DC, Albright's theatre program has garnered dozens of awards for distinguished work in performance, direction, dramaturgy, scenic, sound, costume, and lighting design. Acclaimed productions of "Waiting for Godot" (2007), "Clybourne Park" (2016), "A Raisin in the Sun" (2018) have also been named "Outstanding Production of a Play" – recognizing them as the best college production of their years. "A Raisin in the Sun" also received eight other national awards, for distinguished performance, scenic and lighting design, director and performances. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] The Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) is a multi-disciplinary program that affords undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research or pursue creative endeavors during the three-week January Interim or summer break.

The students, who work one-on-one with faculty members, can be from any discipline, from STEM subjects to the humanities. [ 9 ] Rankings In 2017, Albright College was named one of the "Best Northeastern" schools by The Princeton Review ; this was the fourteenth consecutive year that the college was included in that category. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] For 2024, U.S. News & World Report ranked the college tied at #146 out of 211 in National Liberal Arts Colleges and tied at #31 in Top Performers on Social Mobility. [ 16 ] In 2018, U.S. News ranked Albright 33rd out of 208 national liberal arts colleges in the "Campus Ethnic Diversity" category, [ 17 ] and in the "Economic Diversity" category, Albright ranked 27th out of 210 national liberal arts schools. [ 18 ] The Economist magazine listed Albright among the top 50 American colleges and universities for economic value in 2015. [ 19 ]